Economics in the Real World
Smith, Karen Sue
In brief Economics in the Real World: How Political Decisions Affect the ECONOMY, Leonard Silk. Simon and Schuster, $16.95, 298 pp. This fast-paced book gives a feel for the complexities of...
...Fortunately, the whole eclectic assemblage is tied up in the last chapter, "What We Have Learned...
...As if all these shifts, starts, and stops were not enough, Silk pauses between administrations to philosophize on economic theory, to give us the cream off his interview with Friedrich August von Hayek of the London School of Economics, his visits with European economists, and his long waits in line to buy goods in the Soviet Union...
...The bottom line, as Silk plots it since 1947, is that after-tax income accelerates in presidential and congressional election years, Eisenhower's administration being the only exception...
...Such is the down-to-earth relationship between economic surges and political survival...
...At least one chapter is devoted to each president, beginning with Johnson...
...This fast-paced book gives a feel for the complexities of running a "mixed economy" in which economists advise, politicians decide, and the impact is shared globally...
...K.S.S...
...The scenario resembles a videogame: the goal is full employment, economic growth, and price stability...
...One would like to hope, although this reader doubts, that we have learned even a few of the lessons Silk enumerates...
...In the real world these may be a covert war, a sudden decrease in productivity, an oil embargo, a shift in public mood, or American hostages in Iran...
...As the player (president) moves unsuspectingly through the maze on the screen, several variables pop out randomly to obstruct progress...
...One by one each president tries to advance through the maze left by his predecessor...
...In the real world this frenetic activity heightens at election time...
...The ordering of these depends upon the president's political stance...
Vol. 112 • April 1985 • No. 8
