A Primer on the National Debt
Simon Johnson and James Kwak. White Housing Burning: The Founding Fathers, Our National Debt, and Why It Matters To You. Pantheon Books, 2012, pp. 352, $26.95 The two constants in the upcoming 2012 general election likely will be an inordinate amount of negative campaigning and vigorous disagreement about how to best foster economic growth. Implicit [...]
Government versus Markets: The Changing Economic Role of the State. Vito Tanzi. Cambridge University Press, 2011, pp. 376, $35.00 If the past is any guide to the present, many voters in the 2012 presidential primaries, as well as in the general election, will make their choices based upon the personalities of the candidates. While unfortunate, [...]
Borrowing Our Way into Debt
Lost Decades: The Making of America’s Debt Crisis and the Long Recovery. Menzie D. Chinn and Jeffry A. Frieden. W.W. Norton & Company 2011, pp.284, $26.95 The United States is facing a debt crisis that will shape not only American politics, but also American culture for decades to come. Those policymakers tasked with solving this [...]
Rethinking Economic Competition
The Darwin Economy: Liberty, Competition, and the Common Good. Robert H. Frank. Princeton University Press 2011, pp.240, $26.95 Following the financial crisis of 2008 and the subsequent automobile and bank bailouts, which solidified already-increasing ties between the federal government and the private sector, intellectual interest in free market economics has increased. This is particularly true [...]