Marketcrafters
The 100-Year Struggle to Shape the American Economy
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- 179,00 kr
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A revelatory and unexpected examination of the political economy of the past century—and an argument that policymakers in government, not the mythical “free market,” created the most dynamic economy the world has ever known.
For many decades, a sacred myth has ruled the minds of policymakers and business leaders: free markets, untouched by the soiled hands of government, bring us prosperity and stability. Economist and writer Chris Hughes demolishes this fantasy by chronicling the hidden history of American capitalism: a centuries-long tradition of industrial policy where the state’s guiding hand has been essential to prosperity. Markets do not exist in a vacuum but are the product of a deliberate political order, a practice he calls “marketcraft.”
This groundbreaking book takes readers through the high-stakes evolution of our most critical industries, from the state-led management of our banking and financial systems to the intentional development of energy, aviation, healthcare, and semiconductor markets. American government has always done far more than just react to “market failures.” Tracing a lineage from Alexander Hamilton to the architects of Trump and Biden industrial policies, Hughes introduces the “marketcrafters”—the technicians and organizers who combined expertise with judgment to cultivate the economy like a garden. By studying their triumphs and failures, we can pursue a smarter industrial policy for the future.
As we navigate the transformative potential of artificial intelligence and the urgent demands of the climate crisis, this book serves as an essential road map for harnessing the power of markets to build a stable, inclusive, and abundant future for all Americans.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Government interventions in markets are necessary to harness the "dynamism of American capitalism," according to this trenchant study. Profiling lesser-known activists, entrepreneurs, and government officials who shaped the American economy over the past century, Hughes (Fair Shot), chair of the advocacy group Economic Security Project, recounts how Jesse Jones, who was secretary of commerce under FDR in the early 1940s, established the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to stabilize markets by extending credit to businesses facing bankruptcy. Elsewhere, Hughes explains how labor organizer Katherine Ellickson's activism secured the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965, and how in the late 1980s, Intel founder Robert Noyce convinced semiconductor manufacturers to pool their research (in exchange for government funding) so they could innovate faster and give America an edge in computing technologies. Cautioning against laissez-faire economics, Hughes details how Alan Greenspan's deregulation of the derivatives market during his tenure as chairman of the Federal Reserve contributed to the 2008 financial crisis. Hughes complements his remarkably unstuffy economic discussions with fine-grained character portraits, as when he traces Lina Khan's transformation from a brilliant but self-doubting Yale law student into a bold antimonopoly crusader as chair of the Federal Trade Commission under Joe Biden. It adds up to a vigorous defense of economic regulation.
