Is Social Security really going bust, and what does that mean to me? If I hire an immigrant, am I hurting a
native-born worker? Why does the stock market go up when employment declines? Should I give that homeless guy a
buck? What's a "living wage"? How much can presidents really affect economic outcomes? What does the
Federal Reserve Bank really do? Why do I still feel so squeezed?
If you'd like some straight answers, premier economist Jared Bernstein is here to help. In Crunch he responds to
dozens of questions he has fielded from working Americans, questions that directly relate to the bottom-line, dollars-and-cents
concerns of real people. Chances are if there's a stumper you've always wanted to ask an economist, it's solved
in this book.
Bernstein is fed up with "Darth Vaders with PhDs" who use their supposed expertise to intimidate average
citizens and turn economics into a tool for the rich and powerful. In the pages of Crunch, Bernstein lays bare
the dark secret of economics: it's not an objective scientific discipline. It's a set of decisions about the best
way to organize our society to produce and distribute resources and opportunities. And we all can, and must, participate
in these decisions. "America is a democracy," he writes. "And in a democracy all of us, not just
the elites and their scholarly shock troops, get to weigh in on biggies like this."
Our economy will be only as fair as we can make it. In this lively and irreverent tour through everyday economic
mysteries, Bernstein helps us decode economic "analysis," navigate through murky ethical quandaries,
and make sound economic decisions that reflect our deepest aspirations for ourselves,our families, and our country.