Archive for David L. Littmann
David L. Littmann is senior economist with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
The Harsh Truth About Public Schools
Prepare for a mind-altering experience as you take a scary but empowering read through Bruce Shortt’s book The Harsh Truth About Public Schools. The reader should not be deceived by what seems an overwhelmingly sectarian starting point in this well-organized, reader-friendly book. Shortt’s style is highly effective in convincing readers that the “public school” system [...]
18May2010 | David L. Littmann | 2 comments | ContinuedOne Nation Under Debt: Hamilton, Jefferson, and the History of What We Owe
In his latest work, One Nation Under Debt, Robert E. Wright, who has written extensively about debt and finance during the decades that marked America’s climb to economic preeminence, carefully documents the evolution of U.S. dependability and integrity in the international investment community. This reputation led to the acceptability of U.S. financial markets and government [...]
19Aug2009 | David L. Littmann | 1 comment | ContinuedInvestor Politics: The New Force That Will Transform American Business, Government and Politics in the Twenty-First Century
What better way to strengthen the roots of capitalism than to give its participants a stake in the system! But how? This is the question John Hood addresses in Investor Politics. In a world filled with envy, largely reflecting hatred of capitalism’s wealth-building capabilities, it is refreshing to read the author’s optimism about what’s leading [...]
1Sep2002 | David L. Littmann | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Wealth of Man by Peter Jay
Public Affairs · 2000 · 400 pages · $30.00 Reviewed by David L. Littmann Peter Jay’s The Wealth of Man is an attempt to trace the key episodes in man’s economic course, from the time of the hunter-gatherer to our day. He presents his narrative as a waltz: One energetic step forward, one defensive step [...]
1Nov2001 | David L. Littmann | 0 comments | ContinuedIrrational Exuberance by Robert J. Shiller
Princeton University Press • 2000 • 296 pages • $27.95 It is nothing new for an author to scare his readers with predictions of economic calamity and financial collapse. During the 1970s it was Howard Ruff’s How to Prosper During the Coming Bad Years. In the 1980s it was Gary Shilling’s After the Crash, Recession [...]
1Jul2001 | David L. Littmann | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Economic Consequences of Rolling Back the Welfare State
It took America’s professional politicians little more than three decades to spend more than $5.5 trillion on welfare programs for their constituents. Looking back, we know the results have not been pretty: work incentives were stood on their head by moral hazards created by government largess. Millions of able-bodied people have been trapped in poverty [...]
1Sep2000 | David L. Littmann | 0 comments | ContinuedTurbo-Capitalism: Winners and Losers in the Global Economy
It’s always tricky for a reviewer to judge a book written by a classmate. That’s the case here. Edward Luttwak is a good writer, but has written a book that, while purporting to be about economics, is actually the stuff of worn sociology and tired psychology. As the title, Turbo-Capitalism, indicates, Luttwak is aware of [...]
1May2000 | David L. Littmann | 0 comments | ContinuedNixon’s Economy: Booms, Busts, Dollars, and Votes
Allen Matusow’s book is a play-by-play description of Nixon’s overwhelming priority—get elected! Not that Nixon was uninterested in the economy. He fully understood the political punishments and rewards that are meted out by rising or falling unemployment and interest rates. Nixon’s feel for fiscal and monetary policies probably exceeded that of most, if not all, [...]
1Oct1999 | David L. Littmann | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Commanding Heights: The Battle Between Government and the Marketplace That Is Remaking the World by Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw
Simon and Schuster • 1998 • 352 pages • $26.00 The danger in telling a good story is often the sacrifice of key facts, thereby distorting the reader’s understanding of reality. In The Commanding Heights, authors Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw describe the epic twentieth-century conflict between socialists and market advocates. This is an extremely [...]
1Jan1999 | David L. Littmann | 0 comments | Continued-
The Latest
Contraception: Insuring the Uninsurable
Update below. Controversy rages over the Obama administration’s mandate that all employers – including... Read More
The Snow Plowers’ Petition
The following might have happened in a small college town in upstate New York… In a cold and snowy... Read More
Super Bowl versus Education?
In the spirit of Super Bowl weekend I’d like to deconstruct a Facebook status update that a friend... Read More
Capitalism, Corporatism, and the Freed Market
When a front-running presidential contender tells the country that thanks to Barack Obama, “[w]e are... Read More
Creating Jobs versus Creating Value
Picking on New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is one of the largest participation sports on the Internet.... Read More
