Realeconomik: The Hidden Cause of the Great Recession

by Grigory Yavlinsky, Antonina W. Bouis

This book directly confronts uncomfortable questions that many prefer to brush if economists and other scholars, politicians, and business professionals understand the causes of economic crises, as they claim, then why do such damaging crises continue to occur? Can we trust business and intellectual elites who advocate the principles of Realpolitik and claim the "public good" as their priority, yet consistently favor maximization of profit over ethical issues?

Former deputy prime minister of Russia Grigory Yavlinsky, an internationally respected free-market economist, makes a powerful case that the often-cited causes of global economic instability--institutional failings, wrong decisions by regulators, insufficient or incorrect information, and the like--are only secondary to a far more significant underlying the failure to understand that universal social norms are essential to thriving businesses and social and economic progress. Yavlinsky explores the widespread disregard for moral values in business decisions and calls for restoration of principled behavior in politics and economic practices. The unwelcome alternative, he warns, will be a twenty-first-century global economy in the grip of unending crises.

Genres: Economics

192 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 29, 2011

About the author

Grigory Yavlinsky (born 10 April 1952) is a Russian economist and politician.

He is best known as the author of the 500 Days Programme, a plan for the transition of the USSR to a free-market economy, and for his leadership of the social-liberal Yabloko party. He ran three times for Russia's presidency – in 1996, against Boris Yeltsin, finishing fourth; and in 2000 and 2018 against Vladimir Putin, finishing third and fourth respectively. In 2012 presidential election he was prevented from running for president by Russian authorities, despite collecting 2 million signatures of Russian citizens for his candidacy, as was demanded by law.

Yavlinsky holds a Ph.D. in economics from the Central Economic Mathematical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences; his doctoral dissertation was entitled "The socio-economic system of Russia and the problem of its modernization." He is a professor in the National Research University Higher School of Economics. Yavlinsky speaks Russian, Ukrainian and English. In 1967 and 1968, he was the champion of the Ukrainian SSR in junior boxing.

Yavlinsky remains a prominent critic of Putin and his goverment. After the presidential elections in 2018 won by Putin Yavlinsky said: "The plebiscite of love for the leader does not imply a change. Everything will remain as it was: poverty, corruption, backwardness, war, lies and disrespect... Therefore, virtually everyone lost, including those who voted for Putin, and those who sat at home, but the absolute minority won, which all these years has been parasitising on Putin's system".

Reviews

[James Yu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good. In short, Yavlinsky argues that modern “financial capitalism” needs more than just regulation - the entire political and economic system needs to place greater emphasis on the role of public morality and public interest beyond a pure profit focus. He also explains that morality is, despite arguments to the contrary, intrinsic in all economic transactions - from upholding contracts to consumer behaviour. Nevertheless, the thesis is not entirely unique nor convincing - a reorientation of the economic system towards public interest has been argued for over and over.

One interesting point: Yavlinsky argues the growth of massive businesses that have the capacity to engineer and create consumer demand has reshaped the foundations of modern economics. He may very well be accurate on suggesting that, instead of consumers seeking to satisfy wants and needs, consumers now seek to fulfil social ambitions or engineered wants.

In short, he may have predicted the rise of Labubus. Hence the 4 star rating.

[Olga Radayeva · Rating 5 out of 5]

!!!
I recommend it to all who are interested in economics. The book deals with the nature of economic crises, why they emerge and how to avert them.