In 'Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City,' Matthew Desmond provides a detailed and compassionate look at the lives of eight families in Milwaukee who are struggling to maintain stable housing. The book explores the intersection of poverty, housing, and profit in the United States, highlighting the systemic issues that contribute to eviction and its consequences on families and communities.
In 'Poverty, by America', Matthew Desmond uses history, research, and original reporting to expose how affluent Americans, both knowingly and unknowingly, contribute to the persistence of poverty. The book details how corporate and governmental policies exploit the poor, driving down wages and forcing them to overpay for essential services like housing, cash, and credit. Desmond argues that the root of poverty lies not in the behavior of poor people but in the systemic exploitation by the wealthy. He also emphasizes the intersection of race and poverty, particularly affecting Black Americans, and calls for readers to become 'poverty abolitionists' to build a more economically just society[1][3][4].
In this fully revised and updated second edition, Jacob S. Hacker exposes the hidden story of growing economic insecurity in the United States. He demonstrates how the safety net has been unraveling, shifting economic risk from government and business to American families. The book covers risky jobs, families, retirement, and health care, and argues that this shift is driven by the 'Personal Responsibility Crusade' embraced by corporate leaders and conservative politicians. Hacker blends powerful human stories, big-picture analysis, and compelling ideas for reform to address this harsh new world of economic insecurity.
Misery beneath the Miracle in East Asia (Cornell University Press, 2024) challenges prevailing views of the East Asian economic miracle. Existing scholarship has overlooked the severity, persistence, and harmful consequences of the social-welfare crises affecting the region. Dr. Arvid J. Lukauskas and Dr. Yumiko Shimabukuro fill this gap and put a major asterisk on East Asia's economic record.
Combining big-picture analysis, abundant data, a dynamic interdisciplinary framework, and powerful human stories, they shed light on the social ills that governments have failed to address adequately, including low wages, child abuse, elderly poverty, and substandard housing. One of the major forces behind the multidimensional welfare crises is the region's productivist welfare strategy, which prioritizes economic growth while abandoning a robust social safety net, leaving the most vulnerable segments of society largely unprotected.
Misery beneath the Miracle in East Asia brings the region into debates over the dangers of seeking growth at all costs that are currently embroiling the United States and other advanced industrialized countries.
This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose new book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars.
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New Books in Economics 
