Seeds of Destruction: Why the Path to Economic Ruin Runs Through Washington, and How to Reclaim American Prosperity
- By R. Glenn Hubbard, Peter Navarro
- Published Aug 13, 2010 by FT Press.
- Copyright 2011
- Dimensions: 5-3/8 X 8-1/4
- Pages: 288
- Edition: 1st
- Book
- ISBN-10: 0-13-702773-7
- ISBN-13: 978-0-13-702773-6
- eBook (Watermarked)
- ISBN-10: 0-13-237130-8
- ISBN-13: 978-0-13-237130-8
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Product Author Bios
R. Glenn Hubbard, (NYC) Dean of Columbia Business School, served as deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury Department for Tax Policy from 1991 to 1993. From February 2001 until March 2003, he chaired the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers and the OECD's Economic Policy Committee. His commentaries appear frequently in Business Week, The Wall Street Journal, and Financial Times. Peter Navarro (Irvine, CA), is business professor at UC-Irvine, a widely sought-after speaker, is now a regular CNBC contributor. He has appeared frequently on Bloomberg TV and radio, CNN, and NPR. His most recent book is Always a Winner.
If you think the current administration is mismanaging the economy straight towards disaster, you're not alone: so do two top economists from both sides of the political aisle. In Seeds of Destruction, former Bush chief White House economist R. Glenn Hubbard and well-known CNBC commentator Peter Navarro explain why current economic policy is a catastrophic failure. Then, they offer a comprehensive, bipartisan blueprint for reversing the decline of America's currency, manufacturing base, and standard of living - setting the stage for the epic policy debates that will precede the 2010 elections. Hubbard and Navarro begin with a "checklist" of what it takes to be a prosperous, democratic nation - and show why Obama's policies (some of Bush's also) fail on every level. They explain why the activist Federal Reserve and Obama fiscal stimulus policies are doing far more harm than good... why we must restore the U.S. manufacturing base, whatever China says about it... how to transform tax policy into an engine of growth and innovation... how to apply the "tough love" needed to save Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid... why America must resign the job of world policeman... how market-based solutions can finally deliver real energy independence... how to reform our antique financial regulatory system without imposing heavy-handed rules that cause even more trouble.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Finally!, By
This review is from: Seeds of Destruction: Why the Path to Economic Ruin Runs Through Washington, and How to Reclaim American Prosperity (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Finally, we have a book that provides a good guide for the rebuilding of the American Economy. Most books focusing on economic growth assume that economy will recover as long as we have four conditions:Republicans stress 1. Low tax rates to stimulate investment. 2. Little or no regulation of business activity. Democrats focus on 1. Government spending to boost consumer confidence and thereby encourage consumers to spend money. 2. Increase business regulation either to increase opportunity and fairness or to increase the power of Washington D.C. Are either of these prescriptions accurate? The turbulent last decade has been in a way a great laboratory to test economic theories. Early in the decade Republicans received their chance to prove that low tax rates and reduced business regulations would lead to superior economic growth. Democrats now have had two years to prove that massive government... Read more
26 of 35 people found the following review helpful
Sowing Seeds of Stagnation - a critique and explanation of Obama's Economic Policies, By
This review is from: Seeds of Destruction: Why the Path to Economic Ruin Runs Through Washington, and How to Reclaim American Prosperity (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Two Harvard educated economists explain why they don't like Obama's economic policies. The book also explains some basic economics. It starts by defining GDP and the levers of growth for the US Economy - free trade, entrepreneurship, savings, bank stability, innovation, human capital, independence from oil, healthy populace, manufacturing. Whereas manufacturing is a lever, I'm not convinced it's an essential lever in a knowledge-based, services-based economy. Whereas manufacturing CEOs are well-paid, the thesis that manufacturing jobs enjoy a "wage premium" may have been true in the past, but in the future knowledge-based jobs may generate higher salaries.The book has a clear description of problems with the Fed's easy money policies and a critique of government stimulus programs. The book claims that short term stimulus programs make long term structural economic problems, but if the situation is dire, a quick fix can help people - although I agree with the authors that... Read more
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful
An informative, mostly non-partisan approach to describe how Washington is fouling up the economy for (almost) everyone., By Narut Ujnat "No time to wallow in the mire." (Stationary, otherwise moving around.) - See all my reviews 
This review is from: Seeds of Destruction: Why the Path to Economic Ruin Runs Through Washington, and How to Reclaim American Prosperity (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
There can be no doubt that this nation is going through a period of genuflecting about how to deal with the economic crisis that began hitting our shores in 2007. Certainly, most observers would state that this economic turn-down is not merely just a recession, but perhaps something ominous and more complex than the end of the business cycle.In this vein, I was interested in reading what arguments these two authors had in resolving the question as to whether Washington is doing the types of things to resolve this crisis in a meaningful way or not. This book takes a breif survey of the American economy through the prism of the Washington blender and argues that the resulting `mash-up' is not only disgusting looking, but even more awful to drink. I believe the best encapsulation of this book is the argument that good politics is triumphing over sound economic principles. Beyond the blather of political party campaigns are the principles of sound economics that... Read more |
Online Sample Chapter
America's Four Growth Drivers Stall and Our Economy Stagnates
Table of Contents
Foreword . . . xii
About the Authors . . . xviii
Introduction: The White House Plants Its Seeds of Destruction . . . 1
Part I Getting from Seeds of Destruction to Seeds of Prosperity . . . 7
Chapter 1 America’s Four Growth Drivers Stall and Our Economy Stagnates . . . 9
The GDP Growth Drivers Equation . . . 11
GDP Growth Has Been Well Below Potential Growth . . . 12
The American Consumer’s Roller Coaster . . . 15
Where Has All the Business Investment Gone?. . . 19
There’s Too Much Government Spending . . . 21
Net Exports Are a Net Negative . . . 25
Conclusion . . . 27
Chapter 2 How to Lift the American Economy with the Ten Levers of Growth . . . 29
Lever One: Free Markets Free of Corruption and Monopoly Best Promote Growth . . . 29
Lever Two: Free and Fair Trade Helps All Countries Grow . . . 31
Lever Three: Entrepreneurship Is the Linchpin of Long-Term Growth . . . 33
Lever Four: Without Savings, There Can Be No Investment and Growth . . . 34
Lever Five: Without a Stable Banking System and Strong Financial Markets, Savings Can’t Be Transformed into Investment . . . 35
Lever Six: Innovation and Technological Change Matter More Than Machines and Workers . . . 36
Lever Seven: “Human Capital” Matters as Much as Physical Capital . . . 38
Lever Eight: Oil Price Shocks Stunt the Growth of Oil-Import-Dependent Nations . . . 39
Lever Nine: A Healthy Nation Is a Productive and Prosperous Nation . . . 40
Lever Ten: A Solid Manufacturing Base Makes for a Strong Economy . . . 41
Part II Fixing America’s Destructive Duo: Monetary and Fiscal Policy . . . 47
Chapter 3 Why an Easy-Money Street Is a Dead End . . . 49
The Return of Fed Activism . . . 52
The Maestro or a Bubble Maker? . . . 53
President Obama Crosses the Activist Rubicon . . . 54
The Road to American Prosperity Cannot Be Paved with a Cheap Dollar . . . 57
Where Have You Gone, William McChesney Martin? . . . 60
Chapter 4 Why You Can’t Stimulate Your Way to Prosperity . . . 63
From John Maynard Keynes to the Kennedy Tax Cut Revolution . . . 66
Part III Getting the “Big Three” Right: Tax, Trade, and Energy Policy . . . 83
Chapter 5 Why Raising Taxes Lowers America’s Growth Rate . . . 85
Ideological Gridlock Over Broad-based Tax Reform . . . 88
From a “Class Tax” to a “Mass Tax” . . . 91
From Double Taxation to Double Whammies . . . 93
Income Tax Evolution or Consumption Tax Revolution? . . . 95
Meeting on the Middle Ground . . . 97
Chapter 6 Why the Best “Jobs Program” May Be Trade Reform . . . 101
The 2000s: A Decade of Large and Chronic Trade Deficits . . . 103
America’s Trade Deficits Cause Inflation and Loss of Political Sovereignty. . . 104
The World’s Poster Child for the Modern Protectionist-Mercantilist State . . . 104
China’s Great Wall of Protectionism . . . 106
China’s Eighteenth Century Mercantilism . . . 111
Chapter 7 Why America’s Foreign Oil Addiction Stunts Our Growth . . . 125
How Does America’s Oil Import Addiction Harm Our Economy? Let Us Count the Ways . . . 128
Risky Business . . . 130
Moving Toward Forging a Political Consensus on Reducing Oil Import Dependency. . . 132
The Smart Path Embraces Both Soft- and Hard-Path Options . . . 133
The Folly of Energy Independence Redux . . . 136
Achieving a Targeted Reduction in Oil Dependence . . . 137
Why This Proposal Has Economic and Political Merit . . . 140
The Thorny Politics of Oil Import Fees . . . 142
Part IV Good Politics Usually Makes for Bad Economics . . . 147
Chapter 8 Cutting the Gordian Knot of Entitlements . . . 149
The Imperative of an Economic Rather Than Accounting Solution . . . 151
Why Social Security Is Easier to Fix Than Medicare and Medicaid . . . 153
Saving Social Security in Two Easy Pieces . . . 154
Closing the Social Security Spending Gap: What Won’t Work . . . 158
Closing the Social Security Spending Gap: What Can Work . . . 161
Forging a Political Consensus . . . 165
Saving Medicare and Medicaid: Mission Impossible? . . . 167
A Flexible and Focused Way Forward . . . 168
Chapter 9 Why ObamaCare Makes Our Economy Sick . . . 173
The Big Health Care Picture . . . 174
Are We Getting What We Are Paying For? . . . 176
ObamaCare Puts the Coverage Cart Before the Cost Horse . . . 178
ObamaCare Provides a Far-Too-Sweet Entitlement . . . 180
Truth or Consequences . . . 181
ObamaCare and the Law of Unintended Consequences . . . 183
Toward a More Market-Driven Health Care System . . . 184
What Can Be Done? . . . 191
Conclusion. . . . 192
Part V The American Economy at a Crossroads . . . 197
Chapter 10 How to Prevent Another Financial Crisis–and Housing Bubble. . . 199
#1: Easy Money . . . 201
#2: Not Enough “Skin in the Game” for American Home Buyers . . . 202
#3: Not Enough “Skin in the Game” for Mortgage Lenders . . . 203
#4: Way-Too-Exotic Mortgages for Borrowers . . . 205
#5: The Mortgage-Backed Securities Meltdown . . . 208
#6: The Collateralized Debt Obligations Credit Rating Debacle . . . 211
#7: A Flawed Insurance Market: Credit Default Swaps . . . 213
#8: Inflexible Bank Capital . . . 216
#9: Too Big to Fail: Last Rites for Financial Dinosaurs . . . 218
#10: A Fragmented and Sectoral Model of Regulation . . . 219
#11: Subsidies for Nonproductive Investment, Taxes for Productive Investment . . . 221
The New Law as the End of the Beginning . . . 222
Chapter 11 How to Implement Our Seeds of Prosperity Policy Blueprint . . . 229
Our Seeds of Destruction Problem . . . 230
Our Seeds of Prosperity Solution . . . 231
Conclusion . . . 248
Index . . . 251
Additional Bonus Material for eVersion Only:
An Interview with Glenn Hubbard About His Time in the White House . . . 269
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