The misfortunes of prosperity cover

The misfortunes of prosperity

by Cohen, Daniel

Daniel Cohen discusses the effects of the slowdown of productivity in Europe and the United States and explains the origin of the apparent tradeoff between unemployment in Europe and wage inequality in the United States. On questions of economic policy and the competing academic views (new classical and Keynesian) of the efficacy of government intervention, Cohen inverts the Keynesian belief that government intervention causes growth and explains why waves of government interventions (including wars) usually follow upward economic trends rather than create them. But he also advocates government discretion rather than government neutrality by showing the disastrous consequences of the hands-off approach to debt, inflation and social security.

Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?