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The Midas Paradox
Financial Markets, Government Policy Shocks, and the Great Depression
By Scott Sumner
Published by Independent Institute
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
Table of Contents
About The Book
Economic historians have made great progress in unraveling the causes of the Great Depression, but not until Scott Sumner came along has anyone explained the multitude of twists and turns the economy took.
In The Midas Paradox: Financial Markets, Government Policy Shocks, and the Great Depression, Sumner offers his magnum opus—the ?rst book to comprehensively explain both monetary and non-monetary causes of that cataclysm.
Drawing on ?nancial market data and contemporaneous news stories, Sumner shows that the Great Depression is ultimately a story of incredibly bad policymaking—by central bankers, legislators, and two presidents—especially mistakes related to monetary policy and wage rates. He also shows that macroeconomic thought has long been captive to a false narrative, which continues to misguide policymakers in their quixotic quest to promote robust and sustainable economic growth.
The Midas Paradox is a landmark treatise that solves mysteries that have long perplexed economic historians and corrects misconceptions about the true causes, consequences, and cures of macroeconomic instability. Like Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz’s A Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960, it is one of those rare books destined to shape future research and debate on the subject.
In The Midas Paradox: Financial Markets, Government Policy Shocks, and the Great Depression, Sumner offers his magnum opus—the ?rst book to comprehensively explain both monetary and non-monetary causes of that cataclysm.
Drawing on ?nancial market data and contemporaneous news stories, Sumner shows that the Great Depression is ultimately a story of incredibly bad policymaking—by central bankers, legislators, and two presidents—especially mistakes related to monetary policy and wage rates. He also shows that macroeconomic thought has long been captive to a false narrative, which continues to misguide policymakers in their quixotic quest to promote robust and sustainable economic growth.
The Midas Paradox is a landmark treatise that solves mysteries that have long perplexed economic historians and corrects misconceptions about the true causes, consequences, and cures of macroeconomic instability. Like Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz’s A Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960, it is one of those rare books destined to shape future research and debate on the subject.
Product Details
- Publisher: Independent Institute (December 1, 2015)
- Length: 528 pages
- ISBN13: 9781598131505
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Raves and Reviews
“Scott Sumner is one of the most original economists around. Having been a pioneer in making the case for nominal GDP targeting, he has now turned his insightful talents to economic history, providing an important and fresh reexamination of the causes of the Great Depression and the halting recovery thereafter. Provocative, well argued and well written, The Midas Paradox is an important contribution to our understanding of the roots of the worst economic period in the nation’s history.”
– Robert E. Litan, former Senior Fellow and Vice President for Economic Studies, The Brookings Institution
“The Midas Paradox is a must read to understand the complexities of monetary management under the international gold standards of the 1930s. Scott Sumner importantly focuses his research on the critical role of market expectations and labor policy failures that compounded central bank mistakes and led to tragic consequences for the global economy.”
– Manuel H. Johnson II, former Vice Chairman, Federal Reserve System
"Scott Sumner is one of the preeminent monetary thinkers today. The Midas Paradox represents his twenty years' study of the Great Depression, one of the most important economic events of the twentieth century. Highly recommended."
– Tyler Cowen, Holbert C. Harris Chair of Economics, George Mason University
“In The Midas Paradox, Scott Sumner provides a fascinating account of how monetary policy under the gold standard got us into the Great Depression and how wage policies under the New Deal slowed the subsequent recovery. The book is deep and rich and has important lessons for today—a must-read for anyone interested in monetary policy and history and the errors of government policy.”
– Douglas A. Irwin, Robert E. Maxwell ’23 Professor of Arts and Sciences, Department of Economics, Dartmouth College
"The Midas Paradox is first-rate scholarly work and it deserves our attention, especially as much of it applies to the recent Great Recession."
– Thomas R. Saving, Distinguished Professor, Jeff Montgomery Professor, and Director of the Private Enterprise Research Center, Texas A&M University
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