Palley, Thomas I. 1956-

PERSONAL:

Born 1956. Education: Oxford University, B.A.; Yale University, M.A., Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

Home and office—1900 Lamont St. NW, #403, Washington, DC 20010. E-mail—mail@thomaspalley.com.

CAREER:

Economist and writer. AFL-CIO, former assistant director of public policy; Open Society Institute, former director of Globalization Reform Project; U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, former chief economist; Economics for Democratic & Open Societies, founder.

WRITINGS:

Post Keynesian Economics: Debt, Distribution, and the Macro Economy, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1996.

Plenty of Nothing: The Downsizing of the American Dream and the Case for Structural Keynesianism, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1998.

Contributor to academic journals and periodicals, including the Atlantic Monthly, American Prospect, and Nation.

SIDELIGHTS:

Thomas I. Palley is an economist whose first book, Post Keynesian Economics: Debt, Distribution, and the Macro Economy, focuses on macroeconomics. "He attempts a comprehensive formalization of Post Keynesian theory, in marginalist terms, partly with the aim of communicating with mainstream economists and convincing them that Post Keynesians do have an intellectually coherent alternative theory," wrote David Dequech in the Journal of Economic Issues. Dequech also noted: "This is a good book and deserves wide readership."

In his next book, Plenty of Nothing: The Downsizing of the American Dream and the Case for Structural Keynesianism, Palley compares past and present aspects of the U.S. economy and explores why, in his opinion, the rich seem to be getting richer while the middle class shrinks and the poor get poorer. Palley, a former economist for the AFL-CIO labor union, is especially critical about how workers have fared in the U.S. economy over the last three decades of the twentieth century and discusses what he sees as the mistaken philosophy of minimal government interference in economic matters. Review of Social Economy contributor William M. Dugger commented that Palley "has written an important book in a clear and persuasive style." Dugger went on to write: "He understands the economic plight of working American families. He explains what caused that plight and what can be done about it." Robert L. Balliot, Jr., writing in the Library Journal, noted that Plenty of Nothing "warrants a place on the shelves beside other master works of economic theory."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Foreign Affairs, July-August, 1998, Richard N. Cooper, review of Plenty of Nothing: The Downsizing of the American Dream and the Case for Structural Keynesianism, p. 124.

Journal of Economic Issues, September, 1997, David Dequech, review of Post Keynesian Economics: Debt, Distribution, and the Macro Economy, p. 872.

Library Journal, April 15, 1998, Robert L. Balliot, Jr., review of Plenty of Nothing, p. 92.

New Statesman, June 19, 1998, John Carlin, review of Plenty of Nothing, p. 45.

Review of Social Economy, June, 2000, William M. Dugger, review of Plenty of Nothing, p. 241.

Theological Studies, June, 1999, Richard C. Bayer, review of Plenty of Nothing, p. 396.

ONLINE

Thomas Palley Web log,http://www.thomaspalley.com (November 8, 2006).