Robert Pollin of Monthly Review described How Markets Fail as "a work of considerable scope, offering fresh perspectives on a wide range of topics". He said the first two sections summarizing freshwater and saltwater economics "are not dry and intimidating [...] Cassidy’s writing in these chapters is clear and lively." Pollin also credited Cassidy as "the first widely read commentator to give the great financial macroeconomist Hyman Minsky and [...] Monthly Review founding coeditor Paul Sweezy their due, as two of a tiny handful of people who recognized and warned about the patterns". However, Pollin also says the journalist "never focuses seriously on how we might translate the insights of reality-based economics into a workable set of policies and institutions".
