Peter Temin (1937–2025)

Same story I’ve been reading for a while, with a different take framed by a political economy theory usually used to explain the functioning of poor, nondemocratic countries—as we are rapidly approaching in the US. While the US had a large middle class for a long time, it increasingly looks like a lopsided hourglass—20% of the population with good jobs and prospects for the future, and another 80% without, and no real chance of moving up. The top tier has good schools and health care, show more but works hard to keep the bottom tier in place—low wages for service jobs make the rich richer. Mass incarceration, housing segregation and disenfranchisement contribute to the bottom tier’s inability to fight back politically or rise individually, unless they have basically twenty years of good luck in which they get a good education and nothing bad happens to them or their immediate family. show less

A fascinating attempt by a leading economic historian to work through a new area--ancient economic history--and to explain the concepts and tools of economics to ancient historians. The limits of the book are not Peter Temin's fault, but the fact that we have so little in the way of economic facts and data to go on--especially as compared to the rich political histories we have for Ancient Rome. But this sparsity almost makes the puzzle more interesting. One chapter, for example, is based on show more a regression analysis of the complete data set of Roman wheat prices--all six prices that we know of. Yup, six data points over several centuries from around the Mediterranean. Attempts to make inferences about growth depend on even sparser data, or else indirect links like the number of shipwrecks discovered or the number of pottery shards.

Through all of this, Temin has a number of specific arguments that he makes in a compelling manner:

--Rome was a market economy (unlike medieval/feudal economies), in that prices were set by markets, allowed to fluctuate, and integrated across markets. This was true not just for commodities like wheat, but also for labor (Temin has an extensive discussion about why Roman slavery does not violate this analysis, in part because he argues it was effectively much more benign than just about any other slavery in any other civilization) and financial products.

--Rome at least temporarily escaped the Malthusian trap, having sustained growth (at pre-industrial revolution rates) and incomes well above subsistence, and not just for the elites.

--The Roman economy can be understood using the same tools/procedures we use for modern economies. show less

The themes in this book are becoming well worn territory in progressive social theory and as such I didn't think there'd be much to learn. Still, the way Temin's analysis interlocks increasingly pernicious policies relating to wealth, education, housing, political influence, voting rights, incarceration, drugs and race makes the challenge seem monolithic and terrifying.
It's especially frustrating to see how discrimination designed to target African Americans has been, almost show more unintentionally, adapted to target economically disadvantaged groups of all ethnic backgrounds.
My only reservations with this book stem from Temin's occasional Sanders-esque tub-thumping -as if the facts weren't grotesque enough to speak for themselves- and -thanks to the very wide number of issues covered- a narrative that tends to leap wildly from topic to topic especially in the early chapters.
It is more than slightly ironic that I was given this book for free, through my Amazon membership. show less

This books puts current worldwide economic issues in the proper historical perspective. The history makes the argument for cooperation more interesting and compelling. No matter what your political views, the authors have created an insightful read. Their prescription for the economy is nothing revolutionary; however, the way they synthesized so much history and economic thought into a short book is something new.

My biggest complaint about the book is its title. If I didn't know of Peter show more Temin, I would have thought this was another worthless economics text on "the crisis". Immodest titles seem to be popular these days. The title makes it sound as if the solution is simpleminded. In fact, the reader gains a strong appreciation for how hard it is to combine domestic politics, international relations, and economic matters in today's global world. I gained a new appreciation beyond liberal and conservative talking heads that was refreshing.

If I had to read only one book on the Euro crisis, I would choose this one. show less