If you believe that the study of economics is a snooze, come to booth 3653 today, 10–11 a.m., where Sylvia Nasar will be signing Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius (S&S, Sept.). She'll change your mind for good.
"Economics really matters. Also, economists are sexy," says Nasar, who was a New York Times economics correspondent from 1991 to 1999, currently teaches business journalism at Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism, but is perhaps best known as the author of A Beautiful Mind (S&S, 1998). That biography was translated into 30 languages and made into a major motion picture, starring Russell Crowe, that won four Oscars, including one for Best Picture.
Rather than compiling a book of dry figures and facts, Nasar looks at the human side of economics in Grand Pursuit, and she considers economics not as a series of theories but as an invention intended to allow people to take control of their own destinies. The 554-page book discusses figures who may not be thought of first and foremost as economists or who aren't household names at all, but who changed the way we see money and finance: author Charles Dickens, who called for a new economics; Beatrice Webb, who conceived of the idea of welfare and suggested it to Winston Churchill, then a young member of Parliament; Friedrich Hayek, a Viennese philosopher who became famous for predicting the crash of 1929.
Nasar, who is making her first appearance at BEA, says, "I was looking for a story with characters, drama, tension. I've always been impressed by how important to civilization, peace, happiness, civility—you name it—a high and rising standard of living is. And yet a high and rising standard of living is a recent phenomenon. It was unheard of in Jane Austen's time."
Nasar remains upbeat about the future. She says, "We're recovering from the most severe recession of my working life, a downturn that was even worse, especially in New York, than the horrible recession of the early 1980s. But I personally think that the end is nigh, and the ‘middle class is disappearing, the American dream is dead' mantra of politicians and pundits is off the mark. Even at the most harrowing moments of the financial crisis, the worst of the slump, our economy produced a higher standard of living than in... 2005. The world financial system did not collapse. There was no great depression. There were no riots or crime wave or outbreaks of communal violence. This was not an accident."