Finalist for the 2009 PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction, PEN American Center "In this new economic, political, and ideological environment, The Case for Big Government shows how yesterday's contrarianism can become today's consensus. A leading economist, a former financial columnist for The Times and an adviser to Senator Edward Kennedy, Jeff Madrick makes the case that the nation faces ... Read moresocial and economic challenges requiring higher taxes, increased public investment and more rigorous regulation of corporate conduct. Researched and well-written ... fact-filled and well-reasoned."
David Kusnet, New York Times Book Review "The Case for Big Government comes at an auspicious time. With the global economy in crisis, experts of all stripes have supported government intervention. At the same time, Americans have elected Democrat Barak Obama, who has favored greater federal involvement, to lead the country. Author Jeff Madrick argues that government involvement in economic affairs is not only beneficial in times of crisis, but can also enhance long-term growth by giving incentives for industries and households to prosper."
Pedro Nicolaci da Costa, Reuters "Helpful to debaters, Madrick's work succinctly summarizes a perspective from the Left on America's economic problems."
Gilbert Taylor, Booklist "[Madrick's] book is a thoroughgoing defense of government's role in the economy, written with the broad perspective of an economic historian rather than a mere policy polemicist. Thus, a book that could have been a thudding discourse on the efficiency of the French medical system instead takes us on a bracing survey of government's role as a driver
not merely an enabler
of a growing, fair, economy."
Ezra Klein, The American Prospect "If Obama's election to the presidency seems to be the realization of part of King's dream, we still are left with the question of what, exactly, Obama is going to do. Jeff Madrick thinks he knows exactly what we should do, and has a three page, bulleted list of spending suggestions in the back of his slender new book. Madrick is one of a select group of liberal economist
Robert Reich, Robert Kuttner, Paul Krugman, and UT's James Galbraith are perhaps the most prominent members of this fraternity
who until recently formed the Greek chorus of opposition to our country's economic policy drift... If the case for big government isn't closed, here, it is, at least, vigorously opened."
Roger Gathman, Austin American-Statesman "It is both Jeff Madrick's fortune and misfortune to have The Case for Big Government published in this climate. Madrick has for many years been a voice crying in the wilderness. His essays in the The New York Review of Books in particular have been acerbic and astute critiques of the absurd and glaring inequalities of modern American laissez-faire capitalism. Some of the current spending plans, as well as the ideological shift in Washington away from the dogmatisms of the past, are a vindication of much of what he has been championing for years."
Zachary Karabell, Truthdig.com "Madrick leaves no room for doubt; government has often been and remains the answer. The Case for Big Government is a straightforward, historically based and engaging argument for the centrality of government as a real contributor to both prosperity and progress. His references are overwhelmingly American but the conclusions have resonance in most Western societies... Demonstrating a commendable knowledge of the history of the American republic, he tests the myths of laissez-faire economic policy, which date from the election of Thomas Jefferson in 1800, and the influence of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, as reflected in the guiding 'invisible hand'. Madrick finds the myths to be just that, unfounded in fact."
Stephen Loosley, The Australian "Economist Madrick has written a powerful case for the US government to play a stronger role in society... Madrick is especially strong in critiquing economic studies that support the antigovernment case... Crystal clear and easily accessible to undergraduate students, this work is exceedingly timely but will be useful even after the current economic crisis has passed."
M. Perelman, Choice Show Less