Arguing with Zombies: Economics, Politics, and the Fight for a Better Future

by Paul Krugman

Overview

New York Times Bestseller

An accessible, compelling introduction to today’s major policy issues from the New York Times columnist, best-selling author, and Nobel prize–winning economist Paul Krugman, now with a new preface. 

There is no better guide than Paul Krugman to basic economics, the ideas that animate much of our public policy. Likewise, there is no stronger foe of zombie economics, the misunderstandings that just won’t die.

In Arguing with Zombies, Krugman tackles many of these misunderstandings, taking stock of where the United States has come from and where it’s headed in a series of concise, digestible chapters. Drawn mainly from his popular New York Times column, they cover a wide range of issues, organized thematically and framed in the context of a wider debate. Explaining the complexities of health care, housing bubbles, tax reform, Social Security, and so much more with unrivaled clarity and precision, Arguing with Zombies is Krugman at the height of his powers.

It is an indispensable guide to two decades’ worth of political and economic discourse in the United States and around the globe, and now includes a preface on "Zombies in the Age of COVID-19." With quick, vivid sketches, Krugman turns his readers into intelligent consumers of the daily news and hands them the keys to unlock the concepts behind the greatest economic policy issues of our time. In doing so, he delivers an instant classic that can serve as a reference point for this and future generations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393541328
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	02/16/2021
Pages:	480
Sales rank:	150,720
Product dimensions:	8.10(w) x 5.40(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Paul Krugman, recipient of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics and best-selling author, has been a columnist at The New York Times for twenty years. A Distinguished Professor at City University of New York, he lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xv

Preface: Zombies in the Age of Covid-19 xvii

Introduction: The Good Fight 1

1 Saving Social Security

Essay. After the Khaki Election 13

Social Security Scares 16

Inventing a Crisis 19

Buying info Failure 22

Social Security Lessons 25

Privatization Memories 28

Where Government Excels 30

2 The Road To Obamacare

Essay. Developing a Positive Agenda 35

Ailing Health Care 38

Health Care Confidential 41

Health Care Terror 44

The Waiting Game 47

Health Care Hopes 50

Fear Strikes Out 53

Obamacare Fails to Fail 56

Imaginary Health Care Horrors 59

3 The Attack On Obamacare

Essay: The Cruelty Caucus 65

Three Legs Good, No Legs Bad 67

Obamacare's Very Stable Genius 70

Get Sick, Go Bankrupt, and Die 73

How Democrats Can Deliver on Health Care 76

4 Bubble And Bust

Essay: The Sum of All Fears 81

Running Out of Bubbles 83

That Hissing Sound 86

Innovating Our Way to Financial Crisis 89

The Madoff Economy 92

The Ignoramus Strategy 95

Nobody Understands Debt 97

5 Crisis Management

Essay. The Triumph of Macroeconomics 103

Depression Economics Returns 106

IS-LMentary 109

Stimulus Arithmetic (Wonkish but Important) 113

The Obama Gap 115

The Stimulus Tragedy 118

6 The Crisis In Economics

Essay: The Cost of Bad Ideas 123

The Mythical Seventies 126

That Eighties Show 128

How Did Economists Get It So Wrong? 130

Bad Faith, Pathos, and G.O.P. Economics 149

What's Wrong with Functional Finance? (Wonkish) 152

7 Austerity

Essay: Very Serious People 157

Myths of Austerity 160

The Excel Depression 163

Jobs and Skills and Zombies 166

Structural Humbug 169

8 The Euro

Essay: A Bridge Too Far 175

The Spanish Prisoner 178

Crash of the Bumblebee 181

Europe's Impossible Dream 184

What's the Matter with Europe? 187

9 Fiscal Phonies

Essay: The Gullibility of the Deficit Scolds 193

The Flimflam Man 195

The Hijacked Commission 198

What's in the Ryan Plan? 201

Melting Snowballs and the Winter of Debt 203

Democrats, Debt, and Double Standards 207

On Paying for a Progressive Agenda 210

10 Tax Cuts

Essay: The Ultimate Zombie 215

The Twinkie Manifesto 218

The Biggest Tax Scam in History 221

The Trump Tax Scam, Phase 2 224

Why Was Trump's Tax Cut a Fizzle? 227

The Trump Tax Cut: Even Worse Than You've Heard 230

The Economics of Soaking the Rich 234

Elizabeth Warren Does Teddy Roosevelt 238

11 Trade Wars

Essay; Globaloney and the Backlash 243

Oh, What a Trumpy Trade War! 246

A Trade War Primer 249

Making Tariffs Corrupt Again 254

12 Inequality

Essay: The Skewing of America 259

The Rich, the Right, and the Facts 261

Graduates versus Oligarchs 282

Money and Morals 285

Don't Blame Robots for Low Wages 288

What's the Matter with Trumpland? 291

13 Conservatives

Essay: Movement Conservatism 297

Same Old Party 299

Eric Cantor and the Death of a Movement 302

The Great Center-Right Delusion 305

The Empty Quarters of U.S. Politics 308

14 EEK! Socialism!

Essay; Red-Baiting in the 21st Century 313

Capitalism, Socialism, and Unfreedom 315

Something Not Rotten in Denmark 319

Trump versus the Socialist Menace 322

15 Climate

Essay: The Most Important Thing 327

Donald and the Deadly Deniers 329

The Depravity of Climate-Change Denial 332

Climate Denial Was the Crucible for Trumpism 335

Hope for a Green New Year 338

16 Trump

Essay: Why Not the Worst? 343

The Paranoid Style in G.O.P. Politics 345

Trump and the Aristocracy of Fraud 348

Stop Calling Trump a Populist 351

Partisanship, Parasites, and Polarization 354

Why It Can Happen Here 358

Who's Afraid of Nancy Pelosi? 361

Truth and Virtue in the Age of Trump 364

Conservatism's Monstrous Endgame 367

Manhood, Moola, McConnell, and Trumpism 370

17 On The Media

Essay. Beyond fake News 375

Bait-and-Switch 377

Triumph of the Trivial 380

Is There Any Point to Economic Analysis? 383

The Year of Living Stupidly 385

Hillary Clinton Gets Gored 387

18 Economic Thoughts

Essay The Dismal Science 393

How I Work 395

The Instability of Moderation 407

Transaction Costs and Tethers: Why I'm a Crypto Skeptic 411

Credits 415

Index 417

Editorial Reviews

"Years after appearing in the daily newspaper, Paul Krugman’s columns resonate because he avoids the herd mentality of most journalism. Applying history, math, and humanity, he transforms our understanding of great issues, and when writing on economics translates the dismal science into plain English."

David Cay Johnston

"“A revelation. It showcases the range of Krugman's intellect… and his gift for clear, accessible writing.”"

Stephanie Mehta

10/14/2019

Nobel Prize–winning economist and liberal pundit Krugman (End This Depression Now!) attacks conservatives’ policies—and morals—in these smart, tough essays. Selecting from his New York Times column and other writings, Krugman covers 15 years of “zombie ideas” that “keep shambling along, eating people’s brains” because they serve the interests of the rich. These include George W. Bush’s “snake-oil” scheme to privatize Social Security, Republican claims that Obamacare isn’t working, and conservative dogma that cutting taxes on the wealthy helps the economy. Krugman occasionally resorts to charts and wonkery to refute such pretenses, but mainly exercises his great talent for translating economics into plain English: “My spending is your income and your spending is my income,” he writes in a critique of recessionary budget cuts. “If we both slash spending, both of our incomes fall.” Krugman’s biting prose impugns character as well as doctrine—the persistence of climate change denial, he asserts, means “Republicans don’t just have bad ideas; at this point, they are, necessarily, bad people”—and sometimes lapses into derangement syndrome, as when he characterizes the GOP as “an authoritarian regime in waiting.” Progressive partisans will cheer Krugman’s plainspoken, bare-knuckled, and persuasive ripostes to conservative orthodoxy. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"In an era when facts are too often disdained and discarded, Paul Krugman wields them like a rapier. A brilliant scholar and polemicist, Krugman's incisive columns are a beacon for anyone who cares about public policy and progressive change."

David Axelrod

11/01/2019

In this collection, Nobel Prize-winning economist Krugman presents short essays, mostly written since 2003 as columns for The New York Times, as well as several longer pieces. He groups the writings in topical sections covering Social Security, tax reform, health care, trade, inequality, politics, the 2008 financial crisis, and other pertinent subjects. Krugman does not shy away from controversy, and considers zombies to be people who cannot accept that their ideas are factually wrong. In one essay on Social Security, he calls out the Bush Administration for lying about the benefits of privatization. He describes Representative Paul Ryan as the flimflam man, the Trump tax cut as a scam, and Fox News as a Republican propaganda outlet. Though the older essays come across as somewhat dated, they recount the debates of the time, and Krugman updates them with more recent ones along with unifying introductions to each section. His essays before 2004 are included in the 2003 collection The Great Unraveling. VERDICT While Krugman's rousing, jargon-free writings will please progressive readers, they will be disconcerting to many conservative ones. An informative and controversial study combining business and political science.—Lawrence Maxted, Gannon Univ. Lib., Erie, PA

Library Journal

Narrator Rob Shapiro delivers long, fluid strokes, perfectly paced to draw the listener into Paul Krugman’s latest compilation of columns, blog posts, and essays on macroeconomics. Shapiro captures Krugman’s passion for explaining the economic implications of political actions. His warm tones breathe life into “zombie” economics, the ins and outs of the housing bubble, recessions, depressions, and periods of prosperity. Arranged by topic, the columns span 2004 through late 2019, reaching back as far as the Great Depression to provide historical, political, and economic context, during the Reagan, Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations. Listeners are treated to the author’s passionate reading of the foreword, a tone that is capably echoed by Shapiro throughout the rest of the audiobook. M.B.K. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

FEBRUARY 2020 - AudioFile

Narrator Rob Shapiro delivers long, fluid strokes, perfectly paced to draw the listener into Paul Krugman’s latest compilation of columns, blog posts, and essays on macroeconomics. Shapiro captures Krugman’s passion for explaining the economic implications of political actions. His warm tones breathe life into “zombie” economics, the ins and outs of the housing bubble, recessions, depressions, and periods of prosperity. Arranged by topic, the columns span 2004 through late 2019, reaching back as far as the Great Depression to provide historical, political, and economic context, during the Reagan, Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations. Listeners are treated to the author’s passionate reading of the foreword, a tone that is capably echoed by Shapiro throughout the rest of the audiobook. M.B.K. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

FEBRUARY 2020 - AudioFile

2019-09-25
Penetrating analyses of urgent, controversial problems.

Krugman (Economics/City Univ. of New York; End This Depression Now!, 2012, etc.), winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, gathers more than 90 articles, most from his New York Times columns, lucidly explaining often confounding economic issues. Prefacing each of 18 sections with a cogent overview, the author takes on topics that include social security, health care, the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath (essays that comprise more than a third of the book), the myths of austerity, Europe's economic problems, tax cuts, trade wars, inequality, climate change, and, not least, the damage being inflicted by Donald Trump and his enablers. Many of the pieces are hard-hitting arguments against zombie ideas, "an idea that should have been killed by evidence, but refuses to die." Zombie ideas, Krugman asserts, are put forth by "influential people" who "move in circles in which repeating" such ideas "is a badge of seriousness, an assertion of tribal identity." Alternatively, ideas such as climate change denial, which persist despite prolific evidence, are "better described as cockroach ideas—false claims you may think you've gotten rid of, but keep coming back." There are plenty of villains in Krugman's crosshairs: the "anti-labor" extremist Brett Kavanaugh, "flimflam man" Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, Bernie Madoff, George W. Bush and his "fraudulent march to war," and Ronald Reagan, to name a few. Many essays focus on the current president. "It's not just that Trump has assembled an administration of the worst and dimmest," writes the author. "The truth is that the modern GOP doesn't want to hear from serious economists, whatever their politics. It prefers charlatans and cranks, who are its kind of people." Krugman is a serious economist who detailed his intellectual focus and style in a 1993 essay, "How I Work." He cites four rules that guide his research: listen to intelligent views; question the question; "dare to be silly"; and "simplify, simplify." All serve him—and his readers—admirably.

Shrewd, witty, informed essays that are much needed in our anti-intellectual age.

Kirkus Reviews