Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Beckett, When the Lights Went Out: Britain in the Seventies (2009)


Andy Beckett.
When the Lights Went Out: Britain in the Seventies.
London: Faber and Faber Ltd., 2009.

The 2010 paperback edition has a modified subtitle: When the Lights Went Out: What Really Happened to Britain in the Seventies.

Book Information: Publisher, hardcover; Publisher, paperback; Google Books; Amazon.com; Amazon.co.uk.

When the Lights Went Out was named to the 2010 Long List for the Orwell Prize.

Andy Beckett and Ben Wilson, Discussion on When the Lights Went Out, Faber & Faber, May 2009 : Part 1, Part 2.

Author Information:Book Reviews:Video:
Introductory Documentaries
Political PartiesVernon BogdanorBiographies of PoliticiansMiscellaneous 1970s1960sEconomic History
  • Roderick Floud and others, "The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain," Gresham College, London, 24 September 2014.
    (Event webpage at Gresham College.)
    See the talk by Nicholas Crafts starting after minute 46 for an economic historian's discussion of British economic growth during the post-war period. This is of course important for understanding and explaining British politics of the 1970s and after.
  • Jeff Madrick, "Decline of America," Cooper Union, 02 June 2011.
    This talk is a review of economic history since the 1970s mostly focused on the USA.
    Jeff Madrick, Age of Greed: The Triumph of Finance and the Decline of America, 1970 to the Present, New York: Knopf, 2011.
    [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
Some Wikipedia Articles:Other books on the 1970s noted in this blog:

Wednesday, September 02, 2015

Eichengreen, Exorbitant Privilege (2011)


Barry Eichengreen.
Exorbitant Privilege: The Rise and Fall of the Dollar and the Future of the International Monetary System.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.

Book Information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.

Author Information:

Video:

Eichengreen published a more detailed book on the history of the international monetary system a few years before Exorbitant Privilege. It is:
Globalizing Capital: A History of the International Monetary System, second edition, Princeton University Press, 2008.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
Exorbitant Privilege has a less technical review of this history (chapters 1-4) followed by chapters on the 2007-2008 financial crisis, recent developments in other currencies that could become alternatives to the dollar, and prospects for the future (chapters 5-7).

The final two paragraphs of Exorbitant Privilege:
The point is that it is not the exchange rate or the net foreign investment position as much as the fundamental underlying health of the economy that matters for geopolitical leverage. If one wants a single unified explanation for the behavior of the exchange rate and the net foreign investment position, it would again be the fundamental underlying health of the economy. Whether the dollar rises or falls by 30 percent will matter much less for U.S. strategic influence than whether U.S. economic growth averages 2 or 4 percent per annum over the next decade.

Again, there is a more alarming scenario: instead of the dollar declining gradually to somewhat lower levels, there is a dollar crash. In this case all bets are off. Here it is important to remember that the only plausible scenario for a dollar crash is one in which we bring it upon ourselves. This also means that it is within our grasp to avoid the worst. The good news, such as it is, is that the fate of the dollar is in our hands, not those of the Chinese.
(page 177)

Some Wikipedia Articles:

Some Notable People: