Growing Prosperity: The Battle for Growth with Equity in the Twenty-first Century

Rating:
Summary: Throwing light on technological long waves.
Review: Using historical data on the rate of increase of productivity, these authors build a convincing case that the United States is near the beginning of an economic boom based on information technlogy. They go well beyond most economists in explaining the nature of economic long waves (also called Kondratieff waves). They then explain in depth how current government economic policies are misdirected in terms of maximizing this pattern of economic growth.

Rating:
Summary: Throwing light on technological long waves.
Review: Using historical data on the rate of increase of productivity, these authors build a convincing case that the United States is near the beginning of an economic boom based on information technlogy. They go well beyond most economists in explaining the nature of economic long waves (also called Kondratieff waves). They then explain in depth how current government economic policies are misdirected in terms of maximizing this pattern of economic growth.

Rating:
Summary: A New Model for Economic Growth
Review: We've all heard about the great economic miracle of the past twenty years. What we haven't heard, though, is that the rate of growth has significantly slowed from pre-1973 levels. This book explains why, and shows that we may be able to achieve high growth rates again. The authors criticize the "Wall Street Model" of growth, which stresses low inflation and enhanced savings. This model, they say, leads to increased inequality and slower growth. The authors present an alternative "Main Street Model" which instead stresses technological innovation as the main driver of growth. The keys to increasing technological innovation are public investments in R&D and infrastructure, as well as increasing demand through higher minimum wages and a stronger role for unions. This book coherently presents this new model of growth and explains why the Wall Street model is flawed. This book has an unashamedly left-wing bias and some people may be put off by the more opinionated parts of this book. I found myself wishing the authors would stick to facts instead of shoving ideas in your face that can't be backed up. In one part of the book the authors discuss the "neoclassical growth syllogism" and try to show how flawed it is. To do this, they examine each premise of the syllogism and assign a seemingly arbitrary percentage describing how true the premise is. You just can't do that. If you give me a number, you better be able to support it with facts or else you're wasting my time. These authors are probably well educated and they should know better than to whimsically pull numbers out of their [fundaments.]