"Debacle"
March 06, 2012
Debacle: Obama's War on Jobs and Growth and What We Can Do Now to Regain Our Future by Grover Norquist and my graduate school classmate, John Lott, is now available. I recommend it.
I think the most important part of the book is "So Now What Do We Do?" The answer is simple: ". . . spend less, tax less, borrow less, and regulate less". But, of course, the devil is in the details. They provide some. The whole discussion is interesting and useful, but one recommendation I'd particularly love the GOP to adopt is "Keep the focus on spending, not the deficit". Milton Friedman argued vigorously for this and it's advice well worth taking.
Some other reasons to read the book:
--A non-technical but short and effective critique of the infamous Keynesian multiplier.
--An interesting review of where, exactly, the stimulus money went. (To the worst-off areas of the country? Don't be naive.)
--A comparison that I, at least, haven't seen anywhere else of how unemployment in the U.S. changed following passage of the stimulus in February 2009 with how unemployment changed in other leading economies.
--A remarkable table in chapter 4 titled "Per Capita Government Expenditures after Accounting for Price Differences tor the Top 50 Countries, 2009". Where do you think the U.S. ranks? Go ahead, guess.
Finally, a disclosure: while I think the book is well worth its price--$15 on Kindle, $18 in hardback--I didn't pay for my copy. John sent me a copy of the proofs. Go ahead, government busybodies, put me on the list of unduly influenced bloggers! :-)