Economics has often been regarded as a science akin to meteorology – effective in explaining past events, but less useful in the prediction of the future. What the American economy of the twenty-first century will look like and how it will perform is decidedly unclear. Whether the future will be a prosperous one ultimately depends on our ability to overcome the contemporary economic decline that has been the theme of this book.

By way of conclusion, Michael A. Bernstein traces some of the historical roots of the evolution of contemporary economic knowledge that speak to our seeming inability to formulate novel and effective policy approaches for the solution of current problems.