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Title: Misunderstood Economy: What Counts and How to Count It by Robert Eisner, Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business School Press ISBN: 0-07-103576-1 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: April, 1994 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.95

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Average Customer Rating: 3 (2 reviews)

Rating: 3
Summary: Would be interesting to re-read in 2004
Comment: Robert Eisner used to contribute to the Wall Street Journal's editorial page, where he was the lone Keynesian voice calling out in a Supply Side wilderness. Because of his unique fiscal policy point of view, though, he tended to talk down the budget hawks. It would be interesting to see what Eisner's take on the Republican Congress and Bush II spending policies appear to be. In fact, despite the declaration of the death of Keynesianism (we all thought we were looking forward to that, in the long run, weren't we?), the last three presidents have all pursued Keynesian policies despite themselves. Both Bushes ran up enormous deficits during recessions, and the Republican Congress/Clinton budgets achieved a "surplus" in a boom era (surplus if you don't count borrowing from Social Security).

This book explains why Eisner thought we shouldn't fear the debt run up by the Democrat Congresses and Reagan/Bush I presidencies. Though it was clear enough to me, and Eisner's practice at writing for intelligent lay readers of various non-academic publications helped, I agree with the other reviewer that it shoots between audiences and so misses both. Still, I plan to re-read it soon in order to determine if his conclusions then are valid today.

Rating: 3
Summary: It's in a sort of book limbo.
Comment: Unfortunately, Dr. Eisner's book suffers from the same problems that affected Stephen Hawking's Brief History of Time: although both books attempt to give the layman an understanding of the field, and dispel a number of common myths, they are both trapped between intellectual levels. They are too difficult to read through for the average person outside of the field, as they move too quickly and introduce too many concepts for the average reader to keep track. However, were they to be read by somebody within their field, that person would find that there is nothing to be gained by reading it -- they already understand everything that the book has to say. Not a bad book, but it will have an exceedingly difficult time finding its target audience.