Shock Values

"""Binder examines the economic destabilization caused by fluctuations in the cost of goods and the effective—and often controversial—remedies the American government has historically used to steady the market, plus their lasting effects. . . .A solid history of American economic policies."" * Library Journal * ""[Shock Values] is the new and very useful book by Carola Binder...a very good economic history."" -- Tyler Cowen * Marginal Revolution * ""Shock Values [is] a timely subject in this inflation-focused presidential election year. Carola Binder expounds on monetary ideas both sound and otherwise. She takes up tariffs, antitrust policy, price control, rent control, the minimum wage and the quest for the will-o’-the-wisp called 'price stability.' Her brisk narrative, starting in colonial times, carries the reader all the way down to the tumultuous present."" * The Wall Street Journal * ""In [Shock Values], Binder looks back at the long history of politics, inflation and how the government has tried to respond, at times through fiscal policy like price controls, at others with monetary policy."" * Marketplace * “In recent decades, economists have made great strides in understanding how monetary and fiscal policy influence inflation. Shock Values dives deeper to show how institutional changes throughout US history have been both a cause and a consequence of an unstable price level. Binder perceptively dissects how public policies meant to control inflation have been driven by a complex mix of special interest politics, ideology, and advances in our understanding of the role of monetary policy.” -- Scott Sumner | author of ""The Money Illusion: Market Monetarism, the Great Recession, and the Future of Monetary Policy"" “Debates about the money supply and price level predate the Revolutionary War and have often been at the forefront of US politics. Accessible and a joy to read, Shock Values pulls together economic, political, and intellectual history to tell the remarkable story of three centuries of US inflation (or lack thereof).” -- Joshua Hausman | University of Michigan"