Shortly after its publication,
Newsweek called it "the best primer around on recent U.S. economic history." Krugman argues the rise of the
supply-side economics is produced by the inability of opposing economists to convincingly explain certain economic phenomena, such as the US productivity slowdown. One of the major themes of the book is that the difference between real
economic theory and "policy entrepreneurs", who peddle politically popular but academically wrong ideas, is as important as the polarization between the political left and right in America. Krugman describes these "policy entrepreneurs" as non-academics who promote particular intellectual positions and ideological policy prescriptions in areas where a problem is perceived to exist. The success of these so-called "policy entrepreneurs", according to Krugman's is at least partly due to the unwillingness and inability of competing economists to effectively communicate their opposing ideas in a rationally received manner; a shortcoming which Krugman's book is meant to address. A portion of the subtitle of the book refers to an earlier book by Krugman,
Age of Diminished Expectations (1990). ==References==