New Schumpeter Book

In the tradition of the Reader’s Digest condensation of F.A. Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom, Joseph Schumpeter’s Can Capitalism Survive? Creative Destruction and the Future of the Global Economy is coming out on September 1.

Can Capitalism Survive? is a condensation of Schumpeter’s 431-page masterwork of 1942, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. The timing couldn’t be better. With economic crisis and recession dominating the news, people are as interested in the topic as ever. The trouble is, they don’t understand it very well. This book should help.

In this age of bailouts and cash-for-clunkers, Schumpeter’s theory of creative destruction is crucial for understanding why some policies will work and others will fail.

Putting Schumpeter’s ideas in a more accessible format does not dilute them, as some ivory tower types will no doubt allege. It increases their impact. Economic literacy is a good thing. The economic way of thinking badly needs to be popularized. May many more distillations of major economic works follow this one.