This file lists books on a variety of subjects that may be of interest to liberty-minded individuals. Not all of these books were written from a libertarian perspective, and there are many issues on which libertarians disagree. Most are available from: * Laissez Faire Books 942 Howard Street San Francisco, CA 94103 800-326-0996 * Freedom's Forum Books 1800 Market Street San Francisco, CA 94102 415-864-0953 * Liberty Tree 134 Ninety-Eighth Avenue Oakland, CA 94603 800-927-8733 The descriptions are from the book jackets and were compiled by Mike Sierra (sierra@ora.com). ============================================================================= === ANTHOLOGIES === ============================================================================= Bandow, Doug The Politics of Plunder: Misgovernment in Washington 1990; Transaction; 508 pages This slashing critique charges that the federal government and interest groups have badly mismanaged the political process for private ends. Transcending conventional ideologies, Bandow sees the root of the problem as our failure to honor the founding father's intention to establish a limited government with severely circumscribed powers in all areas. People abuse power; it is human nature. Only limited state authority will keep the political process from disintegrating into petty fighting among factions, each competing for its own limited self-interest. The demise of the original restraints has created an overgrown federal government that is ever more wasteful, inefficient, and unjust. Doug Bandow spares no sacred cows. He considers state interference in the free market responsible for an ethic of legalized theft, which allows interest groups to use the state to enrich themselves through subsidies, competitive restrictions, and other protectionist measures. He sees a judiciary that has aided the other branches of government in manipulating human conduct and restricting personal freedom for both liberal and conservative reasons. And in foreign policy he sees the development of an interventionist consensus, whereby Washington attempts to remake foreign nations in its image through military intervention and foreign aid, with disastrous results. The Politics of Plunder is written by an insider who combines theoretical and analytical skill with practical political experience. Bandow served in the most conservative administration of recent years yet freely criticizes the nostrums of the Right. He is an evangelical Christian yet dislikes the tactics of the Religious Right. His unique background -- campaign worker, lawyer, presidential aide, magazine editor, policy analyst, and journalist -- enables him to go far beyond the usual Washington commentary. Bandow's objective is to develop a new political perspective that transcends both conservative and liberal boundaries and emphasizes individual liberty, skepticism of state power, and tolerance of others. Those interested in the world of ideas will find this an accessible, practical guide to libertarian thought. Those interested in the world of public policy will find here a detailed discussion of scores of recent controversies. ***************************************************************************** Crane, Edward; Boaz, David An American Vision: Policies for the '90s 1989; Cato Institute; 358 pages Too often, Washington policy initiatives involve merely marginal reforms. Policymakers and analysts alike concentrate on promoting compromise measures that would fine-tune existing programs but fail to challenge the status quo in any meaningful way. Policy myopia is pervasive. This collection of essays is a rarity in the policy arena -- it offers bold yet achievable initiatives designed to prompt fundamental change. In An American Vision, 21 noted policymakers, scholars, and policy analysts stand back from the day-to-day tinkering of the Washington community to address the systemic defects that are at the root of many public policy problems. They outline a series of proposals that, taken as a whole, constitute a sweeping agenda for U.S. public policy in the 1990s and beyond. ***************************************************************************** O'Rourke, P.J. Give War A Chance: Eyewitness Accounts of Mankind's Struggle Against Tyranny, Injustice and Alcohol-Free Beer 1992; Atlantic Monthly Press; 234 pages P.J. O'Rourke's Parliament of Whores was a number-one national best-seller and firmly established P.J. as the preeminent political humorist of our time. Now, in Give War a Chance, P.J. does for the rest of the world -- and for a few select Americans -- what he did for the U.S. government in Parliament of Whores. Opening with an Introduction entitled "Hunting the Virtuous -- and How to Clean and Skin Them," P.J. begins and outrageous, hilarious examination of the birth, and some of the afterbirth, of freedom around the world -- in Russia, Berlin, Nicaragua, and Russia again (after the coup). Next he offers some second thoughts about the sixties, Africa, and drug testing, among other subjects. He then provides a new enemies list -- including Dr. Ruth, Iacocca, and the Kennedys -- before launching into the funniest, smartest, and certainly most entertaining account of the Gulf War you'll ever read. P.J. provides a concise history of the Middle East ("previously called the Ottoman Empire, so called because it had the same amount of intelligence and energy as a footstool"), and a pithy description of Saddam Hussein ("he's worse than Hitler, worse than Stalin, worse than waking up wearing a wedding ring next to Roseanne Barr"). He gives us an inspired day-by-day chronicle of the tedium of waiting for a war in the Saudi desert, describes the constant flow of refugees ("modern refugees, making a run for it because their bank cards wouldn't work in Kuwaiti cash machines anymore"), and closes with a rousing account of the wham-bang victory and the march into a devastated Kuwait City ("it looked like all the worst rock bands in the world had stayed there at the same time"). ***************************************************************************** O'Rourke, P.J. Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government 1991; Atlantic Monthly Press; 234 pages In 1988 P.J. O'Rourke moved to Washington to take a long look at our government and to find an answer to the question every American asks: What the hell do these guys do all day, and why does it cost so goddamned much money? In his introduction, P.J. proffers the theory that we are suffering under a dictatorship of boredom. In other words, every public issue and policy, every regulation, piece of legislation, executive act, and joint resolution is made so complicated, obfuscatory, and tedious that, as P.J. puts it, "the regular people get hopelessly confused, as though they'd fallen a month behind in their high school algebra class." Who better to overthrow this tyranny than P.J.? Adopting the manner of a high school civics textbook, P.J. covers the three branches of government -- legislative, executive, judicial -- in a section entitled "Money, Television, and Bullshit." Pulling off a true miracle of modern journalism he is even able to make the Farm Price Support Bill of 1990 interesting, as he recounts his own firsthand experience helping to artificially inseminate a cow (which, he discovers, is not done with a bull and some Barry White tapes in a heart- shaped stall). In Parliament of Whores P.J. offers a guided tour of the U.S. government and a serious analysis of public policy that not only won't put you to sleep but will make you laugh until your sides ache, and may even make you go out and vote. ***************************************************************************** Sowell, Thomas Compassion Versus Guilt 1987; Quill; 246 pages Nationally syndicated columnist Thomas Sowell has collected the best of his controversial columns over the past several years for this book. They range over issues as varied as the homeless, foreign policy, AIDS, environmentalism, education, law, race, and nostalgia. Some are biting, some are humorous, but all are gems. In addition to being a columnist for the Scripps-Howard News Service, Dr. Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and author of many books and articles in both scholarly and popular publications. ***************************************************************************** Sowell, Thomas Pink and Brown People, and Other Controversial Essays 1981; Hoover Press; 150 pages Pink and Brown People is a compilation of short essays by Thomas Sowell, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace and author of Knowledge and Decision (1980) and Ethnic America (1981). As Sowell states in his Introduction, "The problems dealt with here are as serious as survival and as ludicrous as the pretensions of the anointed, who want to impose their superior wisdom and virtue on the rest of us... The visions of the anointed are among the hazards to our survival, and especially to the survival of our freedom. Running through these discussions of highly disparate issues is a central theme: there are vary different visions of how the world works, and the opposition of these underlying visions is what causes the particular clashes that develop over energy, crime, price controls, foreign policy, and a host of other issues." ***************************************************************************** Williams, Walter All It Takes Is Guts 1987; Regnery Gateway; 190 pages Rich countries also tend to be the free countries, notes Dr. Walter Williams. Yet he sees growing threats to our wealth-building freedoms. "The American values of limited government and personal freedom have been under assault for nearly a century. Out of a misguided sense of concern for our fellow man we have permitted, and even called for, government to restrain many important freedoms." Dr. Williams cuts through the "do-good" rhetorical facade on such programs as affirmative action, the minimum wage, and farm price supports, and asserts that economic freedom will always create wealth and distribute it more efficiently than will Washington's political dealmakers. His arguments on such issues as poverty, race, and the economy come from a lifetime of striving against the odds and from a strong academic background. Dr. Williams was raised by his mother during the Depression in the slums of North Philadelphia. Her discipline, and the high standards his teachers held him to, have shown Walter Williams that as long as there is freedom in America, there will be plenty of opportunities for those with the will -- and the guts -- to seek them. ***************************************************************************** Williams, Walter America: A Minority Viewpoint 1982; Hoover Press; 184 pages America: A Minority Viewpoint is a compilation of 84 newspaper essays focusing on government-sanctioned restraints on human freedoms and the attendant problems. As the author notes, "Individual freedom is and always has been a radical idea. It was radical in 1775 and it is radical today." Dr. Williams's vigorous defense of the moral superiority of the marketplace follows one tradition of radicalism -- that of Adam Smith and Thomas Paine. ============================================================================= === AGRICULTURE === ============================================================================= Bovard, James The Farm Fiasco: How Federal Agricultural Policy Squanders Billions of Dollars a Year, Sacrifices the Poor to the Rich, and Gives Congressmen and Bureaucrats Vast Arbitrary Power Over American Citizens 1989; Institute for Independent Studies; 356 pages This provocative book by one of America's leading critics of federal farm policy shows how the government is slowly strangling agriculture, historically one of America's most productive enterprises. Supposedly designed to help the small family farmer, federal farm policy instead enriches the wealthy. The average full-time farmer is now a millionaire, and the American taxpayer foots the bill -- roughly $20 billion each year in handouts, plus $10 billion more in higher food costs. The Farm Fiasco outlines in shocking detail the waste, fraud, and abuse that farm policy has institutionalized. For more than sixty years the government has devotedly repeated the same mistakes. Federal farm policy is based on the idea that central government planning is superior to private decision-making. As a result, there are striking similarities between how America manages its agriculture and how Eastern European governments manage their industries. In Hungary and in Mississippi, prosperity often depends more on political connections than on economic achievement. In Czechoslovakia and in Illinois, the government pays not according to whether a product is sold, but whether it is produced. In Eastern Europe there are stocks of unused, often worthless manufactured goods; in the United States we have our rotting mountains of surplus cheese, butter, and corn. The Farm Fiasco tells the history of U.S. farm policy, provides an entertaining look at its current absurdities, and proposes a workable alternative that would make the American farmer competitive again without bankrupting taxpayers. The book sweeps away much of the sentimental nonsense and farm-lobby smokescreens to reveal federal agricultural policy as a prime conspirator against the public interest. ***************************************************************************** Pasour, E.C. Agriculture and the State: Market Processes and Bureaucracy 1990; The Independent Institute; 258 pages Analyzing the direct and indirect effects of all U.S. farm programs, including price supports, marketing orders, food distribution programs, credit and export subsidies, crop insurance, and conservation of natural resources, E.C. Pasour, Jr., shows in Agriculture and the State that these programs often have conflicting objectives and, more importantly, do not increase the long-term profitability of producers of U.S. farm products. Pasour sees current United States farm policies as remarkably similar to the Roosevelt New Deal programs instituted during the Great Depression and as anachronistic in an increasingly interdependent world. This timely and rigorously argued book will be a welcome and much debated contribution as record-high government outlays on farm programs during the 1980s, pressure to reduce federal spending, and efforts to reduce international trade barriers increase the urgency of reassessing both the rationale and effects of current U.S. farm policies. ***************************************************************************** Poirot, Paul L. (ed.) The Farm Problem 1986; Foundation for Economic Education; 130 pages "[W]ho is to say precisely where or how "the farm problem" began? [F]or those of us living in the United States today, the problem generally is said to have begun in the late 1920s and early 1930s when government attempted to do something about it. The common impression at that time was that the poor farmer was not getting his fair share of the national pie. Therefore, the solution must be to subsidize farmers at taxpayers' expense. After more than a half century of various farm support programs, it becomes increasingly clear that the real problem is the government intervention that distorts and nullifies the price signals of the market place. The consequence of such distortion is an unconscionable burden of expenditures and taxes and unwieldy surpluses of goods artificially priced above the market. In other words, scarce and valuable resources are being wasted on the one hand while human beings still go hungry -- and many starve. The problem is of the sort that calls for freedom as its only solution. -- from the Introduction ============================================================================= === CIVIL RIGHTS === ============================================================================= Belz, Herman Equality Transformed: A Quarter-Century of Affirmative Action 1991; Transaction; 320 pages "Professor Belz has performed a public service by writing this scholarly, timely, realistic, no-nonsense account of the history of affirmative action from its genesis in the early 1960s as a worthy, desirable, and justifiable tool for the achievement of equal employment opportunity to its evolvement into indefensible reverse discrimination four decades later. A distinguished historian and savvy observer of the politico-governmental process, Professor Belz thus painstakingly chronicles how a worthy policy initially designed as a temporary device to wipe out the effects of past societal discrimination has switched political gears by moving from the goals of equal opportunity to that of equal results, and from the traditional emphasis upon the individual to that of the group -- by embracing a policy of constitutionally highly questionable preferentialism that is bound to continue to stimulate deep- seated resentment in major segments of the polity." -- Henry J. Abraham, University of Virginia ***************************************************************************** Epstein, Richard Forbidden Grounds: The Case Against Employment Discrimination Laws 1992; Harvard University Press; 518 pages This controversial book presents a powerful argument for the repeal of anti- discrimination laws within the workplace. These laws -- frequently justified as a means to protect individuals from race, sex, age, and disability discrimination -- have been widely accepted by liberals and conservatives alike since the passing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and are today deeply ingrained in our legal culture. Richard Epstein demonstrates that these laws set one group against another, impose limits on freedom of choice, undermine standards of merit and achievement, unleash bureaucratic excesses, mandate inefficient employment practices, and cause far more invidious discrimination than they prevent. Epstein urges a return to the common law principles of individual autonomy that permits all persons to improve their position through trade, contract, and bargain, free of government constraint. He advances both theoretical and empirical arguments to show that competitive markets outperform the current system of centralized control over labor markets. Forbidden Grounds has a broad philosophical, economic, and historical sweep. Epstein offers novel explanations for the rational use of discrimination, and he tests his theory against a historical backdrop that runs from the early Supreme Court decisions, such as Plessy v. Ferguson which legitimated Jim Crow, through the current controversies over race-norming and the 1991 Civil Rights Act. His discussion of sex discrimination contains a detailed argument of the laws on occupational qualifications, pensions, pregnancy, and sexual harassment. He also explains how the case for affirmative action is strengthened by the repeal of employment discrimination laws. He concludes the book by looking at the recent controversies regarding age and disability discrimination. ***************************************************************************** Glazer, Nathan Affirmative Discrimination: Ethnic Equality and Public Policy 1975; Harvard University Press; 248 pages Should Government try to remedy persistent racial and ethnic inequalities by establishing and enforcing quotas and other statistical goals? Here is one of the most incisive books ever written on this difficult issue. Nathan Glazer surveys the civil rights tradition in the United States; evaluates public policies in the areas of employment, education, and housing; and questions the judgement and wisdom of their underlying premises -- their focus on group rights, rather than individual rights. Such policies, he argues, are ineffective, unnecessary, and politically destructive of harmonious relations among the races. Updated with a long, new introduction by the author, Affirmative Discrimination will enable citizens as well as scholars to better understand and evaluate public policies for achieving social justice in a multiethnic society. ***************************************************************************** Kirp, David; Yudof, Mark; Franks, Marlene Strong Gender Justice 1986; University of Chicago Press; 246 pages Tracing the way various public policies have evolved, David L. Kirp, Mark G. Yudof, and Marlene Strong Franks find that the profusion of legislation and court decisions masks an uncertain and problematic sense of what gender-based justice means. They show that even policies not ostensibly concerned with gender -- from tax codes to health benefits -- have a significant effect on sexual equality. They argue that whether or not it intends to do so, our government is setting gender policies. Pointing out that individual autonomy is the essential component of a just society, they endorse a policy that encourages choice rather than one that promotes particular outcomes. ***************************************************************************** McElroy, Wendy (ed.) Freedom, Feminism, and the State: An Overview of Individualist Feminism 1991; Independent Institute; 250 pages The issues that gave rise to the women's movement are still with us today. Feminism as an organized force dates from abolitionism prior to the Civil War when, fighting to free the slaves, women became conscious of their own legal disabilities. From these anti-statist roots, the women's movement eventually divided over such issues as sex, the family, and support for World War I. This newly revised edition of Freedom, Feminism, and the State traces individualist feminism from these origins up to the present day. It demonstrates that on issues of sex and birth control to business and science, government has been the real obstacle preventing women from achieving freedom and equal rights. The authors include abolitionists Sarah and Angelina Grimke, anarchists Emma Goldman and Voltairine de Cleyre, journalists Rose Wilder Lane and Suzanne La Follette, social critic Lillian Harman, and modern writers such as Barbara Ehrenreich, Diedre English, Rosalie Nichols, and Jean Bethke Elshtain. Wendy McElroy, in her introduction, discusses such controversies as individualism and socialism in the feminist tradition, economic freedom and the role of women, and the contemporary differences between mainstream and individualist feminism. She issues a ringing and provocative call for women to recapture their individualist heritage. ***************************************************************************** Paul, Ellen Equity and Gender: The Comparable Worth Debate 1989; Transaction; 144 pages Comparable worth -- the idea that women ought to be paid the same wages as men performing comparable although not the same jobs -- has generated a firestorm of controversy. This analysis of the comparable worth debate takes up its pros and cons in an extraordinarily disciplined and fair-minded manner. After outlining the debate, Paul attempts to resolve this deeply divisive debate in terms of larger philosophical underpinnings. To do so, she develops a sophisticated analysis of the American economic marketplace as well as the general marketplace of ideas. ***************************************************************************** Sowell, Thomas Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality? 1984; Quill; 164 pages It is now more than three decades since the historic Supreme Court decision on desegregation, Brown v. Board of Education. Thomas Sowell takes a tough, factual look at what has actually happened over these decades -- as distinguished from the hopes with which they began or the rhetoric with which they continue. Who has gained and who has lost? Which of the assumptions behind the civil rights revolution have stood the test of time and which have proven to be mistaken or even catastrophic to those who were supposed to be helped? ***************************************************************************** Sowell, Thomas Markets and Minorities 1981; Basic Books; 142 pages One of this country's leading economists applies the tools of his trade to help us understand the economic lot of the nation's racial and ethnic minorities -- what it is today and why, and how it can (and cannot) be improved. To what extent can discrimination explain differences in the economic condition of ethnic and racial minorities -- in income, housing, and other basic amenities? What costs do markets impose on discriminators? And why have government efforts in these areas -- minimum-wage laws, housing regulations, affirmative action programs -- proved uniformly unsuccessful? Sowell's brilliant book not only demolishes widespread myths about the nature of discrimination in economic life but shows how minorities can use the market to improve their economic condition. ***************************************************************************** Sowell, Thomas Preferential Policies: An International Perspective 1990; William Morrow; 222 pages By "preferential policies" Thomas Sowell means government-mandated preferences for government-designated groups, policies which legally mandate that individuals not all be judged by the same criteria or subjugated to the same procedures. In his new book, he analyzes the mechanisms and the consequences of these legalized preferences in an international context, with special attention to programs in India, Nigeria, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and the United States. What his study shows is that whether the legislation goes by the name of "affirmative action," "compensatory preferences," "discrimination," "reverse discrimination," or by a variety of more specific terms in particular countries, such as "Africanization," "white supremacy," or "sons of the soil," the results are the same. In other words, they are the same whether the preferences exist for a majority or for a minority and regardless of what group or groups hold political power. In each of the countries considered, common patterns emerge. Preferential programs, even when explicitly enacted as temporary, have not only persisted but expanded in scope; the benefits of these programs have disproportionately favored those group members who are already more fortunate; ethnic polarization has increased. At last, here is a book that looks not at the hopes and rationales of preferential policies but instead looks at the facts of what has actually happened in the wake of such policies. Preferential Policies should be required reading for concerned citizens of all countries and of all political outlooks. ***************************************************************************** Sowell, Thomas The Economics and Politics of Race: An International Perspective 1983; Quill; 324 pages This pioneering study analyzes startling differences in racial and ethnic economic patterns in an international perspective. Writing in a clear and straightforward style, noted economist Thomas Sowell examines discrimination, politics, cultural values, imperialism, and other factors, in order to assess their role in economic differences between people and nations. Emotional controversies concerning the Third World, racism, and population growth are examined in factual terms, with many myths being exploded along the way. ***************************************************************************** Steele, Shelby The Content of our Character 1990; St. Martin's Press; 176 pages Why, after twenty-five years of legal change and ebbing prejudice, are blacks worse off today? In this controversial collection of essays, award-winning writer Shelby Steele claims that blacks are more oppressed by doubt than by racism, and that a generation after the Watts riots and passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it's time for blacks to look beyond their victimization and rely on their efforts to gain access to the American mainstream. In brilliant, moving prose, Steele illuminates the origins of the conflict in race relation today -- the increase in anger, mistrust, and even violence between blacks and whites. With candid and persuasive arguments, he shows how both black and white Americans have become trapped into seeing color before character, and how social policies designed to lessen racial differences have instead made them greater. The Content of Our Character is neither "liberal" nor "conservative," but an honest, courageous look at America's most enduring and wrenching social dilemma. ***************************************************************************** Williams, Walter The State Against Blacks 1982; McGraw-Hill; 184 pages Racial bigotry and discrimination are neither complete nor satisfactory explanations for the current condition of many blacks in America. This book points out that a number of the economic handicaps faced by blacks are the result of the "rules of the game" -- those federal, state, and local laws that systematically impede the employment and advancement of any persons who are outsiders, latecomers, and without resources. The author examines minimum wage laws, occupational and business licensing, the taxicab industry, licensing of plumbers and electricians, union policy in the railroad industry, truck regulation by the ICC, and other economic regulations that thwart the right of blacks to work. ============================================================================= === DRUGS === ============================================================================= Boaz, David (ed.) The Crisis in Drug Prohibition 1990; Cato Institute; 148 pages Drug legalization is gaining converts and respectability. Many of those converts, who have given the idea its new respectability, are included in this book: Baltimore mayor Kurt Schmoke, Nobel laureate Milton Friedman, columnists Anthony Lewis and William F. Buckley, Jr., New York legislator Joseph Galiber, social policy analyst Charles Murray, economist Thomas Sowell, the editors of The Economist, and two of the leading scholarly proponents of drug legalization, Ethan A. Nadelmann of Princeton University and James Ostrowski of Citizens Against Prohibition. This volume provides an introduction to the legalization alternative. It is must reading for any American seriously concerned about drugs, the drug war, and what they are doing to America. ***************************************************************************** Hamowy, Ronald (ed.) Dealing With Drugs: Consequences of Government Control 1987; Pacific Institute; 386 pages Leading psychiatrists, criminologists, pharmacologists, and economists provide solid research about every major aspect of drug policy, including the sources of addiction; long-term effects of controlled use; the economic nature of the illegal drug market and the costs of current enforcement policies; drug-related crime; and the toxicity and medicinal use of illicit drugs. The authors find a disturbing pattern of failure. Vast and enormously expensive enforcement policies drain economic resources, distort American foreign policy, and trample civil liberties. These policies have not made a serious dent in drug traffic or abuse, but they have led to sharp increases in street crime, the corruption of numerous public officials, and a weakening of the social fabric. From this devastating critique, Dealing with Drugs points the way toward new policy options, based on informed decision-making, enforceable and consistent laws, and reliance on social controls. The authors urge that greater emphasis be given to the development of alternative private solutions for social control of drug use and abuse. ***************************************************************************** Peele, Stanton Diseasing of America: Addiction Treatment Out of Control 1989; Houghton Mifflin; 322 pages * Why, if Americans spend more and more on treatments for drug and alcohol addiction, do we have more and more addicts and alcoholics? * Can "children of alcoholics" legitimately blame so many of their problems on their parent's drinking? * Are addictions to shopping and sex really medical conditions? * Why are so many people forced into cult-like addiction treatments by government, employers, and schools? These are some of the profound and disturbing questions taken up in this timely and provocative book. Stanton Peele, a respected social psychologist and a leading authority on addictions, here exposes the irrationality of the current fashion of mislabeling all these problems as medical in origin. Peele insists that we cannot treat away our drug, alcohol, and other addictions; by "medicalizing" them, we actually make them harder to solve. Diseasing of America documents the scientific fallacies of the addiction-as- disease movement. It points the way to positive personal and social change and shows how society can support people in outgrowing or avoiding addiction altogether. ***************************************************************************** Wisotsky, Steven Beyond the War on Drugs: Overcoming a Failed Public Policy 1990; Prometheus Books; 280 pages Interdiction at our American shores, drug and property seizures throughout the country, ever increasing amounts of money and manpower committed to fighting the "battle" against illicit drugs -- and what have we reaped? Death, destruction, and a drug supply network that will use every means at its disposal to make its product available to a willing market. It's time that we step back and take a good hard look at the Reagan-Bush-Bennett War on Drugs. Has anyone really outlined what this "war" is all about? How effective are our efforts to overcome supply, reduce demand, and enforce laws to prevent the sale and distribution of drugs? Once committed to a war, Americans so hate the thought of losing that our government will sacrifice whatever it must -- people, money, armaments -- in the deadly struggle to "win." Beyond the War on Drugs offers powerful arguments to support the growing public opinion -- now shared by politicians, judges, and leading intellectuals -- that this war, as it is currently conceived, cannot be won and ought not to be fought. By insisting that the objective is to stop the flow of drugs that "cause" physical dependency, the "warriors" lock themselves into a questionable view of human nature. The cause of addiction isn't in the substance but in the people who use it. We won't (can't) stop people from taking drugs by attempting to dry up the supply (the demand will always cause a supply). The War on Drugs has not only failed to suppress the supply of cocaine but has instead inflicted grave damage on the United States and its allies. Wisotsky argues persuasively for a fundamental reassessment of this struggle -- one that would take us beyond the War on Drugs to a network of controls that recognizes the powerful role played by personal responsibility and individual human behavior. ============================================================================= === ECONOMICS === ============================================================================= Berger, Peter The Capitalist Revolution: Fifty Propositions About Prosperity, Equality, and Liberty 1986; Basic Books; 262 pages Up to now, only Marxists have attempted the comprehensive social -- as distinct from purely economic -- analysis capitalism demands. To help fill that gap, the world-renowned sociologist Peter Berger here provides a tough- minded, provocative analysis of how capitalism, as the great engine of change, has revolutionized modern life. Berger examines capitalism empirically, as it operates in the real world, not as its detractors or defenders would wish it to be. He thus lays the basis for a powerful -- and testable -- new theory of capitalism and the "economic culture" it creates. Written with wit and elegance, the book is punctuated with fifty propositions summarizing its main points and crystallizing the relationship of capitalism to fundamental human values. Berger's central theme is that the modern market economy we call capitalism transforms every other aspect of society. Drawing on his vast erudition and acute observations, Berger shows that capitalism is the most successful economic mechanism ever devised for improving material standards of large numbers of people; that it produces the kind of society in which both privilege and prestige are basically grounded in economic achievement; and that, in the West, it has been causally connected with political democracy and individual autonomy. Turning to the Third World and, especially, East Asia, he shows that capitalism is not a mere by-product of specifically Western culture. Analyzing the advanced socialist societies, he shows that inequality is an issue not of capitalism versus socialism but of modernization. In sum, Berger has written the rare book destined to shape debate for years to come. ***************************************************************************** Coase, R. H. The Firm, The Market, and the Law 1988; University of Chicago Press; 218 pages Few other economists have been read and cited as often as R. H. Coase has been, even though, as he admits, "most economists have a different way of looking at economic problems and do not share my conception of the nature of our subject." Coase's particular interest has been that part of economic theory that deals with firms, industries, and markets -- what is known as price theory or microeconomics. He has always urged his fellow economists to examine the foundations on which their theory exists, and this volume collects some of his classic articles probing those very foundations. "The Nature of the Firm" (1937) introduced the then-revolutionary concept of transaction costs into economic theory. "The Problem of Social Cost" (1960) further developed this concept, emphasizing the effect of the law on the working of the economic system. The remaining papers and new introductory essay clarify and extend Coase's arguments and address his critics. Many economists today approach economics as technicians. Coase approaches it as a philosopher. He thinks and writes in a deep and contemplative way, and his work is rooted in a careful and deliberate scrutiny of real conditions and a thinking through of their consequences. This collection will be of interest to economists, to legal scholars, and to other social scientists. ***************************************************************************** Cowen, Tyler (ed.) Public Goods & Market Failures: A Critical Examination 1992; Transaction; 384 pages At one time or another nearly every sector of the American economy has been branded as a market failure. Such claims are probably the most important arguments for government support or intervention. The private sector may be deemed incapable of solving the so-called free rider problem or may price public goods in such a way as to insufficiently exclude nonpayers. Assertions of market failure are usually based upon Paul Samuelson's theory of public goods and externalities. Public Goods and Market Failures both develops that theory and challenges the conclusion of many economists and policymakers that market failures cannot be corrected by market forces. The volume opens with two chapters summarizing the traditional approach to public goods theory. In the next section the contributors present theoretical challenges to the public goods argument. Exclusion can occur through tying public goods to private goods or through inventing new and imaginative ways of excluding nonpayers. The final set of chapters in the book present major case studies of private provision of public goods. Among the goods considered are lighthouse services, education, municipal services, and environmental conservation. The writings brought together in Public Goods and Market Failures were selected for their readability and their likely impact on future research. Although many of the contributions are recognized classics, a number of the less well-known articles (including several previously unpublished essays) were included in order to fill significant gaps in the literature. In addition to Tyler Cowen, the authors include Paul A. Samuelson, Francis M. Bator, Kenneth D. Goldin, Earl R. Brubaker, Harold Demsetz, Andrew Schotter, Charles M. Tiebout, James M. Buchanan, Carl J. Dahlman, Robert Axelrod, Ronald H. Coase, Steven N.S. Cheung, Robert W. Poole, Jr., Robert J. Smith, Jack High, and Jerome Ellig. This is a major text in economic policy, public choice theory, and macroeconomics. ***************************************************************************** Dorn, James A.; Schwartz, Anna J. (ed.) The Search for Stable Money: Essays on Monetary Reform 1983; University of Chicago Press; 408 pages "Just about every interesting question that could be asked about reforming the monetary system is discussed by the distinguished contributors to this volume. It is essential reading for anyone wishing to inform themselves about issues of monetary theory and policy, whose satisfactory resolution is so vital to the future of the Western world." -- David Laidler, University of Western Ontario ***************************************************************************** England, Catherine; Huertas, Thomas (ed.) The Financial Services Revolution 1988; Cato Institute; 362 pages "The 1987 Cato conference on financial services regulation dealt in depth with virtually all the key issues before Congress -- the FSLIC recapitalization, Senator Proxmire's bill backing away from deregulation of the banks, the dichotomy of deposit insurance on the one hand and deregulation on the other, the role of the Federal Reserve in extending or limiting bank involvement in general financial services. Anyone who missed the conference missed an extraordinary opportunity to be exposed to the leading thinkers on the topic. Fortunately, their papers, contained in this volume, constitute the most up-to-date yet scholarly look at what will continue to be the "big bangs" in world financial markets for the balance of this century." -- Warren T. Brookes, Detroit News ***************************************************************************** Grant, James Money of the Mind: Borrowing and Lending in America from the Civil War to Michael Milkin 1992; Farrar Straus Giroux; 514 pages The 1980s witnessed a lemming-like rush into the sea of debt on the part of the American industrial and financial communities, with consequences we are only beginning to appreciate. But the speculative frenzy of the eighties didn't just happen. It was the cumulation of a long cycle of slow relaxation of credit practices -- the subject of James Grant's brilliant, clear-eyed history of American finance. Two long-running trends converged in the 1980s to create one of our greatest speculative booms: the democratization of credit and the socialization of risk. At the turn of the century, it was almost impossible for the average working person to get a loan. In the 1980s, it was almost impossible to refuse one. As the pace of lending grew, the government undertook to bear more and more of the creditors' risk -- a pattern, begun in the Progressive era, which had reached full flower in the "conservative" administration of Ronald Reagan. Based on original scholarship as well as firsthand observation, Grant's book puts our recent love affair with debt in an entirely fresh, often chilling, perspective. The result is required -- and wickedly entertaining -- reading for everyone who wants or needs to understand how the world really works. ***************************************************************************** Hayek, Friedrich A. The Road to Serfdom 1944; University of Chicago Press; 248 pages A center of acute controversy when originally published in 1944, Dr. Hayek's argument, firmly based on the principles of nineteenth-century liberalism, remains of great and perhaps heightened relevance today. Dr. Hayek holds that the extended collectivism toward which free nations are gradually moving is incompatible with democracy, that social planning, as interpreted today, may eventually destroy all individual freedom, political no less than economic. ***************************************************************************** Hazlitt, Henry Economics in One Lesson 1946; Arlington House; 218 pages The best primer on economic principles ever written, showing the long-run effects on the economy of all government intervention. There is no way to understand what's at stake in today's political controversies without a basic grasp of economic theory; for the layman in search of a clear and comprehensive introduction, Economics in One Lesson leads the pack. Here is a brilliantly concise and powerful explication of cause-and-effect in economic affairs that is as illuminating as it is readable. A true classic refuting every common myth about the necessity of state intervention and the alleged unworkability of laissez faire. ***************************************************************************** Lee, Dwight (ed.) Taxation and the Deficit Economy: Fiscal Policy and Capital Formation in the United States 1986; Pacific Research Institute; 554 pages Future economic historians writing about the 1980s will refer to it as the decade of debate over fiscal policy; the decade when the top rate of federal income taxation could have ended up anywhere from 19 to 70 percent; the decade when annual federal spending first passed the trillion-dollar mark; the decade when the national debt increased by more than $5,000 per second. Taxation and the Deficit Economy is a powerful and comprehensive critique of the fiscal policy of the United States and its major impact on economic growth. Twenty-two distinguished economists analyze the effects of past government actions and the reforms that are still urgently needed to avert long-term economic stagnation. The authors consider amending the Constitution, dramatic cutbacks or privatization of government programs, and the very morality, as well as the extent, of taxation. ***************************************************************************** Paul, Ron; Lehrman, Lewis The Case For Gold: A Minority Report of the U.S. Gold Commission 1982; Cato Institute; 228 pages This important, authoritative new book by two of America's leading proponents of the gold standard has been acclaimed by policy analysts, congressional leaders, and investment experts alike. It is destined to become the standard reference for those seriously interested in gold, whether for purposes of fundamental monetary reform or as background for investment analysis. Originally commissioned by the U.S. Gold Commission and subsequently issued as a minority report of the Commission, The Case for Gold is the first official U.S. government investigation into the feasibility of a gold standard in more than 100 years. Congressman Ron Paul, one of the prime movers in the creation of the U.S. Gold Commission, writes in his forward to the book, "more and more people are asking if a gold standard will end the financial crisis in which we find ourselves. The question is not so much if it will help or if we will resort to gold, but when. All great inflations end with the acceptance of real money..." If the United States does return to a gold standard, The Case for Gold will have played an important role in pointing the way. It is must reading for anyone seriously concerned over the growing international financial crisis. ***************************************************************************** Reisman, George The Government Against the Economy 1979; Jameson Books; 208 pages "This is one of the most powerful and convincing books I know. It's explanations are brilliantly clear; its analyses are lethal; it is uncompromising. Readers who come to it without any previous knowledge of basic economic theory will find it a luminous introduction. If any book can slow down the economic destructionism of our age, this could be it." -- Henry Hazlitt, Economist, Author, former Newsweek columnist and New York Times financial editor ***************************************************************************** Siegel, Barry (ed.) Money In Crisis: The Federal Reserve, The Economy, and Monetary Reform 1984; Pacific Institute for Public Policy; 362 pages Despite the best intentions of government to manipulate the money supply and interest rates to achieve steady real economic growth, low unemployment, and low or zero inflation, the U.S. economy has suffered repeated bouts of inflation and recession. The general public wants sustained real economic growth, reduced inflation, and low unemployment rates. But there has been no consensus among economists, monetary authorities, or politicians on how to proceed. In seeking out a new consensus, Money in Crisis analyzes the effects of monetary changes on the real economy, relative prices, and capital formation; examines the record of Federal Reserve monetary policy from 1913 to the present; and proposes bold new directions for effective reform, including free-market banking, gold and other commodity reserve currencies, and constitutional limits on fiscal and monetary policy. Contributors include economists from such diverse perspectives as monetarism, Keynesianism, rational expectations, supply-side economics, and the Austrian school. All unite in their proposals to make monetary institutions strictly accountable and devoid of political and bureaucratic influence. This comprehensive volume presents a systematic reassessment of the record of Federal Reserve policy and sets forth the agenda for the necessary reform for a new monetary standard. ***************************************************************************** Skousen, Mark Economics on Trial: Lies, Myths, and Realities 1991; Business One Irwin; 314 pages Economist and financial analyst Mark Skousen puts today's economics on trial and finds it guilty! Based on his review of the current top ten textbooks, Skousen demonstrates that mainstream economists still espouse a lot of bad economics in the media, the classroom, the business world, and the legislature. Their theories often give support for inflation, deficit spending, high tax rates, state central planning, excessive consumer and business debt, and undersaving on a gigantic scale. But Skousen's work is not just an indictment of the economics profession. He offers a practical understanding of what economics is really all about, based on his 20 years' experience in the business and financial worlds. By demonstrating how expectations, inefficient markets, the political environment, and the international arena create new opportunities and pitfalls not accounted for in traditional economic theory, Skousen shows how to use sound economic principles to make business and investment decisions. ***************************************************************************** Sowell, Thomas Marxism: Philosophy and Economics 1985; Quill; 282 pages For those with no previous knowledge of the theories of Karl Marx, this book provides a step-by-step introduction to this historic system of ideas. For those already familiar with Marxian theories and the controversies surrounding them, this book shatters some existing interpretations of Marx -- interpretations that have become standard through sheer repetition, rather than scholarship. ============================================================================= === EDUCATION === ============================================================================= Boaz, David (ed.) Liberating Schools: Education and the Inner City 1991; Cato Institute; 220 pages The American Dream starts with education. Our national mythology says that any poor kid can get a good education and grow up to be whatever he or she wants to be. But today, for the first time in American history, some Americans seem to be trapped in poverty, unable to escape. One major reason is the decline in education for the the poor. Instead of being the ticket out of the slums, schools have become a major element of the poverty trap. In this volume a dozen leading education analysts look at inner-city schools and offer innovative reforms. A teacher and a journalist offer a troubling look at what really goes on in inner-city classrooms. School administrators describe successful experiments with public school choice plans. Leading reformers call for broadening the range of choice to include private and even for-profit schools. Liberating Schools is essential reading for anyone concerned about the declining quality of American education, racial and social inequity in American society, and the wasted lives of young people failed by our schools. ***************************************************************************** Chubb, John; Moe, Terry Politics, Markets & America's Schools 1990; Brookings Institution; 318 pages During the 1980's, widespread dissatisfaction with America's schools gave rise to a powerful movement for educational change, and the nation's political institutions responded with aggressive reforms. Chubb and Moe argue that these reforms are destined to fail because they do not get to the root of the problem. The fundamental causes of poor academic performance, they claim, are not to be found in the schools, but rather in the institutions of direct democratic control by which the schools have traditionally been governed. Reformers fail by automatically relying on these institutions to solve the problem -- when the institutions are the problem. The authors recommend a new system of public education, built around parent- student choice and school competition, that would promote school autonomy -- thus providing a firm foundation for genuine school improvement and superior student achievement. ***************************************************************************** D'Souza, Dinesh Illiberal Education: The Politics of Race and Sex on Campus 1991; The Free Press; 320 pages American universities are once again the scene of angry controversy. This time it is the politics of race and sex that has sparked a wave of bitter confrontations. Some of these disputes have made national headlines; many more go unreported. They may appear to be unrelated cases of excessive zeal. But as Dinesh D'Souza argues in this firsthand report from today's deeply troubled American campus, the conflicts are the fruit of a coherent ideology that seeks to thrust the university into the vanguard of social reform and to establish a model "multicultural community." Leading this attack, D'Souza says, are student activists who charge that universities are "structurally" racist, sexist, homophobic, and class biased. These activists march under the banners of pluralism and diversity. They have demanded an admissions policy based not on academic merit but on ethnic representation; a curriculum and faculty assembled not by intellectual standards but by race and gender categories; and sensitivity training which borders on the totalitarian in its invasive insistence on a new social and political orthodoxy. Abetted and inspired by junior faculty, who press their own ambitions in a common cause; largely unopposed by senior faculty afraid to disagree with the new orthodoxy; and unrestrained by university administrators who rarely resist and frequently encourage the activists, this revolutionary movement has already widely imposed its program on every facet of university life. Unlike most critical observers, D'Souza takes the movement seriously enough to explore its effects and engage with its arguments. In doing so he finds that, unexpectedly, the very universities that are most ardently committed to the multicultural agenda are the ones that have experienced the worst ethnic tensions and the greatest number of racially charged incidents. D'Souza argues that university policies designed to foster enlightened harmony are in fact promoting ignorance, intolerance, and racism. Indeed, he notes that in the struggle for the soul of the American university, the rhetorical excesses and coercive tactics of the Politically Correct have done much to drive reflective liberals into the ranks of the conservative opposition. A groundswell of reaction has begun to take shape and is gathering strength at universities across the country. The multicultural activists, D'Souza concludes, have split the university on moral grounds, producing not a truly diverse community, but balkanized, race-conscious tribal enclaves without a shared commitment to the goals of liberal learning. ***************************************************************************** Kimball, Bruce Tenured Radicals 1990; Harper & Row; 222 pages "This is a splendid book, which ought to be read by everyone concerned with the current onslaught on the humanities,... and with any luck it will succeed in annoying all the right people." -- John Gross, former editor, Times Literary Supplement ***************************************************************************** Lieberman, Myron Privatization and Educational Choice 1989; St. Martin's Press; 386 pages Lieberman argues that the only ways to achieve lasting improvements in American education are to "foster private schools that compete with public schools and among themselves and to foster for-profit competition among service providers within the public school system." Asserting that conventional approaches to educational reform will fail because of the bureaucratic structure of the public schools and the interest groups that block reform, he contends that parents, not government agencies, should be empowered to make choices that compel schools to maintain high standards. Lieberman analyzes various modes of privatization: education vouchers, contracting out instruction, franchises and subsidies (including tax credits) for providers of educational services, and load shedding or the government's withdrawal from funding as well as delivering such services. ***************************************************************************** Spring, Joel Conflict of Interests: The Politics of American Education 1988; Longman; 192 pages Who makes policy for America's schools? This book describes the politics of American education as a complex interrelationship of government administrators, interest groups, politicians, and knowledge brokers -- each pursuing their own goals. The result is an ever-changing set of policies in American schools. Opening with a description of education's major interest groups, the book examines potential areas of educational discord -- issues of culture, language, religion, equal educational opportunity, power, money -- and then looks at the politics of education at the federal, state, and local levels. The author discusses the politics of textbook publishing and standardizing testing and analyzes the political uses of the judicial system. The book closes with a review of problems inherent in the political structure of American education and offers ideas on how to restructure the control of America's schools. ============================================================================= === ENERGY & TRANSPORTATION === ============================================================================= Bradley, Robert L The Mirage of Oil Protection 1989; University Press of America; 266 pages "This book should be read by congressmen and their assistants before legislating before legislating on the subject of an oil import tariff. The author has thoroughly researched and documented our experience with tariffs and other restrictions on oil imports. He shows that such restrictions have rarely accomplished their intended objectives and most commonly create other, unforeseen problems. The public should also read this book to understand that consumers have paid for past protection in a lower standard of living." -- Walter J. Mead, University of California at Santa Barbara ***************************************************************************** Glasner, David Politics, Prices, and Petroleum: The Political Economy of Energy 1985; Pacific Research Institute; 298 pages What role did price controls and the entitlements program play in the energy crisis of the 1970s? Were the gasoline shortages caused by the Arab oil embargo or a conspiracy of oil companies? What consequences would follow total decontrol of natural gas? How do oil imports impact inflation, unemployment, and the balance-of-payments? Who benefits from the windfall profits tax? Politics, Prices, and Petroleum provides a careful and thorough study of the structure, evolution, and recurrent crises of petroleum markets. This volume demonstrates that the years of chaos in the petroleum market (1973-1979) were the inevitable consequence of a chain of faulty government actions that began in the 1950s, grew to a crescendo with the creation of the federal Department of Energy, and still sets the stage for a future energy catastrophe. Politics, Prices, and Petroleum sorts through the conflicting claims over the causes of this massive controversy and concludes that the energy crisis is the product of political, bureaucratic, and business interests that benefit from government restrictions on energy markets. ***************************************************************************** Lave, Charles (ed.) Urban Transit: The Private Challenge to Public Transportation 1985; Pacific Research Institute; 372 pages Many urban transport systems are at the brink of collapse. Cities throughout America have threatened to shut down transit operations due to budgetary shortfalls. Decades of active government involvement in municipal transportation have encouraged inefficient service and have insulated management from the discipline of market forces. Consequently, public transportation systems now extend into low usage areas, labor costs have become intolerably high, and low fares are massively subsidized regardless of usage. Urban Transit assembles the work of fifteen scholars, transit managers, and labor relations experts whose in-depth examination of this critical subject focuses on the economics of transit matters, the possible alternative modes of urban transit, and the economic and political problems of implementing changes. Concluding that private free market forms of transit have the only reasonable chance to solve urban transit problems, the authors offer policy alternatives that challenge the current public failure of monopolized transit systems. Providing a comprehensive discussion of the evolution of public transportation problems and policy responses, and drawing extensively from documented cases throughout the country, Urban Transit is a sourcebook of workable remedies to effect consequential and imperative changes in this increasingly crisis-prone issue. ***************************************************************************** Mead, Walter; et. al., Offshore Lands: Oil and Gas Leasing and Conservation on the Outer Continental Shelf 1985; Pacific Research Institute; 170 pages The U.S. Government owns almost a billion acres of land on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). This land may have as much as 40 billion barrels of oil and 230 trillion cubic feet of natural gas remaining to be put to profitable use. At the same time, development of these resources raises many sensitive environmental issues. In an attempt to address some of these concerns, in 1978 Congress mandated the use of alternative bidding methods to the conventional cash bonus bidding system for OCS oil and gas leasing. Today these policies are universally criticized by developers, environmentalists, and state and local governments. In Offshore Lands, the authors employ exhaustive economic analysis to examine the various problems involved in the process by which firms bid for leases on OCS tracts, particularly as they affect resource conservation. Oil spills and other environmental concerns, and political pressures from adjacent states and localities are also discussed. In a comprehensive and timely analysis of OCS resources, Offshore lands provides proposals for reform, including the extension of private property and liability law to OCS lands, and OCS revenue sharing with states and municipalities. ***************************************************************************** Moorhouse, John (ed.) Electric Power: Deregulation and the Public Interest 1986; Pacific Research Institute; 516 pages Recent decontrol of domestic oil prices, the breakdown in OPEC pricing discipline, and the phased deregulation of natural gas prices have restored a marked degree of stability to oil and gas markets, but consumers still face electricity rates that many regard as inequitable, and the electric power industry faces an uncertain future. This volume examines in depth the inflexible and outmoded regulatory structure of the industry and challenges the traditional, static "natural monopoly" theory of utilities. The contributors analyze utility commission behavior, investment decisions, strategies for environmental protection, and the potential for deregulation of the electric power industry. Electric Power demonstrates that governmental regulatory and subsidy policies have led directly to the many problems facing the industry today. To resolve these problems, the authors propose that electric power markets be deregulated in order to facilitate such dynamic influences on performance as inter-fuel competition, decentralized self-generation, co-generation, direct competition (for heavy industrial users) between electric utilities, and bulk wheeling. ============================================================================= === THE ENVIRONMENT === ============================================================================= Anderson, Terry Water Crisis: Ending the Policy Drought 1983; Cato Institute; 122 pages The Wall Street Journal calls it "the issue of the '80s." Newsweek warns of "the browning of America." From the peripheral canal to synfuel plants in the Rockies to sinkholes in Florida, the approaching water crisis is increasingly on the nation's mind. Terry Anderson, a natural resource economist at Montana State University, offers a unique and informative perspective on the issue that could be bigger than the energy crisis. When competition developed for water, property rights were overturned as water users turned to the government for guaranteed access. The costs and benefits of water use were separated, and demand increased faster than supply. Today these problems are growing more severe, and political conflict over water is increasing. Anderson explains how we got to our current predicament and describes how a new set of market-oriented institutions could head off the water crisis and reduce political conflicts. This book is an excellent survey of the political economy of water and a valuable introduction to the new resource economics. ***************************************************************************** Anderson, Terry; Leal, Donald Free Market Environmentalism 1991; Pacific Research Institute; 192 pages Although there is in the United States a clear national consensus supporting the protection of the environment, advocates often profoundly disagree about the policies best designed to achieve this end. The traditional answer has been that government must intervene, through legislation and regulation of behavior, to preserve environmental values. This book takes a different approach, examining the prospects (and pitfalls) for improving natural resource allocation and environmental quality through market processes. The authors demonstrate that governmental policies often exacerbate environmental problems because of inadequate incentives and information. A property rights approach that focuses on the costs of operating markets as well as governments lays the framework for thinking about problems ranging from the American Frontier to global warming. Property rights solutions that encourage market processes are proposed for public land management, outdoor recreation, water quantity and quality, and ocean fisheries. The final chapter tackles the "tougher problems" of global warming and acid rain. Free Market Environmentalism applies the economic way of thinking to environmental problems of growing importance. It will be appropriate for environmental economic courses, but an economics background is not a prerequisite for understanding this nontechnical, innovative approach to natural resource management. ***************************************************************************** Baden, John A.; Leal, Donald The Yellowstone Primer: Land and Resource Management in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem 1990; Pacific Research Institute; 226 pages The diversity in topography and wildlife is matched by the diversity of land ownership and jurisdiction in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem: privately- owned lands, Indian lands, and state property account for 31 percent, with the remaining 69 percent managed by five separate federal agencies. Land owners, government managers, policymakers, and environmentalists are among the millions of Americans vitally concerned with the future of Yellowstone. In The Yellowstone Primer, economists, naturalists, and environmental writers examine the institutions and incentives that govern all federal land management. Using the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem as a model and free market environmentalism as a guide, the authors propose innovative strategies for resolving the competing concerns and interests that affect national park and federal lands policy in Yellowstone and throughout the U.S. The authors discuss, for example, how water marketing can best protect water quality, how the objections of ranchers can be addressed so that the wolf can be reintroduced, and how Park Endowment Boards can manage these fragile lands in a way that balances use and preservation. ***************************************************************************** Balling, Robert C. The Heated Debate: Greenhouse Predictions Versus Climate Reality 1992; Pacific Research Institute; 196 pages During the late 1980s, troubling stories about global warming and the greenhouse effect began surfacing in the media. Since then, every report of record breaking temperatures or a natural disaster like the Yellowstone fire of 1988 has been touted as another example of this supposedly man-made phenomenon. But within the scientific community, researchers are engaged in debate over how much, if any, human activity is responsible for accelerating the natural process of global warming. In The Heated Debate, Robert C. Balling Jr. dispels much of the "science fiction" of global warming and the greenhouse effect, skillfully guiding the reader through the minefield of charged scientific issues -- the influence of carbon dioxide (CO2) and chloroflourocarbons (CFCs) in the atmosphere, desertification, melting glaciers and rising ocean levels, and more -- while getting the message across that environmental disaster is not imminent. By translating the scientific data into understandable language, avoiding theoretical predictions and the purely speculative, Balling presents an even- handed look at the divisive arguments surrounding global warming and the greenhouse effect. The author represents a growing band of scientists dedicated to the study of global warming and to giving the public and government a view of it stripped of drama -- a factual view that can help prevent rash judgements and help mold effective public policy. To this end, the noted political scientist Aaron Wildavsky in his introduction speaks to what global warming and the greenhouse effect mean in the world beyond science. Most serious studies of global warming and the greenhouse effect have been undertaken since the 1980s. As the science of global warming outgrows its infancy, Balling believes that "future technology, future economic resources and the ability to acquire new information" can and will create a positive attitude about global warming, while helping to negotiate the "doomsayers'" messages of disaster. After reading The Heated Debate, political leaders, policy makers, and average citizens will have the information needed to start thinking rationally about the effects of global warming, and for making informed choices on how to deal with it. ***************************************************************************** Block, Walter (ed.) Economics and the Environment: a Reconciliation 1990; Fraser Institute; 332 pages Economics and the Environment -- implausible bedfellows at the best of times. However, the world runs on well-understood principles, and environmentalists' goals must translate into workable economic solutions. Using the building blocks of free market prices, private property rights, and a justice system that protects such rights, the contributors to this unique volume demonstrate how the economics of the market can be used to attain ecologically sound environmental goals efficiently and effectively. Free enterprise is not the cause of environmental problems, but it can be part of the solution. There is no intrinsic conflict between the market and the environment. Economics and the Environment explores the idea that a reconciliation between economics and ecology is not only possible but desirable as well. ***************************************************************************** Deacon, Robert; Johnson, Bruce M. Forestlands: Public and Private 1985; Pacific Research Institute; 332 pages Adopted around the turn of the century, government-managed forestlands have been claimed to ensure perpetual timber supplies and provide industry and community stability. However, compared with private timberlands, public lands have systematically witnessed frequent and severe timber supply problems, environmental hazards, and market instabilities. For example, private forestlands produce two thirds of the nation's softwood with higher turnover rates and shorter rotation ages than public holdings; local economies based on public timber are highly unstable because of government-mandated timber-marketing policies; and investors are increasingly reluctant to undertake new ventures significantly dependent on the insecure source of public timber. Featuring leading scholars in economics, forest sciences, history, law, and related fields, Forestlands compares private/market with public/bureaucratic forest management and critically examines such topics as state and federal regulation of timberlands, timber tax and antitrust policies, wilderness and exclusive-use forestlands, capital formation, trade policies, and conservation. ***************************************************************************** Douglas, Mary; Wildavsky, Aaron Risk and Culture: An Essay on the Selection of Technological and Environmental Dangers 1982; University of California Press; 222 pages "Poses an important question. Why do people emphasize certain risks while ignoring others? In particular, why have so many in our society singled out pollution as a source of concern? ...Offering what they call a 'cultural theory of risk perception,' the authors suggest that people's complaints about hazards should never be taken at face value. One must look further to discover what forms of social organization are being defended or attacked." -- New York Times Book Review ***************************************************************************** Efron, Edith The Apocalyptics: How Environmental Politics Controls What We Know About Cancer 1984; Simon & Schuster; 590 pages The Apocalyptics is the fully documented revelation of one of the most astonishing scientific scandals of our time: the ideological corruption of cancer research in the United States. After years of diligent investigation, it is Edith Efron's contention that an extreme environmental movement, which she calls "the apocalyptics," has politically distorted research in environmental cancer, saturating the United States with theories of cancer that are pure myth. This book contains explosive disclosures of scientific misrepresentation, manipulation of the press, and scandals at the highest levels of federal health agencies. The apocalyptics' chief misrepresentation, says the author, is the "Garden of Eden" theory of cancer, namely that cancer is a man-made by-product of rampant industrialism and that nature is pristine and pure. This theory is false, and scientists have known it to be false for years. Yet despite abundant scientific evidence of natural carcinogens, governmental agencies fail to report on most of them and instead issue warnings only about industrial carcinogens. The Apocalyptics makes some extraordinary disclosures about cancer research that until now had been withheld from the public. Although we have voluminous regulations governing substances that were purportedly dangerous to human health, the science on which these regulations are based is at best shaky and at worst invalid. The regulations rely largely on animal research. Yet, as Efron explains, most cancer scientists agree that animal tests are of little value in predicting human cancer. Step by step she takes us through the process by which scientists extrapolate from animal data to humans, showing how these extrapolations are mired in untestable hypotheses, logical fallacies, and unresolvable controversies. The public has never before been told that the cancer bureaucracy solves the problem of cancer prediction with a set of arbitrary policies that are actually political decisions, unproven and indeed unprovable by the standards of the scientific method. Over the last decade Americans have been told by U.S. government agencies that they are exposed to millions of chemicals, many of them potentially carcinogenic; that 90 percent of cancer is caused by industrial chemicals; that there is a tremendous epidemic of occupational cancer under way in this country; and that America has one of the highest rates of pollution-linked cancers in the world. Efron demonstrates that all of this was deliberate official misrepresentation. The Apocalyptics is the shocking story of how scientific research has been corrupted for political purposes and how the press has been used to misinform the public in one of the most vital areas of human health. ***************************************************************************** Frederick, Kenneth, Sedjo, Roger (ed.) America's Renewable Resources: Historical Trends and Current Challenges 1992; Resources for the Future; 296 pages By recording one country's experience with its vast natural resource base, America's Renewable Resources: Historical Trends and Current Challenges will help to inform the management of future demands on the resource base in the United States and throughout the world. The authors focus specifically on renewable resources -- water, forests, rangeland, cropland and soils, and wildlife -- which possess the capacity to restore themselves after they have been consumed. Because this capacity can be destroyed and the time required for restoration can be very long, a balance in their use is necessary to sustain continued productivity. In arresting fashion, the authors trace the history of each resource's use from early colonial times through periods of dramatic, sometimes cataclysmic, changes in its utilization by an expanding, diversifying society. They show how unforeseen consequences have forced social institutions into existence and compelled policy makers, especially at the federal level, to deal with problems for which they were largely unprepared. Complicating the effort is the fact that many of these resources are common property, and have been available on a first-come-first-served basis. Competing claims to their use have many times erupted into legal and even physical conflict. A concluding chapter examines the implications of the growing demand for outdoor recreation on those renewable resources. America's Renewable Resources, by examining changes in demand, technologies, policies, and institutions, will assist both policy makers and the public at large to look past short-term events to the conditions fundamental to maintaining our future economic and environmental well-being. ***************************************************************************** Greve, Michael; Smith, Fred Environmental Politics: Public Costs, Private Rewards 1992; Praeger; 212 pages "it is not the purpose of this volume to document, yet again, the staggering costs and inefficiencies of environmental policy. Environmental Politics: Public Costs, Private Rewards is about the sources of inefficiency. It asks, what explains the present, counterproductive system of environmental regulation? To this complex question, the book gives a relatively simple and, concededly, partial answer: Far more often than is commonly realized, the purpose and effect of environmental policy is to serve narrow political and economic objectives, not environmental objectives." -- from the Preface ***************************************************************************** Libecap, Gary D. Locking up the Range: Federal Land Controls and Grazing 1981; Pacific Research Institute; 108 pages Using economic theories of regulation and bureaucratic behavior, Gary Libecap examines the chronic and costly insecurity of tenure to nearly 180 million acres of western rangeland -- and area larger than New England and the Mid- Atlantic states combined. Insecure tenure has existed there since the 1880s and has reduced the range resource contribution to general welfare through overgrazing, land deterioration, and limited investment in fences, wells, and other improvements. Libecap argues that the self-interest goals of the Interior Department repeatedly blocked the assignment of private property rights to the range despite the absence of any public goods qualities. Since the land has been retained by the government, use privileges are bureaucratically assigned and are inherently uncertain due to the narrow, changing goals of the bureaucracy. The conflict between ranchers, environmentalists and the Interior Department in the 1980s reflects these continuing past conditions and can only be permanently resolved through the granting of clear property titles to those who use the land. ***************************************************************************** Maduro, Rogelio; Schauerhammer; Ralf The Holes in the Ozone Scare: The Scientific Evidence that the Sky Isn't Falling 1992; 21st Century Science Associates; 356 pages "Concerned about the thinning of the ozone layer? Take heart from this book, which documents that even the worst-case scenario of an 8 percent decrease in ozone is equivalent to the increase in ultraviolet radiation and skin cancer risk you would get from moving 100 miles south. Quite another matter will be the severe repercussions worldwide of banning freons, as now advocated by various groups in their own self-interest." -- Dr. Hugh W. Ellsaesser, Atmospheric Scientist, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (retired) ***************************************************************************** Michaels, Patrick J. Sound and Fury: The Science and Politics of Global Warming 1992; Cato Institute; 196 pages "Sound and Fury is absolute must-reading for anyone interested in global climate change. Misunderstanding and misinformation abound and Dr. Michaels has provided the best and most complete antidote for the ignorance surrounding this issue. His thoroughly researched and carefully documented treatise will stand as a turning point in this sometimes hysterical debate." -- Gov. Dixy Lee Ray, former chairman Atomic Energy Commission ***************************************************************************** Ray, Dixy Lee; Guzzo, Lou Trashing the Planet: How Science Can Help Us Deal With Acid Rain, Depletion of the Ozone, and Nuclear Waste (Among Other Things) 1990; Regnery Gateway; 206 pages Trashing the Planet is the one book you need to get a sure, common-sense grasp on the contentious issues where science and politics overlap, and where environmentalism moves from well-meaning idealism to counterproductive eco- terrorism. Dixy Lee Ray -- former governor of Washington, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, assistant secretary of state in the U.S. Bureau of Oceans, and long-time member of the Zoology faculty of the University of Washington -- writes with the simplicity of a journalist and the intellectual power of a professional scientist. Dr. Ray exposes how little the public knows about the environment and how piddling are man's influences upon it -- volcanoes shoot far more pollutants into the atmosphere than do all of man's industrial activities -- and how complex are the interactions of natural phenomena. Rushing to solve "problems" without adequate information, she points out, is frequently counterproductive -- as with the radon scare, for example. Radon has only become a problem since the desire to conserve energy resulted in the use of insulation that does not allow radon to escape naturally, and harmlessly, into the atmosphere. Dr. Ray refutes the contention that wind power and solar power are legitimate alternative energy resources; they are in fact more expensive and more dangerous than nuclear power. She calls for environmentalists to regain a sense of perspective, stop hating humanity, and deal with facts instead of letting their ardor carry them into the realm of "noble lies." As Dr. Ray notes, "This old earth has been through a lot, including drastic climate changes, without any help from humans... Our responsibility is to be good stewards of the environment and to remember that a well-tended garden is better than a neglected woodlot." Trashing the Planet is a breath of fresh air in the current debate dominated by rhetorical extremism. ***************************************************************************** Simon, Julian Population Matters: People, Resources, Environment and Immigration 1990; Transaction; 578 pages Since 1970, Julian Simon has been challenging the doomsayers and their conventional beliefs with his controversial popular essays based upon his technical research. These are his central messages: Raw materials and energy are getting less scarce. The world's food supply is improving. Pollution in the United States has been decreasing. Population growth has long-term benefits, though added people are a burden in the short run. The United States benefits from more immigrants. These assertions have stood the test of time. In contrast, the conventional beliefs of the doomsayers have been entirely falsified by events during the last two decades. And in response, the professional consensus has largely changed. Such institutions as the World Bank and the National Academy of Sciences have recanted their former views. The central issue is the effects of the number of people upon the standard of living, with special attention to raw materials and the environment. On balance, the long-run effects are positive. The mechanism works as follows: Population growth and increase of income expand demand, forcing up prices of natural resources. The increased prices trigger the search for new supplies, and eventually new sources and substitutes are found. These discoveries leave humanity better off than if the shortages had not occurred. The structure of society determines the speed of development. With economic liberty, population growth causes fewer short-run problems, and greater long- run benefits, than where the state controls economic activity. The vision that unifies the various selections is that of human beings who create more than they destroy. Simon also discusses why belief in the opposite set of views is so widespread. Some of the most provocative essays in this volume have never before been published, surely because they are too shocking or inflammatory for mainstream editors. ============================================================================= === FOREIGN POLICY === ============================================================================= Bauer, P.T. Equality, the Third World, and Economic Delusion 1981; Harvard University Press; 294 pages Bauer convincingly challenges widely held views about economic development, colonialism, the foreign aid process, the goal of egalitarianism, and the population explosion. The book sets a high standard in its deployment of fact and economic reasoning, yet it is beautifully written and accessible to the lay reader. ***************************************************************************** Bauer, P.T. Reality and Rhetoric: Studies in the Economics of Development 1984; Harvard University Press; 184 pages This book is the culmination of P.T. Bauer's observations and reflections on Third World economies over a period of thirty years. He critically examines the central issues of market versus centrally planned economies, industrial development, official direct and multi-national resource transfers to the Third World, immigration policy in the Third World, and economic methodology. "Peter Bauer is the world's foremost authority on economic development... In Reality and Rhetoric he destroys many popular myths about economic development and in the process convincingly demonstrates that static societies result wherever government pre-empts human action by monopolizing economic life... Drawing on rich historical knowledge and personal experience of West Africa and Asia, the author chronicles examples of rapid economic advance prior to the advent of marketing boards and other government intrusions... His scholarship is devastating, and it will leave sensitive readers with a sense of outrage at development economists whose ignorant meddling has devastated poor and struggling people." -- Wall Street Journal ***************************************************************************** De Soto, Hernando The Other Path: The Invisible Revolution in the Third World 1989; Harper & Row; 272 pages The Other Path can fundamentally alter the way we perceive the so-called underdeveloped countries of the Third World, and in particular how their internal economies and political alliances actually function. The Other Path uses Lima, Peru, as a case study and describes in absorbing detail the surprising and revolutionary world of the so-called "informals," black-marketeers who work outside the law. These "informals" represent 60 percent of the economy; for example, 95 percent of the public transportation in Lima is owned and operated by private companies. The reason for this underground economy is the enormous complexity of Peru's legal machinery: Hundreds of new regulations are passed each week and no private entrepreneur can hope to deal with the bureaucracy. Through detailed field studies, The Other Path calculates the enormous economic effects of laws regulating such diverse matters as housing construction, the establishment of industries, public transport, and trade. For many readers, however, the greatest contribution of The Other Path is its controversial political analysis. De Soto provides evidence to support his theory that Latin America is nearing the end of a stage in its history similar to the one experienced by European nations when mercantilist regimes dominated the continent between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries. He argues that Peru is already undergoing a revolutionary and irreversible process of transformation. ***************************************************************************** Eberstadt, Nicholas Foreign Aid and American Purpose 1988; American Enterprise Institute; 164 pages Is American foreign aid policy working? What are its unintended -- even harmful -- effects? Nicholas Eberstadt goes beyond a strictly economic analysis to arrive at the heart of these issues. Foreign aid and foreign policy must share a common purpose -- and economic issues must not be divorced from moral principles. ***************************************************************************** Hancock, Graham Lords of Poverty: The Power, Prestige, and Corruption of the International Aid Business 1989; Atlantic Monthly Press; 234 pages A comprehensive and controversial study of the $60-billion-a-year world foreign-aid business, Lords of Poverty was a best-seller in hardcover and earned the 1990 H.L. Mencken Award honorable mention for an outstanding work of journalism. Graham Hancock investigates why huge aid projects ostensibly intended to ease the world's misery have often, at great expense, increased it. Going behind the scenes to trace the patterns of spending and analyze why and where aid has failed, Hancock offers long- and short-term remedies and informs the public of the true destination of their charity dollars and the pitfalls of sharing the world's wealth. ***************************************************************************** Kwitny, Jonathan Endless Enemies: The Making of an Unfriendly World 1984; Penguin Books; 434 pages In this energetic, hard-hitting, and well-documented account, Jonathan Kwitny shows how American interventionist activities abroad have consistently undermined our foreign policy goals. Attempts by the government and by giant corporations to manipulate the economies of developing nations, military and political blunders in many parts of the world, and tremendous (often inexplicable) expenditures of lives and money seem to have succeeded only in driving Third World nations toward corruption and communism. Kwitny, a veteran reporter for the Wall Street Journal, focuses on specific misuse of power, money, and influence in Asia, Africa, Central America, and the Caribbean. For readers of any political persuasion, Endless Enemies makes it clear that only by returning to its basic moral principles can the United States protect and further its own best interests abroad. ***************************************************************************** Lal, Deepak The Poverty of "Development Economics" 1983; Harvard University Press; 154 pages This short, incisive book is a critique of the assumptions and results of development economics as it has been practiced since World War II. Development economics flourished in the belief that neoclassical economic analysis did not apply to underdeveloped countries. It was thought that there would be insufficient demand for their products, that peasants and other local economic agents were not rational entrepreneurial actors who could readily exploit economic opportunities, and that somehow bureaucrats and planners would make investment decisions better than these private agents. None of these propositions has generally been true, Lal argues, and most serious distortions in the operation of the price system in underdeveloped countries have been due not to inherent imperfections in the market mechanism but to government interventions, such as foreign-trade controls, industrial licensing, and various forms of price control. The important lesson of the varied development performance of poor countries in the last thirty years is that efficient growth, which raises the demand for unskilled labor by "getting the prices right," has been the single most effective means of alleviating poverty. ***************************************************************************** Powelson, John; Stock, Richard The Peasant Betrayed: Agriculture and Land Reform in the Third World 1990; Cato Institute; 402 pages With few exceptions, assert economists John P. Powelson and Richard Stock, land reforms in Third World countries have done little to improve the lot of the rural poor. Evaluating reforms in 16 countries and offering illustrations from 10 others, Powelson and Stock detail case after case in which government intervention has impoverished the peasant. Whether the country is "capitalist" or "socialist," the authors contend, the purpose of land reform is to transfer political power to the state. The peasants gain title to the land, but the government continues to control the farming and pricing systems. As a result, agricultural output has declined, and the farmer has suffered extreme poverty. The only exceptions have been where the state has left farming to the farmer. Thus, Powelson and Stock conclude that peasants need technical expertise and economic and political power to effect equitable land reform. ***************************************************************************** Sen, Amartya Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation 1981; Oxford University Press; 258 pages The main focus of this book is on the causation of starvation in general and of famines in particular. The traditional analysis of famines focusing on food supply, is shown to be fundamentally defective -- theoretically unsound, empirically inept, and dangerously misleading for policy. The author develops an alternative method of analysis -- the "entitlement approach" -- concentrating on ownership and exchange. Aside from developing the underlying theory, the approach is used in a number of case studies of recent famines, including the Great Bengal Famine of 1943, the Ethiopian famines of 1973 and 1974, the Bangladesh famine of 1974 and the famines in the Sahel countries in Africa in the seventies. The book also provides a general analysis of the characterization and measurement of poverty. Various approaches used in economics, sociology and political theory are critically examined. The predominance of distributional issues, including distribution between different occupation groups, links up the problem of conceptualizing poverty with that of analyzing starvation. While technical economic analysis is to some extent unavoidable for a work of this kind, the text of this book has been kept as informal as possible, and technicalities and mathematical reasoning are confined to the Appendices. The text is accessible to the non-technical reader, who can easily follow the main lines of reasoning and their applications to the case studies. ============================================================================= === GOVERNMENT === ============================================================================= Bennett, James; DiLorenzo, Thomas Destroying Democracy: How Government Funds Partisan Politics 1985; Cato Institute; 562 pages "To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical." So wrote Thomas Jefferson in 1786. Yet every year the government Jefferson once headed gives hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to organizations that use their money for political activity -- lobbying, campaigning, grass- roots organizing, and more. With the tenacity of investigative journalists, economists James T. Bennett and Thomas J. DiLorenzo track down where the money comes from, where it goes, and how it is used. Taxpayer dollars go to Tom Hayden's Campaign for Economic Democracy, Ralph Nader's Public Interest Research Groups, the National Organization for Women, and the AFL-CIO, as well as to business and conservative groups. This book will be explosive reading for every taxpayer -- and for anyone who believes in a fair political process. ***************************************************************************** Bennett, James; DiLorenzo, Thomas Official Lies: How Washington Misleads Us 1992; Groom Books; 318 pages Official Lies opens the curtain on our modern Wizard of Oz: the vast propaganda machine headquartered in Washington, D.C. By turns scathing, reflective, amusing, and outrageous, Official Lies exposes the ways in which the federal government manipulates opinion and subverts democracy by the incessant promotion of its own interests. Washington has become the publishing and movie-making capital of the world: those reams of copy and reels of film it produces are too often accepted as gospel truth by a gullible press. The scope of these official deceptions is breathtaking. Official Lies reveals how our permanent Congress (which all the electoral dynamite in the world can't seem to dislodge) is kept in place by masterly use of huge staffs deployed like armies, promiscuous use of the frank, and chicanery and graft that would make Boss Tweed blush. From welfare to drugs to defense, Uncle Sam consistently misrepresents problems so that his muscles can grow ever larger. Poverty statistics have been systematically overblown in order to win greater spending on social programs. (Astonishingly, 22,000 households officially designated as "poor" own Jacuzzis or heated swimming pools.) Agricultural aid, advertised as a balm to ailing all-American families right out of Norman Rockwell, has in fact showered millionaire farmers (including the Prince of Liechtenstein!) with a bounty of taxpayers' dollars. Official Lies takes on the preposterous scare stories: the myth of global warming (or a new ice age, depending on the computer one use and the weather in Washington), the poison apple hoax, the asbestos mess, and others. Behind each of these hoodwinkings is the most powerful special interest in the world -- the U.S. government -- seeking to enhance its own power. Fearlessly, Official Lies reveals the vaunted War on Drugs for what it is: a stew of lies and distortions concocted by the modern heirs of the Prohibitionists. The authors also examine the real motives behind the burgeoning movements to restrict tobacco use and modify adult sexual behavior via the threat of heterosexual AIDS. Official Lies takes the reader into a netherworld in which failure is success and honesty is scarce. It does so with a lively mixture of wit and fury and is sure to be one of the most hotly debated political books of the year. ***************************************************************************** Bennett, James; DiLorenzo, Thomas Underground Government: The Off-Budget Public Sector 1983; Cato Institute; 184 pages While public attention is focused on the rapid growth of federal spending and the feasibility of a constitutional amendment to balance the budget, another part of the federal government is quietly flourishing: off-budget spending. Agencies like the Federal Financing Bank have quadrupled in size in the past six years. Federal loans and guaranteed loans now exceed $100 billion, while borrowing by "federally sponsored enterprises" stands at $300 billion. For the first time information on this burgeoning off-budget sector has been gathered in one volume. George Mason University economists Bennett and DiLorenzo provide a wealth of data and analysis on how government at all levels is reacting to taxpayer attempts at limiting government growth. In addition to federal off-budget spending they document the extent of state and local off-budget enterprises (including Nelson Rockefeller's unprecedented use of the device in New York and the notorious Washington Public Power System, or "Whoops"). This highly readable, pathbreaking book is must reading for anyone concerned with taxing and spending, the budget process, or the growth of government. ***************************************************************************** Bennett, James; Johnson, Manuel H. Better Government at Half the Price: Private Production of Public Services 1981; Caroline House; 116 pages "Every taxpayer, regardless of political persuasion, should be vitally interested in the theme of this powerful and convincing book: public services can be produced with many fewer tax dollars if the more efficient private sector, instead of government agencies, produces these services. "The authors first show that the burden on taxpayers has been growing rapidly, is currently at an all-time high, and must increase further in the future to meet financial commitments made by government in the past... Taxpayers have been paying more and getting less; it is essential that public services be produced at much lower cost. "Second, the authors explain why government has not been and cannot be an efficient producer... "Third, numerous case studies of activities performed by the private sector and by local, state, and federal government are compared with regard to cost. In every case, the private sector markedly outperforms the public sector by producing goods and services at much lower costs. "This book directly addresses a critical public policy issue: the need to reduce the tax burden on American taxpayers without sacrificing necessary public services. The clear and unmistakable conclusion -- drawn from irrefutable evidence that taxes can be cut substantially without adverse effect on public services -- should be welcomed by all." -- William Simon ***************************************************************************** Burnham, David A Law Unto Itself: The IRS and the Abuse of Power 1989; Random House; 420 pages A Law Unto Itself is the first full-scale investigative book on the Internal Revenue Service. David Burnham, a distinguished reporter honored for his probing work on major bureaucracies such as the New York City Police Department, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the National Security Agency, now has penetrated the largest, most powerful and least accountable of all U.S. law enforcement agencies. The size of the IRS alone is mind-boggling, and its reach is little understood. Twice as big as the CIA and five times larger than the FBI, the IRS controls more information about more Americans than any other government agency. Through its unique power to give and take away tax exemptions, its unequaled authority to seize property and its unparalleled access to financial records, the IRS has become the nation's single most powerful instrument of social control. Burnham lucidly explains how the IRS came to be so powerful. He describes the way the IRS actually processes tax returns, selects individual taxpayers for audit and operates one of the most sophisticated collection agencies in the world -- and the methods the IRS uses to obtain billions of pieces of financial information and computerizes them to spin a complex web of data around every taxpayer. He also shows how seemingly small administrative errors by the agency often escalate into situations where millions of taxpayers each year are left enraged, frustrated and -- too frequently -- seriously and improperly damaged in a financial way. The agency pays lip service to protecting taxpayers' files against improper use, but tax information has been leaked many times in order to undermine the careers of politicians and others who have criticized it. Burnham reveals dozens of stories about the way the IRS, sometimes at the bidding of presidents and other times on its own initiative, has involved itself in many different social and political issues: working to slow the civil rights movement of the 1960s, going after religious fundamentalists and seeking to prevent the development of public interest law firms dedicated to improving the environment. Such vast power has not gone uncorrupted. A Law Unto Itself exposes many cases of bribery, corruption, big-time financial fixes and improper political activities, suggesting that both the internal management and external oversight of the IRS are grossly inadequate. Burnham's absorbing portrait of this giant presence in American life is substantiated at every point by court documents, detailed statistics, case histories, congressional hearings, candid interviews, confidential audits and official investigative reports. ***************************************************************************** Fitzgerald, Randall; Lipson, Gerald Porkbarrel: The Unexpurgated Grace Commission Story of Congressional Profligacy 1984; Cato Institute; 114 pages When the Grace Commission on government waste issued its final report, it accused Congress of blocking attempts to cut billions of dollars from federal spending. Members of Congress, it said, tried to bring water projects and military bases to their districts and keep them there when they weren't needed. In addition, it charged Congress with interfering in administrative decisions on pay scales and employee reorganization. But the Grace Commission lost its nerve and published its final volume with all the names deleted. More than 100 members of congress breathed a sigh of relief that their pork- barreling would be spared the light of day. Now the complete, unexpurgated report is available in this volume -- containing every name in the original report along with a new introduction by the authors. Pork-barreling respects no partisan or ideological boundaries. The members of congress cited in this book range from the big spenders to fiscal conservatives. If you want to know what your congressman is really doing about waste in government -- and what we can do about it -- you need to read this book. ***************************************************************************** Formaini, Robert The Myth of Scientific Public Policy 1990; Transaction; 130 pages Should the methods of science determine the appropriate actions of government? Supporters of scientific public policy argue that these methods permit policymakers to devise good public policy while remaining neutral on troublesome ethical questions. Robert Formaini delivers a sustained critique of this notion in The Myth of Scientific Public Policy. Formaini's examination of risk assessment and cost-benefit analysis -- the two most popular methods now in existence to "scientifically" evaluate public policy -- is as notable for its lucidity as it is for its breadth. He demonstrates that, due to these methods' inherent limitations, they are unequal to the feats that their advocates claim for them, and shows that their proported moral neutrality is actually negated by concealed, implicit values. ***************************************************************************** Gross, Martin L. The Government Waste: Washington Waste from A to Z 1992; Bantam; 270 pages If you knew how the government was wasting billions of your tax dollars -- nearly enough to balance the budget -- wouldn't you try to stop it? Now you can get all the facts from A to Z (Agriculture to Zoos) in Martin L. Gross's shocking and persuasive new book. Learn why our government costs too much and delivers too little to too few Americans! Did you know: * that the White House has 29 limousines to drive its personnel around town, and that our taxes pay for 50 more chauffeured cars to take bureaucrats door-to-door at $100,000 each per year? * that the government own and operates 1200 civilian aircraft (worth $2 billion) used to fly government agency executives, spouses, and guests all over the country at a cost of more than $800 million each year? * that the government will "borrow" $50 billion this year from the Social Security fund and cheat the aged by using the money to pay the bills of a bloated bureaucracy? * that federal agencies will spend more than $7 billion of taxpayer money, then go into a travel frenzy at year's end to use up their budgets by visiting luxury resorts like Palm Springs and Las Vegas? * that of 1250 toxic waste sites identified for cleanup by the Environmental Protection Agency, only 65 have been completed in eleven years, at a cost of $10 billion? Never before has a book provided the American public with the astonishing, infuriating truths about government waste and inefficiency...and supplied clear, possible solutions to a problem that's bankrupting our nation! It's time to send an urgent message to Washington: STOP WASTING OUR MONEY! ***************************************************************************** Higgs, Robert Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government 1987; Pacific Research Institute; 350 pages Few topics are as timely as the growth of government. What has generated this growth? To understand why government has grown, Robert Higgs asserts, one must understand how it has grown. This book offers a coherent, multi-causal explanation, guided by a novel analytical framework firmly grounded in historical evidence. More than a study of trend in government spending, taxing, and employment, Crisis and Leviathan is a thorough analysis of the actual occasions when and the specific means by which Big Government developed in the United States. More than an abstract account, it names names and highlights the actions of significant individuals. The author examines how twentieth century national emergencies -- mainly wars, depressions, and labor disturbances -- have prompted federal officials to take over previously private rights and activities. When the crises passed, a residue of new governmental powers remained. Even more significantly, each great crisis and the governmental responses to it resulted in ideological change. Thus new governmental measures went hand in hand with reinforcing shifts in public beliefs and attitudes toward the government's proper role in American life. Integrating the contributions of scholars in diverse disciplines, including history, law, political philosophy, and the social sciences, Crisis and Leviathan makes compelling reading for all those who seek to understand the transformation of America's political economy over the past century. ***************************************************************************** Ippolito, Dennis Hidden Spending: The Politics of Federal Credit Programs 1984; University of North Carolina Press; 170 pages Political Controversies over federal spending and deficits have focused on the budget's size, composition, and economic effects. Dennis Ippolito examines a less publicized source of our current fiscal troubles: federal credit programs. Since the 1970s these programs -- which are primary components of federal policy in such areas as housing, agriculture, education, and international affairs -- have grown dramatically, but neither their growth nor their costs have been reflected in the budget. Inherently difficult to control, federal credit programs provide well-defined and substantial benefits to important constituencies. Most direct loans, however, are charged to off-budget agencies, while the budgetary consequences of loan guarantees become apparent only in the case of default. With both direct loans and loan guarantees, Ippolito demonstrates, the true costs of federal credit assistance are hidden. Moreover, in addition to creating problems of interest subsidies, administrative costs, and default liabilities, federal credit programs alter the allocation of credit and can retard economic growth and productivity. ***************************************************************************** Payne, James L. The Culture of Spending: Why Congress Lives Beyond Our Means 1991; ICS Press; 226 pages What's the matter with Congress? Year after year our taxes rise to pay for new government programs and expand old ones. The federal deficit has ballooned to overwhelming proportions. Congress has tried to curb its appetite for spending by imposing legal limits -- a desperate ploy one senator likened to scrawling "Stop me before I spend again!" in lipstick on a motel-room mirror. Many Americans think the problem is political corruption: Congressmen simply couldn't believe in all the things they vote for -- could they? The Culture of Spending says they could. This pathbreaking study offers a radical new framework for understanding how congress operates, exploding the widely accepted myth that politicians trade "pork barrel" promises to special- interest groups in exchange for re-election. Instead, explains James L. Payne, our representatives are human beings who meet people, talk with them, and ultimately are persuaded by them. But most of this persuading is done by those whose status, paycheck, and sense of accomplishment depend on the programs they urge. Who speaks on the other side, as critics of these programs? Practically no one! The Culture of Spending shows that congressionally hearings are dominated by government employees and lobbyists who favor federal programs. The ratio of testimony pro to con runs "a thousand to one," according to one legislative aid. This shockingly one-sided legislative process has produced a congressional "culture of spending" that views increased federal expenditures as the solution to virtually everything. When the only thing in your toolbox is a hammer, every problem begins to look like a nail. James L. Payne has written the rare book that is both good reading and a significant contribution to the study of our politics. The Culture of Spending reveals the real world of our Congress -- and tells us what we can do to change it. ***************************************************************************** Wilson, James Q. Bureaucracy: What Government Agencies Do and Why They Do It 1989; Basic Books; 434 pages Examining a wide range of bureaucracies, including the U.S. Army, the FBI, the DEA, the CIA, the FCC, the Social Security Administration, and many more, a leading U.S. expert in public administration provides the first comprehensive, in-depth analysis of what government agencies do, why they behave the way they do, and how they might become more responsive and effective. ============================================================================= === GUNS === ============================================================================= Halbrook, Stephen That Every Man Be Armed: The Evolution of a Constitutional Right 1984; The Independent Institute; 274 pages The power inherent in possessing firearms has created controversy over the right of the citizenry to own and bear weapons throughout western civilization. That Every Man Be Armed is the most complete work ever written on the philosophy, history, and legal precedent that the American citizen's right to possess arms is as fundamental to democracy as is freedom of speech. Stephen P. Halbrook, attorney and Ph.D., thoroughly probes the American constitutional rights to have and use privately owned firearms. He begins with a critical analysis of pertinent classics of western thought from ancient Greece and Rome to eighteenth century France and England, all of which formed the intellectual antecedents for the debate waged by the authors of the Second Amendment. Much of Halbrook's reinterpretation draws on rarely discussed archival material. Halbrook also looks at events of moment in American history where the individual's right to own weapons was contested, including the American Revolution itself, the controversy over the Constitution's ratification, the adoption of the Bill of Rights, and nearly a century later, the Fourteenth Amendment. Using his training as a lawyer, Halbrook also creates a comprehensive legal brief based on interpretations of state and federal judicial opinions and Supreme Court decisions -- including the court's refusal to review the first total handgun ban in American history, enacted in Morton Grove, Illinois. The thorough research and in-depth analysis presented in That Every Man Be Armed well support Halbrook's jurisprudential view that the right to keep and bear arms is a fundamental form of individual protection against both crime and potential state and federal infringement on human liberties. ***************************************************************************** Kates, Don B. (ed.) Restricting Handguns: The Liberal Skeptics Speak Out 1979; North River Press; 238 pages " ...the essays together effectively present the liberal case against handgun prohibition -- a position usually associated almost exclusively with conservative groups or with organizations of firearm owners." -- Library Journal ============================================================================= === HEALTH CARE === ============================================================================= Bast, Joseph; Rue, Richard; Wesbury, Stuart Why We Spend Too Much On Health Care 1992; Heartland Institute; 130 pages Why We Spend Too Much on Health Care explodes the myths surrounding health care spending in the U.S. and other nations. For example, the authors reveal that the rate of spending growth in the U.S. since 1960 was lower than in Japan, Italy, and France, and nearly the same as in Canada and West Germany. Moreover, the U.S. faced major public health challenges -- including AIDS, drug abuse, and teenage pregnancy -- that were much less significant problems in other nations. The authors trace the growth in U.S. health care spending to government spending, favorable tax treatment of health insurance programs, and regulation of the health care industry. Why We Spend Too Much presents two bold plans for lowering unnecessary health care spending while expanding access for the needy. These plans, being advance in Washington, D.C. by some of the nation's leading "think tanks," would privatize Medicaid and Medicare, change tax treatment of health insurance premiums, allow individuals to open Medical Savings Accounts for direct payment of their medical expenses, and repeal costly regulations. ***************************************************************************** Callahan, Daniel What Kind of Life: The Limits of Medical Progress 1991; Simon & Schuster; 318 pages What Kind of Life asks some basic practical philosophical questions: How much and what kind of health is necessary for a decent life? What kind of claim can we make on others for care? How do we enhance the quality of life and meet the needs of society? How do we answer these questions in the contexts of organ transplants, the development of artificial body parts, mechanically prolonged life extension, artificial modes of reproduction, and other technologies that improve health and yet drive up costs? For Callahan, America's obsession with open-ended medical progress distorts our view of what constitutes good health. Improving, manipulating, and prolonging life beyond reasonable expectations, he argues, causes us to neglect other vital aspects of healthcare and to shortchange crucial needs such as education, housing, and other necessities of the good life. Written with great sensitivity and clarity, What Kind of Life is a landmark analysis, a book that will permanently change the way we think about health, happiness, and the future of the common good. ***************************************************************************** Frech, H.E. (ed.) Health Care in America: The Political Economy of Hospitals and Health Insurance 1988; Pacific Research Institute; 402 pages Despite the hundreds of billions of dollars being spent annually, quality health care at affordable cost still is unavailable to many Americans. Escalated health insurance and health care costs, and the failure of government-subsidized health insurance to solve the problem have forced Americans to take a serious look at the current state of this country's health care system. Inadequacies and inefficiencies in this system are increasingly apparent. However, viable alternatives to traditional means of providing insurance and service are emerging. This volume provides a wealth of analysis into present healthcare practices and explores alternative market-based approaches that could lead to increased quality of service at more affordable costs. From Medicare to private insurance, from DRGs, HMOs, and PPOs to traditional services, the topics are addressed in a thorough and scholarly manner. At a time when health care issues are of increasing concern, the authors contribute ideas and insights that will be of interest to all who are attempting to deal with these issues. ***************************************************************************** Goodman, John C.; Musgrave, Gerald L. Patient Power: Solving America's Health Care Crisis 1992; Cato Institute; 672 pages "The way to solve our health care problems is to provide individuals with incentives to spend their health care dollars more effectively. Everything you might possibly want to know about doing this may be found in this book." -- Rep. John Miller ***************************************************************************** Wasley, Terree P. What Has Government Done To Our Health Care? 1992; Cato Institute; 162 pages Health care is one of the top issues of the day, but few realize that the problems of our health care system stem directly from the long history of government meddling in the medical marketplace. In a variety of ways, the government has limited the supply of medical care and stifled innovation. Meanwhile, Medicare, Medicaid, and the new tax laws have overstimulated demand for medical services. The result has been skyrocketing prices, which take their greatest toll on the poor and uninsured. Terree P. Wasley's concise and lively book concludes with a fresh prescription for reversing the ills of the medical marketplace by giving consumers the power to control their own health care spending. ============================================================================= === HOUSING === ============================================================================= Babcock, Richard F. The Zoning Game: Municipal Practices and Policies 1966; University of Wisconsin Press; 202 pages "I cannot isolate with precision the brilliance of Mr. Babcock's analysis, but it pervades the entire book...he simply questions the hitherto unquestionable and finds with grim glee that most of the premises upon which the edifice stands have no substance. ...This is an important book which should be read by everyone who participates, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, in the zoning game." -- Howard N. Ellman, in California Law Review ***************************************************************************** Gardner, Scott Live Rent Free For Life, and other incredible revelations about NYC rent control 1990; Free-Rent Press; 114 pages As the owner of a small residential building in Manhattan for years, Scott Gardner found he was regularly being ripped off by both his tenants and the agency that runs the rent control system in New York. The problems were so insurmountable that he finally had to sell out at a substantial loss or face bankruptcy. Now that he is out of rent control's clutches, Gardner exacts his diabolical revenge by telling you in lurid detail exactly how his former tenants were able to get away without paying rent for years. Then as a bonus, he also shows you how to cash in on the real estate bonanza with "no money down," reveals the inner workings of an agency that is moving beyond chaos, unearths the existence of a new form of slavery, tells how to harness a resource scarcer than warehoused apartments, reports on the perils of becoming an "instant landlord," catalogs the latest high-tech methods landlords have for getting rid of unwanted tenants, and in a scientific breakthrough, describes a rare and dreaded malady affecting rent controlled residents throughout the country, along with many other rib-tickling tidbits. In this hilarious and scathing indictment of rent control, Gardner rips the mystique away from this "humanistic" fiasco and exposes the soft underbelly of what is perhaps New York's most destructive, possibly its costliest, but certainly its dumbest law. ***************************************************************************** Johnson, Bruce Resolving the Housing Crisis: Government Policy, Decontrol, and the Public Interest 1982; Pacific Research Institute; 426 pages Across the United States, and particularly in California, the problems of housing costs and availability have never been so acute: home ownership has become virtually inaccessible to the average person; construction costs are high and rising; housing units are in short supply; rental rates have skyrocketed; local public services are in jeopardy with government finances in disarray; and government restrictions increasingly prevent real estate growth. Resolving the Housing Crisis is a comprehensive treatment of the increasingly serious problems in housing and construction. Assembling the work of eighteen economists and other scholars, this volume analyzes the underlying contributing factors to the crisis, the responses in land use, housing, and construction policies, and the interaction between the crisis and the legal status of property rights. As a result of this assessment, the authors argue for substantial deregulatory housing and land use reforms. ***************************************************************************** Nelson, Robert H. Zoning and Property Rights: An Analysis of the American System of Land Use Regulation 1980; MIT Press; 260 pages "Nelson has some very clear ideas about the subject and builds the text around those ideas. ...The major topics covered concern zoning protection for neighborhood quality; the extension of zoning protection to the community; zoning and public land use; the unhappy consequences of prohibiting sales of zoning rights; zoning evolution in historical perspective; new regulatory protection of regional and state quality; new local growth controls; the basic principles for a new tenure system, and the struggle for high quality environments... "In essence, Nelson's book proposes to abolish the American system of land use regulation. If you have just returned from a zoning hearing and your brilliant project has been denied by narrow-minded, ignorant, abusive and prejudiced zoning board members, this is the book to read for consolation. At least, there are a few writers who are attacking the various foundations upon which such boards sit." -- AIA Journal ***************************************************************************** Siegan, Bernard Land Use Without Zoni