This interview was originally broadcast in May, 2017.
The decades after World War II were a golden age when many people around the world enjoyed an increasingly good quality of life. But by the early 1970s, the good times had all but vanished as energy shortages, financial crises and rising unemployment shook economies in America and around the world.
In his book, titled An Extraordinary Time, Marc Levinson describes how economists and governments struggled to find the pathway back to a time when jobs were plentiful and living standards improved year after year. But they were unable to do so. Decades later, we can only look back to a post-war prosperity that Mr. Levinson suggests may never return.
Marc Levinson is the former finance and economics editor for The Economist and the author of six books. He was a guest on our show in 2015 to discuss his work The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America.
An Extraordinary Time is now out in paperback.
