Book Review: “The Economists’ Hour: False Prophets, Free Markets, and the Fracture of Society”

Abstract

Binyamin Appelbaum's new book, _The Economists' Hour_ argues that nefarious free market economists took over economic policy around 1950, and promotes democratic constraints on markets as a solution. But if special interests control the government, does it not make more sense to limit government rather than to enhance its powers? Furthermore, Appelbaum often blames the free market for the failures of government. In the most glaring instance of this fallacy, Appelbaum rightly notes how many of our current economic problems stem from risky speculation by banks. Why does he consider such speculative ventures, made possible by fractional reserve banks joined in the Federal Reserve System, a failure of the free market rather than a government failure? Appelbaum’s book is not without value. He has done a great deal of research and he has a good eye for anecdotes. But as a criticism of the free market, the book is a manifest failure.