Pop Internationalism | 
| Author: Paul Krugman
Publisher: The MIT Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  29 reviews
Sales Rank: 146168
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 237
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.5
ISBN: 0262611333
Dewey Decimal Number: 337
EAN: 9780262611336
ASIN: 0262611333
Publication Date: February 7, 1997
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Amazon.com Review
A collection of essays about international trade seems destined to be a snoozer, but Paul Krugman, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, somehow manages to write about an arcane subject in a lively manner that is actually entertaining. Krugman contends that many who are famed as experts on world trade actually misunderstand the subject completely, and he provides a startling commentary on some notables, from Lester Thurow to Ross Perot. Yet Krugman comes not merely to destroy; a reader can gain from his essays some real insight into economics, not to mention which economic commentators know their stuff.
Product Description
"Pop internationalists"?people who speak impressively about international trade while ignoring basic economics and misusing economic figures are the target of this collection of Paul Krugman's most recent essays. In the clear, readable, entertaining style that brought acclaim for his best-selling Age of Diminished Expectations, Krugman explains what real economic analysis is. He discusses economic terms and measurements, like "value-added" and GDP, in simple language so that readers can understand how pop internationalists distort, and sometimes contradict, the most basic truths about world trade.
All but two of the essays have previously appeared in such publications as Foreign Affairs, Scientific American, and the Harvard Business Review. The first five essays take on exaggerations of foreign competition's effects on the U.S. economy and represent Krugman's central criticisms of public debate over world trade. The next three essays expose further distortions of economic theory and include the complete, unaltered, controversial review of Laura Tyson's Who's Bashing Whom. The third group of essays highlights misconceptions about competition from less industrialized countries. The concluding essays focus on interesting and legitimate economic questions, such as the effects of technological change on society.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 24 more reviews...
 Clear Thinking, Compact, and Ruthlessly Correct May 21, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I am an economics professor, and find this book an absolutely fantastic antidote to the alarmist crap (and dogmatic resistance to inconvenient facts) offered by foes of international trade. This book is easy to read and digest, and the data and ideas Krugman presents so clearly do not require any economic education beyond the ordinary undergraduate level. I hearitly recommend the book to anyone dazzled by fears of China or threats to U.S. manufacturing.
Easily the most entertaining part of this book is Krugman's treatment of Lester Thurow, Paul Kennedy and others who spent the 1990's extending wooly headed thinking to its local maximum. Modern writing on economics is awash in charlatans and cranks, and Krugman dispenses with them in a way to set the standard.
I re-read this book every few years and recommend it to all my grad students in economics as an example of communicating ideas with simple elegance.
Entertaining, provocative, flawed March 13, 2005
Krugman is a good writer; so is the author of the book "New Ideas from Dead Economists" (that particular book).
Basically Krugman likes to be provocative, as he has shown as op-ed contributor for the NY Times.
His advocacy of game theory and non-linearlities in the Ricardo/Adam Smith model of free trade (which is still valid BTW), is welcome.
His thesis that since in both Japan and the US trade accounts for less than 15% of the total GNP of each country is a bit flawed, since, as any chessplayer will tell you, "the threat is greater than the execution". It's like saying Stalin had no effect on the fear factor in the Soviet Union because he only executed less than 5% of the population, or that the Exxon Valdez oil slick was minimal since it only constituted less than 0.1% of oil transported...
BTW, I have not read this book but that should not prevent you from recommending this review. Thank you.
 NAFTA-boosting "liberal" hack August 31, 2004
2 out of 37 found this review helpful
The joke here is that Krugman is convinced he can write. He ends his little intro with the smug assertion that "maybe economists can write after all," offering himself as proof. (Krugman cannot write well, but he has mastered the clumsy, undistinguished style of a bad lit professor---the kind of tenured mediocrity that dominates academic publishing---an accomplishment he's very proud of. To use his own favorite "emphasizing" gimmick: Krugman stinks---full stop.)
The punchline is that shortly afterward, The New York Times hired him. It was a match made in middlebrow heaven. (I should add that I do like the substance of Krugman's newspaper articles, if not the style. An enemy of the current White House is a friend of mine.)
As far as the economics go, he's pro-NAFTA and pro-"free trade" just like all establishment economists, and completely unwilling to critique the real forces at work in international markets. Don't waste your time.
Krugman and Competition April 5, 2004
5 out of 9 found this review helpful
Paul Krugman is an intellectual economist with a rebllious streak. In "Pop Internalionalism" Krugman denounces ideas by some of the most well known and respected economists of the 20th century. Krugman uses a plethora of statistics to prove his point.
Krugman tries to prove that there is no economic competition between nations, or if there is it is nominal. His theories are alway well thought out and expressed but it difficult to believe everything he says. He tries to write for the common man, and is writing is very well expressed, intelligent, yet readible by most. It is easy for one to find themeselves rereading paragraphs if he/she does not have a strong understanding of international trade and national business.
Some may say that he is ahead of his time, others may say that his theories are rediculous, but I'll just say he is worth reading.
Awesome book January 20, 2004
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is a great book - applying sound economics to our real-world policy issues.Krugman's successful attempt to expose the flawed argument of the likes of Lester Thurow is wonderful. People like Thurow are more interested in bashing certain countries (e.g., Japan, Europe) and/or apologizing for others (e.g., People's Republic of China), with no economic/academic consistency. Hard to believe Thurow passes as an "economist"...
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