A Nobel Laureate Offers a Biting Critique of Economics
Angus Deaton says Larry Summers and other great minds in the profession have lost sight of its most important mission: Improving people’s lives.
Angus Deaton
Source: Princeton University Press
The Scottish-born son of a one-time coal miner, Angus Deaton has spent a half-century rising to the top of the economics profession, winning a Nobel prize in 2015 and celebrated since alongside his wife and co-author Anne Case for identifying the middle-aged “deaths of despair” that have plagued America in recent decades. So, when the Princeton University emeritus professor has a new book out with the sober title Economics in America you might anticipate a valedictory celebration of the wonders of the discipline.
It’s anything but. What Deaton calls his mea culpa is a broadside on his profession and some of its most celebrated figures. Economists and their relentless focus on markets and efficiency, as well as their dogmatic attachment to theories (even after they’ve been disproven), have had life-or-death consequences for millions, he argues. The book, coming out on Oct. 3, has already triggered a debate that has him facing off with at least one other high-profile colleague.