Books: Inside the Economist's Mind (I.T.E.M.) and Getting It Wrong

This Blog hosts discussion of issues relevant to the book, Inside the Economist's Mind, coedited by Nobel Laureate Paul A. Samuelson and William A. Barnett, published by Wiley/Blackwell, and the newer book by William A. Barnett, Getting It Wrong, published by MIT Press.


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William A. Barnett is Oswald Distinguished Professor of Macroeconomics at the University of Kansas and Director of the Center for Financial Stability in New York City. He was previously Research Economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington, DC; Stuart Centennial Professor of Economics at the University of Texas at Austin; and Professor of Economics at Washington University in St. Louis. William Barnett has been a leading researcher in macroeconomics and econometrics. He is one of the pioneers in the study of chaos and nonlinearity in socioeconomic contexts, as well as a major figure in the study of the aggregation problem. He is Editor of the Emerald Press monograph series International Symposia in Economic Theory and Econometrics, and Editor of the journal Macroeconomic Dynamics, published by Cambridge University Press. He received his B.S. degree from M.I.T., his M.B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University. He has published 20 books (as either author or editor) and over 140 articles in professional journals. His research has been published in 7 languages.



COEDITOR: PAUL A. SAMUELSON

 The book, Inside the Economist's Mind, is coedited by Paul A. Samuelson and William A. Barnett. Although this Blog is hosted solely by the latter coeditor, the following is the information in the book's front matter about Paul Samuelson:

Paul A. Samuelson was the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Economics. He is Professor Emeritus of Economics and Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute Professor is the highest rank awarded by MIT. His landmark 1947 book, Foundations of Economic Analysis, based upon his Ph.D. dissertation at Harvard University, established him as "the economists' economist" by raising the standards of the entire profession. Paul Samuelson's classic textbook, Economics, first published in 1948, is among the most successful textbooks ever published in the field. The book's 16 editions have sold over four million copies and have been translated into 41 languages. He received his B.A. degree from the University of Chicago and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. As one of the profession's most productive scholars for over a half-century, he remains an intellectual force of towering stature.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

REVIEWS!

I maintain online a cumulative collection of the views of eminent readers, as well as reviews by media reporters, reviewers, and columnists. The list is longer and more complete than conveniently can be provided in this blog.

The Lawrence Journal-World newspaper "jumped the gun" by publishing a very early advance review before the cover design was finalized, so that newspaper was the first to publish a commentary on the book. The cover design published in that article was a preliminary choice, and is not the one that has been used by Blackwell on the final book. But now many other newspapers are publishing reviews and commentaries based upon receipt of the final book.

posted by William A. Barnett | 12:00 PM | 1 comments

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Cover Design

The full cover of the book, including front, back, and spine are below:



The front cover alone is displayed to the left. The cover has been changed, in response to the request by a large bookstore chain. The old one was based upon a painting by Assar Lindbeck. Those who have seen the original manuscript may be expecting to see the former cover design, which will not appear on the published book.

posted by William A. Barnett | 9:04 AM | 0 comments

Monday, August 21, 2006

The Media

Blackwell has sent out about 100 advance copies to columnists, reviewers, and reporters in the media. If you qualify and would like an advance copy, there still is time to email me with your mailing address. Among the current list of requestors are people at the Wall Street Journal, New York Times (including its Book Reviews and its Sunday Book Reviews), The Economist, Financial Times of London, Bloomberg, Newsweek, Washington Post, Time Magazine, economicprincipals.com, New York Review of Books, Philadelphia Inquirer, Kansas City Star, Milken Institute Review, RGE Monitor, Challenge Magazine, Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank's The Region, CSPAN2 BookTV, Chicago Tribune, San Diego Union-Tribune, various economics blog moderators, among others. A convenient way to find recent reviews in the media is to search Google News. and NewsLibrary.com.

posted by William A. Barnett | 11:15 AM | 0 comments

Publicity

A signed copy of the book was the "prize" in a raffle held in October at the Financial Management Association conference in Salt Lake City and also at another such raffle held at the ASSA meetings in Chicago in January. In addition, Blackwell's annual advertisement in the New York Review of Books (December 21 holiday issue, p. 34) is for this book.

posted by William A. Barnett | 11:12 AM | 0 comments

Friday, August 18, 2006

Front Matter

The book's complete front matter is online at:

www.ITEM-book.org/

The conversations in the book are not themselves online, but some of the participants include:

Wassily Leontief (Nobel Laureate), David Cass, Robert Lucas (Nobel Laureate), Janos Kornai, Franco Modigliani (Nobel Laureate), Milton Friedman (Nobel Laureate), Paul Samuelson (Nobel Laureate), Paul Volcker (Former Federal Reserve Board Chair), Martin Feldstein (Former Chair of Council of Economic Advisers), Christopher Sims, Robert Shiller, Stanley Fischer (Governor of the Bank of Israel), Jacques Dreze, Tom Sargent, Robert Aumann (Nobel Laureate), James Tobin (Nobel Laureate), Robert Solow (Nobel Laureate), John Taylor, Lars Hansen, among others.

posted by William A. Barnett | 3:30 PM | 0 comments

ISBN and Price


Here are the ISBNs and prices. Bookstores are already ordering thousands of copies, but the books will not be delivered until late December 2006 to bookstores in the US (late November 2006 in the UK). People in the press can get advance copies, but that is another matter. The information needed to order copies is:
  • Hardcover (ISBN 1405157151): $74.95 in US and Canada
  • Paperback (ISBN 1405159170): $29.95 in US and Canada
The book now is online in Blackwell's web site. The book can be purchased directly from Blackwell, and its site is much more informative about the book than those of the other sources.
But the book can be purchased in the US, often at better prices, at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, and Borders Books. For example, Barnes & Noble is pricing the paperback at $23.96 to nonmembers and $21.56 to members and the hardcover at $63.96 to members. Amazon currently is offering the paperback for $19.77.

In the UK or continental Europe, some good choices for purchase would include Amazon.co.uk, Waterstone, Blackwell Bookshops, Jungle.ie, and The Good Book Guide in the UK; Amazon.fr in France; Marcial Pons in Spain; Chapters in Canada; Publicacoes Tecnicas Internacionais sob Demanda in Brazil, and Studia in Norway. A particularly good choice is Brown Books in Scotland, since Brown Books donates all profits to charity. A collection and comparison of sources for the hardcover and the paperback is at Bookstores.com.

posted by William A. Barnett | 10:35 AM | 0 comments