Matthew P. Drennan – författare

The first book-length treatment to conclusively demonstrate the link between income inequality and the 2008 financial crisis and Great Recession  Prevailing economic theory attributes the 2008 crash and the Great Recession that followed to low interest rates, relaxed borrowing standards, and the housing price bubble. After careful analyses of statistical evidence, however, Matthew Drennan discovered that income inequality was the decisive factor behind the crisis. Pressured to keep up consumption in the face of flat or declining incomes, Americans leveraged their home equity to take on excessive debt. The collapse of the housing market left this debt unsupported, causing a domino effect throughout the economy. Drennan also found startling similarities in consumer behavior in the years leading to both the Great Depression and the Great Recession.  Offering an economic explanation of a phenomenon described by prominent observers including Thomas Piketty, Jacob Hacker, Robert Kuttner, Paul Krugman, and Joseph Stiglitz, Drennan’s evenhanded analysis disproves dominant theories of consumption and draws much-needed attention to the persisting problem of income inequality.

How can metropolitan regions remain prosperous and competitive in a rapidly changing economy? Challenging some long-standing assumptions, Matthew Drennan argues that those regions that have invested heavily in the information economy have done much better than those that continue to rely on manufacturing and industry as their base. Moreover, he contends, the benefits of that growth reach the urban working poor, earlier reports to the contrary notwithstanding. The Information Economy and American Cities provides a wealth of rigorously analyzed econometric data which will be of great value to economists, planners, and policymakers concerned with the future of America's metropolitan areas. Additional supporting data will be made available online. Not just another glib cheer for the information economy, this book provides the kind of hard evidence needed to advocate effectively for change.