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The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All The Low-Hanging Fruit Of Modern History, Got Sick, And Will (Eventually) Feel Better (2011)

by Tyler Cowen(Favorite Author)

3.71 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1101502258 (ISBN13: 9781101502259)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Dutton Books

review 1: Tyler Cowen, puts together an easy to follow case that the next opportunities will be more hard fought than the historical era of prosperity. While he tries to leave the listener with an optimistic outlook, some magic yet undefined technology will come and save us from ourselves, it is there where I find the most fault with the book. Typically deus ex machina's are reserved for fiction and here Cowen doesn't make an attempt to define the 'will eventually feel better' part based on anything more than the lesson's from history he rails against in the 'ate all the low-hanging fruit' part of the book.Also as an irresponsible omission Tyler Cowen left out slavery in his section discussing the factors that led to America's unprecedented prosperity.
review 2: Thought... mores:For active followers of MarginalRevolution.com, this book is unnecessary. The book is a jumbled collation of bloggish thoughts.Cowen's thoughts on marginal productivity of inventions are not new, but remain worthwhile. There is an odd proclivity towards un-argued libertarianism/Randism that is unlike Cowen.The discussion of tradeable sector productivity is excellent.The book desperately needs to complete the jobless-recovery thinking in a post-explanation manner: cleverness without policy advice is useless. less

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