This book exists because of a collaboration that extends well beyond the two authors named on its cover. It grew out of conversations with our editor, Erroll McDonald, and our agent, Rafe Sagalyn, early in 2011. They encouraged us to take on this wide-ranging project and have once again helped guide it to completion. In addition to Erroll, many other people at Pantheon, the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, and Random House, Inc., have had a hand in turning our thoughts into words on paper: Brian Barth, Kristen Bearse, Fred Chase, Altie Karper, Lisa Montebello, and no doubt others we have overlooked.
Many people helped us develop and research the ideas that are contained in this book. Daron Acemoglu, Anat Admati, Michael Ash, Anders Åslund, Bruce Bartlett, Donna Behmer, Peter Berezin, Fred Bergsten, Peter Boone, Jim Boughton, Jon Brody, Bill Cline, Gail Cohen, Jeff Connaughton, Carlo Cottarelli, Mark Cymrot, Mac Destler, Thomas Ferguson, Joe Gagnon, Rex Ghosh, Sarah Goff, Dan Immergluck, Olivier Jeanne, Rob Johnson, Nosup Kwak, David Laibson, Yair Listokin, David Moss, Marc Noland, Jonathan Ostry, Lee Price, Robert Ratner, Carmen Reinhart, Jim Robinson, Howard Rosen, Paul Rosenbaum, Matt Salomon, Otto Scharmer, Peter Siegelman, Alex Smith, Arvind Subramanian, Peter Temin, Poul Thomsen, Ted Truman, Ori Tzvieli, Steve Weisman, and John Williamson provided us with valuable feedback on our ideas or on drafts of different sections. Participants in seminars at the International Monetary Fund and the Peterson Institute for International Economics gave us the opportunity to discuss key themes of the book as we were setting them to paper. Rachael Brown, Hilary McClellan, and Jessica Murphy painstakingly checked the vast majority of the facts in the book. Matt Matera edited the citations in our endnotes. Rebecca Buckwalter-Poza, Laura Femino, Jason Glick, Amanda Lowry, and Ben Stern helped with last-minute proofreading. As this is largely a work of synthesis and interpretation, we owe a large debt to the many historians, economists, political scientists, journalists, and other researchers who have come before us, many of whom are cited in the endnotes.
Over the past year, we have been able to develop our arguments not only on our blog, The Baseline Scenario, but also in articles and columns in other publications. Paula Dwyer and Jim Greiff at Bloomberg View, Josh Mills and Kevin McKenna at The New York Times, Jonathan Stein and Roman Frydman at Project Syndicate, and Derek Thompson at The Atlantic made it possible for us to share our ideas with a broader audience and helped us refine our thinking and writing. Graydon Carter and Doug Stumpf gave us the valuable opportunity to outline some of our historical themes in an article in Vanity Fair. Peter Boone is a brilliant and generous coauthor on our blog and on many articles published elsewhere; his work with Simon on Europe and on global moral hazard has been particularly influential in shaping our ideas.
Simon enjoys the constant support of many people at both MIT Sloan School of Management and the Peterson Institute for International Economics, beginning with the incredibly hardworking Michelle Fiorenza. He benefited from all his interactions with MIT students, including participants in his Global Entrepreneurship class. The Sloan Fellows in the class of 2012 were more helpful than they can imagine, serving as a real-time sounding board in his International Economics and Macroeconomics class and his Global Markets class. Dave Schmittlein, Donna Behmer, Rob Freund, S. P. Kothari, and JoAnne Yates have allowed Simon the time, space, and support needed to develop research and take intellectual risks. Simon’s co-teachers, Michellana Jester and Yasheng Huang, and everyone on the incredible G-Lab team have helped make the past year possible. Fred Bergsten, head of the Peterson Institute, continues to provide a unique environment for creative thinking and discussion. Generous funding from the Smith-Richardson Foundation and from Sir Evelyn and Lady Lynn de Rothschild through the ERANDA Foundation was again of great help, as was support on related projects from the Ford Foundation and the Institute for New Economic Thinking. Among Simon’s colleagues at Peterson, Arvind Subramanian and Steve Weisman again deserve special thanks for their encouragement and willingness to share ideas; Fred Bergsten came through with particularly helpful comments at a crucial time. At MIT, Daron Acemoglu and Richard Locke are long-term co-thinkers; their influence is present even when they are not aware of it.
James was able to devote time to this book thanks to the flexibility and support of Jeremy Paul of the University of Connecticut School of Law. Lucian Bebchuk graciously gave him an institutional home at the Harvard Law School Program on Corporate Governance.
As always, we are deeply grateful for the love and support of our families. Simon thanks his parents, Ian and Cedar Johnson, and his brother, Richard Johnson, for always encouraging him to reach higher; his wife, Mary Kwak, for her love, wisdom, and patience; and his daughters, Celia and Lucie, for their unfailing good cheer and for running to greet him when he comes through the door. James thanks his parents, Nosup Kwak and Inkyung Liu, and his sister, Mary Kwak, for always supporting and encouraging him throughout his many careers; Ed and Faydine Brandt, for helping make law school and this book possible; his wife, Sylvia Brandt, for being a wonderful friend, companion, and adviser; and his daughter, Willow, for lighting up every day with her smile. Celia and Lucie thank Willow for a great vacation in Florida. Celia still thinks the book should have been called Who Stole the Budget?