Demonstrates how ideas in economics have shaped business decisions and models, as well as government policies. Discusses the pace of future innovation, how economists think about the world, and the role and importance of markets and their limits.

Overview -- Informed public economic policy -- The lessons of history -- Current issues and problems -- Evaluation as a framework for management -- Administration of research, information, and policy analysis -- Organization and placement

1. The problems at hand -- 2. The money question -- 3. On firm ground -- 4. Economists and the search for industrial order -- 5. Obscured irrelevance : economists in the boom years -- 6. Stuck in the middle : economists, agricultural reform, and crisis.