Nothing Is Sacred : Economic Ideas for the New Millennium

by Robert J. Barro

• ISBN13: 9780262025263
• ISBN10: 0262025264
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-09-01
• Publisher: Mit Pr

Summary

Since the 1970s, Robert Barro's academic research has significantly influenced macroeconomic theory. For more than a decade, his writing has also enlivened the pages of publications such as the Wall Street Journal and Business Week. In Nothing Is Sacred, Barro applies his well-honed free market arguments to a remarkably diverse range of issues. These include global problems such as growth and debt, as well as social issues such as the predictive value of SAT scores, drug legalization, the economics of beauty, and the relationship between abortion rights and crime reduction. The book opens with a series of essays on famous economists, past and present, and other prominent figures whose work has economic implications, including Joe DiMaggio and Bono. In the book's second part, Barro discusses the economics of social issues. In the third part, he considers democracy, growth, and international policy, and in the final part he examines fiscal policy, monetary policy, and the macroeconomy. Throughout, he shows that even the most widely held beliefs are not sacred truths but are open to analysis.

Author Biography

Robert J. Barro is Robert C. Waggoner Professor of Economics at Harvard University and a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

Table of Contents

Introduction	xi
Thoughts on Friends and Other Noteworthy Persons	1	(66)
Milton Friedman and His Memoirs	1	(5)
Adam Smith, Including Thoughts on Ken Galbraith and David Ricardo	6	(6)
George Stigler and the Chicago School of Economics	12	(5)
Gary Becker, the Great Economic Imperialist	17	(5)
Robert Mundell, the Father of International Macroeconomics	22	(4)
Bob Lucas and Rational Expectations	26	(6)
Larry Summers, the Economist as Treasury Secretary and Harvard President	32	(4)
Bono, the Rock Star as Amateur Economist	36	(8)
Domingo Cavallo-The Second Coming of the Argentine Savior?	44	(9)
Al Gore in the Balance	53	(5)
George W. Bush and Compassionate Conservatism	58	(4)
Joe DiMaggio	62	(5)
Economics of Social Issues	67	(28)
The Economics of Beauty	67	(6)
Abortion and Crime	73	(4)
Colombia and U.S. Drug Policy	77	(4)
SAT Scores and Meritocracy in Higher Education	81	(3)
Napster, Prozac, and Intellectual Property Rights	84	(4)
Microsoft and Antitrust Policy	88	(3)
Personal Accounts for Social Security: Not a Free Lunch	91	(4)
Economic Growth, Democracy, and Things International	95	(38)
Eastern Germany---A Lesson in Welfare Dependency	95	(6)
Inequality and Economic Growth	101	(3)
Democracy in the New Congo?	104	(4)
Chile's Presidential Election	108	(3)
Mexico's New Democracy	111	(3)
Dollarization in Russia?	114	(4)
Yankee Imperialism in Asia	118	(4)
Dollarization and the Grand Ecuadorean Experiment	122	(4)
My Brief Tenure at the World Economic Forum	126	(3)
What to Do with the International Monetary Fund?	129	(4)
Fiscal Policy, Monetary Policy, and the Macroeconomy	133	(38)
Budgets and Tax Cuts	133	(4)
September 11 and the War on Terror---What Does It Mean for the Economy?	137	(7)
Fiscal Profligacy at the American Economic Association	144	(3)
It's the Economy---Economic Evaluations of the U.S. Presidents	147	(3)
Serious and Nonserious Fiscal Reforms	150	(4)
Mr. Greenspan and U.S. Monetary Policy	154	(4)
And the Winner of the 2000 U.S. Presidential Election Was	158	(3)
Oil---The Good Guys and the Bad Guys	161	(4)
Exuberance and Pessimism in the U.S. Stock Market	165	(6)
Index	171