New from Alpina Business Books

The book department of Alpina Business Books/United Press has released a book by Robert Skidelsky titled “Keynes: The Return of the Master.”

The long-running period of sustained global economic growth seemed to prove definitively that a free capitalist market is the most efficient economic system. However, the financial crisis of 2007-09 caused many to question that belief. This book explores the reason why economists overlooked that fundamental flaw in their theories for so long.

The author Sidelsky, who is a lecturer on political economy at Warwick University and member of the British Academy as well as being Keynes’ biographer, claims that the missing theoretical link providing an explanation of the current global economic situation — and a way out of the troubles — can be found in the teaching of John Maynard Keynes.

Keynesian doctrine dominated the initial post-World War II period, but then the Reagan-Thatcher era introduced the idea that the free market is able to regulate itself and is adversely affected by government interference. According to Robert Skidelsky, it was this “intellectual failure of economic science” that ultimately led to the credit crisis. The current “great recession” has caused thinkers and economists to once again turn to Keynesian theory for answers.

This book provides insight into the current debate on the U.S. and European economic policy that has determined the course of world development over the last century and more. The British newspaper The Guardian described this work as “a remarkably clear exposition of complex ideas” that “every future minister should read.”