## Book Review: Angrynomics by Eric Lonergan and Mark Blyth – IMF F&D

## Source details

**Canonical URL:** [Book Review: Angrynomics by Eric Lonergan and Mark Blyth – IMF F&D](https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2020/09/book-review-angrynomics-lonergan-and-blyth)

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## Bibliographic details
- Authors: ANTONIO SPILIMBERGO
- Published: September 1, 2020

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### Review overview and purpose
- Reviewer: ANTONIO SPILIMBERGO, deputy director, IMF Research Department.
- Framing: Angrynomics is structured around three interrelated topics: a history of capitalism over the past 150 years, an analysis of the current discontent (the anger), and a set of proposals for the future.
- Audience: Designed for the broader public but grounded in academic research across economics, history, psychiatry, and philosophy.

### Diagnosis of the problem ("the anger")
- Distinction between types of public anger:
  - Good anger: moral indignation against societal violators.
  - Bad anger: irrational, tribal energy manipulated for political ends by populist politicians.
- Authors’ assessment: recent public anger has been (mostly) good, driven by:
  - wage stagnation
  - inequality
  - asset bubbles
  - biased responses to the global financial crisis a decade ago
- Relevance to COVID-19: although written before the global pandemic, the book provides a framework to analyze COVID-19’s effects, which have further inflated micro stressors on top of macro challenges.

### Historical and systemic analysis
- System metaphor: capitalism likened to a repeatedly crashing computer.
- Periodization:
  - Capitalism 1.0 (pre–Great Depression): successfully repaired by governments in the past.
  - Capitalism 2.0 (the Keynesian period): successfully repaired by governments in the past.
  - Capitalism 3.0 (our neoliberal period): according to the authors, was unable to reset after bugs crashed the system following the global financial crisis.
- Identified "software bugs" underlying systemic failure:
  - wage stagnation
  - asset bubbles
  - excessive bank leverage
  - inequality
- Critique by reviewer: the book highlights these economic failures well but could have delved deeper into the changing political economy, since outcomes reflect both the economic system and political shifts.

### Policy proposals and assessment
- Proposals presented in the book include:
  - helicopter money
  - dual interest rates
  - fiscal councils
  - raising money from licensing
  - sovereign wealth funds
  - carbon taxes
- Reviewer’s evaluation:
  - Many measures have been proposed before and carry well-known economic drawbacks.
  - The most intriguing idea: use sovereign wealth funds more aggressively by harnessing low (or negative) interest rates on public bonds to invest in the stock market.
  - Rationale for sovereign wealth funds now: the COVID-19 crisis offers an opportunity because interest rates on safe assets are even lower and stock prices are depressed.

### Overall judgment
- Angrynomics offers a useful lens to understand current political events in a broader context.
- The book is described as remarkably prescient for outlining a conceptual framework of micro and macro stressors that may help interpret the implications of the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis.

*Antonio Spilimbergo, IMF Research Department — Opinions expressed in articles and other materials are those of the authors; they do not necessarily reflect IMF policy.*

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## Content in this bundle

- **Book Review: Angrynomics by Eric Lonergan and Mark Blyth – IMF F&D**
  - [Book Review: Angrynomics by Eric Lonergan and Mark Blyth – IMF F&D (Markdown version)](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2020/september/book-review-angrynomics-lonergan-and-blyth.pdf.md){rel="alternate" type="text/markdown"}
  - [Book Review: Angrynomics by Eric Lonergan and Mark Blyth – IMF F&D (PDF)](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2020/september/book-review-angrynomics-lonergan-and-blyth.pdf){rel="external" type="application/pdf"}
- **Country Report**
  - [Country Report (Markdown version)](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2020/september/es/critica-libro-angrynomics-lonergan-y-blyth.pdf.md){rel="alternate" type="text/markdown"}
  - [Country Report (PDF)](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2020/september/es/critica-libro-angrynomics-lonergan-y-blyth.pdf){rel="external" type="application/pdf"}
- **Notes de lecture**
  - [Notes de lecture (Markdown version)](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2020/september/fr/note-de-lecture-angrynomics-lonergan-et-blyth.pdf.md){rel="alternate" type="text/markdown"}
  - [Notes de lecture (PDF)](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2020/september/fr/note-de-lecture-angrynomics-lonergan-et-blyth.pdf){rel="external" type="application/pdf"}

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2020/09/book-review-angrynomics-lonergan-and-blyth_