First Principles: Five Keys to Restoring America's Prosperity

by John B. Taylor

Overview

Leading economist John B. Taylor’s straightforward plan to rebuild America’s economic future by returning to its founding principles.

Mired in a crippling economic slump and hamstrung by partisan political debates, America faces substantial economic challenges, from widespread unemployment to the government’s ballooning debt. These assaults on our prosperity reflect the unintended consequences of more than a decade of government intervention in virtually all areas of the economy. Stanford University economist John B. Taylor proposes a natural and reasonable solution to our economic challenges: return to the country’s founding principles—limited government, rule of law, strong incentives, reliance on markets, a predictable policy framework—and rekindle its economic dynamism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393345452
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	05/28/2013
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	242
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

John B. Taylor is the Raymond Professor of Economics at Stanford University and the George Shultz Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. He was Treasury Under Secretary for International Affairs from 2001 to 2005.

Table of Contents

Preface 9

1 First Principles Work 15

2 Who Gets Us In and Out of These Messes? 50

3 Defusing the Debt Explosion 101

4 Monetary Rules Work and Discretion Doesn't 121

5 Ending Crony Capitalism as We Know It 144

6 Improving Lives While Spiking the Entitlement Explosion 166

7 Rebuilding American Economic Leadership 186

Notes 207

Index 221

What People are Saying About This

Paul Ryan

Taylor’s latest contribution could not come at a more important moment.

Editorial Reviews

A timely antidote to the gloom about the nation’s future that has overtaken too many of our intellectuals. . . . Taylor is the unusual economist who, much like Hayek, has a grasp of history and appreciates the lessons it teaches.

Washington Examiner

Taylor’s latest contribution could not come at a more important moment.

U. S. Congressman Paul Ryan

A clear and compelling call-to-action and an important reminder of the central link between economic freedom and prosperity.

Manhattan Institute

Taylor’s latest contribution could not come at a more important moment.

U.S. Congressman - Paul Ryan

"John Taylor argues persuasively for a return to the founding principles of our free society—rule of law, predictable government policies, and free markets—and shows how violation of these principles has derailed American prosperity time and again. This book sends a clear and powerful message to everyone searching for a way out of the malaise gripping the nation."

Gary Becker

"A veteran policymaker and exceptional economist, John B. Taylor gives us the guiding ideas we need to get back to prosperity without inflation, and he does so in clear, compelling, and readable prose."

George P. Shultz

Former treasury undersecretary Taylor (Economics/Stanford Univ.; Getting Off Track: How Government Actions and Interventions Caused, Prolonged, and Worsened the Financial Crisis, 2009, etc.) looks to get back to the good old days "of economic freedom upon which the country was founded." These "first principles" are merely the ones of unrestricted free trade, meaning without pesky regulation and without government intervention or interference. Wave a wand and return to that, and voilà: "we can restore America's prosperity and our confidence in the future." It's up to the worker who wants to be competitive to secure the skills and education necessary to the task, all a matter of incentives and rewards. But what if such a worker finds his or her job outsourced to Asia? To do anything in the way of protecting a job would be "interventionism," while efforts to even out some of the turbulence of the so-called free market constitute dreaded and despised "short-term Keynesian discretionary" remedies. Taylor fair-mindedly notes that Republican and Democratic presidents alike have been more interventionist than less; readers who do not remember Richard Nixon's experiments in wage-and-price freezes, for instance, may be surprised to realize how, well, socialistic they seem in today's context. And the author is surely right to point out that the flaws in the banking system were far deeper than a mere bailout could fix, adding, "The extraordinary bailout measures that began with Bear Stearns before the panic were the most harmful interventions." Yet Taylor's neolibertarian prescriptions seem more dogmatic than helpful, his attacks on health-care reform a species of I've-got-mine privilege. His befuddlement at the thought that the Chinese government might jail vendors for selling nonorganic pork as organic ("there was no safety issue") hints at a failure to connect with the world outside the pages of Ayn Rand, to say nothing of grasping the concept of truth in advertising. Save the cost of the book and listen to a speech by just about any of this year's crop of GOP candidates.

Kirkus Reviews