The basic premise is that there are “narratives” that drive economics. There are stories or explanations of things that we believe, and that cause economic things to happen.
Some examples, from the book:
Sellers can go into panic mode
The Gold Standard is better than bimetallism
Machines will replace jobs
AI will replace jobs
If that sounds vague…well, yeah. I didn’t understand the point the book was trying to make – that these narratives exist, or that they’re wrong, or…what.
It reads well. The later chapters are about the histories of the different narratives, but I was still waiting at the end for some explanation of why I should care?
Again, I just didn’t really get it. At the end, I was thinking, what was the point of all that?
Book Info
Author
Robert J. Shiller
Year
Pages
400
Acquired
I have read this book. According to my records, I completed it on August 4, 2022.
A hardcover copy of this book is currently in my home library.
A group of advisers or experts. It’s usually used to refer to a group of people supplying advice to another person – so they are a brain trust to someone else. Specifically, three professors at Columbia were known as “the Brain Trust” to FDR during his 1932 presidential campaign.