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Is economic liberty necessary for individuals to lead truly flourishing lives? Whether your immediate answer is yes or no, this question is deceptively simple. What do we mean by liberty? What constitutes the flourishing life? How are these related? How is economic liberty related to other goods that affect human flourishing? To answer these questionsΓÇöand moreΓÇöthis volume brings to bear some of historyΓÇÖs greatest thinkers, interpreted by some of todayΓÇÖs leading scholars of their thought. How might Aristotle have understood the relationship between economic liberty and human flourishing? Hobbes and Locke, Mill, Rousseau, Burke, Adam Smith, Kant, de Tocqueville, and Marx? So much of the policy and political debates around issues of economic liberty are often cast in somewhat narrow terms. What is the precise magnitude of this elasticity? Is a certain policy popular among key constituencies? Of course, economic and political analysis have a vital role to play in shaping and understanding public policy. But it is helpfulΓÇöand refreshingΓÇöfrom time to time to step back and examine the foundation. This volume endeavors to do exactly that.

This is an edited volume reviewing the major means-tested social programs in the United States. Each author addresses a major program or area, reviewing each area's successes and recommending how to address shortcomings through policy change.

This is an edited volume reviewing the major means-tested social programs in the United States. Each author addresses a major program or area, reviewing each area's successes and recommending how to address shortcomings through policy change.

Imagine if the United States were to scrap all forms of existing welfare and give every American age twenty-one and older $10,000 a year for life. This is the Plan, a radical new approach to social policy that defies any partisan label. First laid out by Murray a decade ago, the updated edition reflects economic developments since that time.

Roger Bate has spend years on the trail of counterfeit medicines in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, learning the anatomy of a nebulous, far-reaching black market that has resulted in countless deaths and injuries around the world. Phake: The Deadly World of Falsified and Substandard Medicines is the culmination of Bates research and travelsboth a fascinating first hand account of the counterfeit drug trade and an incisive policy analysis with important ramifications for decision makers in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the international World Health Organization.

Peter J. Wallison is the only member of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) to release a formal dissent to the FCICOs official report on the causes of the financial crisis. Wallison, codirector of financial policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, argues that the FCICOs report fails to address the cause of the deterioration in mortgage underwriting standards that led to the housing bubble widely accepted as the key factor in destabilizing the American economy. Wallisons Dissent to the Majority Report of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission reveals that government-mandated subprime loans, not greedy investors, were the force behind the deterioration in underwriting standards. This dissent is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the causes of the financial crisis_and to prevent future economic collapse.

As the Bush-era tax cuts are set to expire in 2010, ambitious health care legislation is moving through Congress, and entitlement programs are growing at unsustainable rates, U.S. policymakers face important questions about the optimal size and scope of federal spending. The federal government finances its spending through labor taxes, including taxes on income, payroll, and consumption-taxes that generate significant disincentives for employment. In Taxes, Transfers, and Labor Supply: An International Perspective, Richard Rogerson contends that the unintended consequences of increased labor taxes would be too large for policymakers to ignore. Rogerson compares fifty years of time series data from the United States and fourteen other OECD countries. He finds that a 10 percentage point increase in the tax rate on labor leads to a 10 to 15 percent decrease in hours of work. Even a 5 percent decrease in hours worked would mean a decline in labor market productivity equating to a serious recession. But, whereas recessions are temporary, changes in government spending patterns have permanent repercussions. Although government spending provides citizens with many important benefits, these benefits must be weighed against the disincentivizing effects of increased labor taxes. Policymakers who fail to account for this decrease in labor productivity risk expanding government programs beyond the economy's ability to support them.

'I lift my lamp beside the golden door!'_the last line of Emma Lazarus's famous poem invites immigrants to enter a land of economic opportunity. Many have accepted that invitation; today, foreign-born workers make up nearly 16 percent of the U.S. workforce and account for almost half of workforce growth over the last decade. Rather than capitalizing on these gains, however, recent immigration reforms have resulted in an inefficient, patchwork system that shortchanges high-skilled immigrants and poorly serves the American public. Beside the Golden Door: U.S. Immigration Reform in a New Era of Globalization proposes a radical overhaul of current immigration policy designed to strengthen economic competitiveness and long-run growth. Pia M. Orrenius and Madeline Zavodny outline a plan that favors employment-based immigration over family reunification, making work-based visas the rule, not the exception. They argue that immigration policy should favor high-skilled workers while retaining avenues for low-skilled immigration; family reunification should be limited to spouses and minor children; provisional visas should be the norm; and quotas that lead to queuing must be eliminated. A selective immigration policy focused on high-skilled, high-demand workers will allow the United States to compete in an increasingly global economy while protecting the interests of American citizens and benefiting taxpayers. Orrenius and Zavodny conclude that 'while not all potential immigrants who knock at the golden door should be admitted, the door should swing wide open to welcome those who desire nothing more than the opportunity to work for the American dream.'

The Dynamic Internet: How Technology, Users, and Businesses are Changing the Network offers a comprehensive history of the Internet and efforts to regulate its use. University of Pennsylvania law professor Christopher S. Yoo contends that rather than engaging in prescriptive regulatory oversight, the government should promote competition in other ways, such as reducing costs for consumers, lowering entry barriers for new producers, and increasing transparency. These reforms would benefit consumers while permitting the industry to develop new solutions for emerging problems. It is fruitless for government to attempt to lock the burgeoning online industry into any particular architecture; rather, policymakers should act with the knowledge that no one actor can foresee how the network is likely to evolve in the future.

This volume is composed of nine prominent scholars' interpretations of and answers to the question: "If 'competitiveness' were to have a rigorous and relevant meaning in your field, what might that be?"

In AN AWKWARD EMBRACE, Swagel applies his experience at the Treasury Department to show the reader why America's economic relationship with China has been a beneficial one and details what needs to happen for this trend to continue. But Blumenthal, a former official specializing in Asia at the Department of Defense, is far less optimistic when examining the military, diplomatic, and security ties the United States hasor lackswith China. China's overall view of the Westand especially of Americais one of hostility and suspicion. Furthermore, China has engaged in military, diplomatic, and human rights actions that are objectionable to a nation such as the United States, which seeks to encourage the establishment of responsible government worldwide. The tension here is real: how can the United States manage this relationship in a way that keeps its economic engagement with China on a steady course but likewise protects its national security interests? Blumenthal and Swagel offer three possible paths for the U.S.-China relationship. In all of them, they strive to demonstrate how internal forces are shaping China's interactions with other nations, and, furthermore, how US leaders can attempt to attain a world order that includes a strong China that contributes positively, while nonetheless preparing for the worst-case-scenario of China engaging in more assertive and destabilizing behavior.

The Declining Importance of Race and Gender in the Labor Market provides historical background on employment discrimination and wage discrepancies in the United States and on government efforts to address employment discrimination. It examines the two federal institutions tasked with enforcing Title VII and the 1964 Civil Rights Act: the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). It also provides a quantitative analysis of racial and gender wage gaps and seeks to determine what role, if any, the EEOC and the OFCCP had in narrowing these gaps over time and analyzes the data to determine the extent of employment discrimination today.

'We say that a man can be known by the company he keeps. So I say that a nation, a people, can be known and be judged by its heroes, by whom it honors above all others.' Abraham Lincoln was the greatest of our presidents. He saved the Union, and because he saved the Union, he was able to free the slaves. But he did more than this. Without him, we might have had no reason to celebrate the bicentennial first of the Declaration of Independence and then of the Constitution. It is therefore altogether fitting that we mark the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth. Part of the Bradley Lecture Series. Lincoln at Two Hundred was presented on February 9, 2009, as part of the American Enterprise Institute's Bradley Lecture Series, which aims to enrich debate in the Washington policy community through exploration of the philosophical and historical underpinnings of current controversies.

This book explores the Constitution and how it provides for individual American rights.

This timely study focuses on how the government-constructed narratives surrounding the collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the 2008 financial crisis shaped the policymaking that led to the Dodd-Frank Act. The book shows that every major provision of the act can be traced directly to that narrative, which ignored the government's own role and focused entirely on the errors of the private sector. In the next Congress, whether or not the Republicans are in control of the House and Senate, there will be a concerted effort to make changes inor even repealthe Dodd-Frank Act. The essays in this book, originally published by AEI as Financial Services Outlooks, and the accompanying commentary provide a thorough backgrounder for anyone interested in financial policy.

Endowed with the authority to enforce justice, government is a necessary prerequisite to human flourishing. Citizens rightfully bear the responsibility to contribute to the existence of just government through the rendering of taxes. Because tax policy is also a reflection of values, citizens in a democratic society should be concerned with how taxes are collected and spent. In Real Tax Burden: More than Dollars and Cents, Alan Viard and Alex Brill explain everything you need to know to understand taxes in America today. The authors describe who pays what and why, the implications of the current system, and provide a vision for reform that is simple, effective, and consistent with our values.

While the recent economic crisis was a painful period for many Americans, the panic surrounding the downturn was fueled by an incomplete understanding of economic history. Economic hysteria made for riveting journalism and effective political theater, but the politicians and members of the media who declared that America was in the midst of the greatest financial calamity since the Great Depression were as wrong and misguided as the expansionists of the Roosevelt era. In reality the cyclical nature of market economies is as old as the markets themselves. In a free market system, financial downturns inevitably accompany economic prosperity-but the overall trend is upward progress in living standards and national wealth. While it is helpful to understand what caused the recent crisis, the more important questions to consider are 'What makes the 'boom and bust' cycle so predictable?' and 'What are the ethical responsibilities of the citizens of a free market economy?' In Boom and Bust: Financial Cycles and Human Prosperity, Alex J. Pollock argues that while economic downturns can be frightening and difficult, people living in free market economies enjoy greater health, better access to basic necessities, better education, work less arduous jobs, and have more choices and wider horizons than people at any other point in history. This wonderful reality would not exist in the absence of financial cycles. This book explains why.

Helping the poor is a question central to American life. Partially driven by Americas Judeo-Christian heritage, Americans believe we possess enough wealth to provide some minimum basic standard of living for all and genuinely desire to help the least among us. We are the most generous nation on earth, spending hundreds of billions of dollars annually through private giving, corporate philanthropy, government aid, and other forms of charity. And yet, despite these efforts, international and domestic poverty persist.In From Prophecy to Charity: How to Help the Poor, Lawrence M. Mead critiques the philosophical presuppositions of past and current endeavors to alleviate poverty and provides a framework to guide future efforts based on what has been proven to actually help those in need: charity rooted in love.

Popular opinion would have us believe that Americas free market system is driven by greed and materialism, resulting in gross inequalities of wealth, destruction of the environment, and other social ills. Even proponents of capitalism often refer to the free market as simply a lesser evil whose faults are preferable to those of social democracy or communism. But what if the conventional understanding of capitalism as corrupt and unprincipled is wrong? What if the free market economy actually reinforces Christian values?In Wealth and Justice: The Morality of Democratic Capitalism, Arthur C. Brooks and Peter Wehner explore how Americas system of democratic capitalism both depends upon and cultivates an intricate social web of families, churches, and communities. Far from oppressing and depriving individuals, the free market system uniquely enables Americans to exercise vocation and experience the dignity of self-sufficiency, all while contributing to the common good. The fruits of this system include the alleviation of poverty, better health, and greater access to education than at any other time in human history-but also a more significant prosperity: the flourishing of the human soul.

As debates over climate change rage in Washington and American consumers become ever more conscientious about 'going green, ' evangelical Christians are increasingly concerned about the proper relationship between faith and environmentalism. The notion of human 'stewardship' over God's creation could be a groundbreaking opportunity for cooperation between evangelicals, the scientific community, and environmental activists. However, a deep understanding of environmental issues from a distinctively Christian perspective will inevitably complicate partnerships with those who approach the subject from conventional secular viewpoints. Although there is some common ground, there remain important differences between Christian and secular perspectives on the environment. Are human beings merely one 'part' of the undifferentiated whole of nature? Or, worse, are humans a blight and a drain on God's perfect creation? Do we really 'own' the land we live on and the plants and animals that provide our sustenance? The answers to these questions begin to form a Christian approach to solving ecological problems. In Mere Environmentalism: A Biblical Perspective on Humans and the Natural World, Steven F. Hayward provides a thorough examination of the philosophical presuppositions underlying today's environmentalist movement and the history of policies intended to alleviate environmental challenges such as overpopulation and global warming. Relying on Scripture to understand God's created order, Hayward offers an insightful reflection on the relationship between humans and the natural world

In this volume, a group of the foremost U.S. military officials and national security experts analyze the American experience in Iraq and Afghanistan thus far in order to map a way forward_not only for the military, but for diplomats, elected officials, and the American public.

Public Insurance and Private Markets offers market-based guidelines for the proper scope of government intervention and the design of public insurance programs-guidelines that will benefit the U.S. economy and protect the resources of future generations.

The Politically Correct University shows how the universities' quest for 'diversity' has produced in too many departments a stifling uniformity of thought. Required reading for those who want American universities to eschew political correctness."e; - Michael Barone, resident fellow, American Enterprise Institute

The Korean peninsula during the Cold War provided a cruel but historically unparalleled real-world "e;experiment"e; in the relationship between polity and material advance: an ethnically and culturally homogenous nation was, in 1945, suddenly divided by an arbitrary boundary line and then subjected to two radically different and adversarial political economies for successive decades on end. Assessing the competition between the North and South Korean economies from partition to the end of the Soviet era, Nicholas Eberstadt argues that the storyline is not quite as simple as the now-prevailing narrative suggests (that centrally-planned economies are doomed to fail against market-oriented alternatives). Rather, he suggests, the race for material progress was just that: a race, the results of which were far from preordained at the outset.In Policy and Economic Performance in Divided Korea during the Cold War Era: 1945-91, Eberstadt presents an impressive compilation of hard-to-find comparative data on economic performance for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK, or North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (ROK, or South Korea) over two critical generations. By a number of indicators, Eberstadt argues, Kim Il Sung's North Korea actually outperformed South Korea for much of this period-not only in the years immediately following partition, but perhaps also into the 1970s.To explain these surprising results, Eberstadt details the impact of government policies on the course of growth of both economies and offers some unorthodox observations about material performance under these two contending polities. He finds that prevailing economic development theory on such issues as planned-versus- market economies, military burden, and the relationship between material advance and poverty, may require reexamination in light of the experience of the two Koreas between partition and the end of the Cold War.

Human beings depend on energy. From burning wood to harnessing the atom, we have relied on the consumption of natural resources. As civilization grows and the demand for energy increases, we must ask ourselves how toe best meet our energy needs while responsibly stewarding our resources.In Abundant Energy: The Fuel of Human Flourishing, Kenneth P. Green provides a brief history of our reliance on different sources of energy, explores the viability of both current and potential future sources, and offers a vision for the task of fueling human prosperity in the twenty-first century.

In response to the ongoing financial crisis, the U.S. government has significantly expanded its role in economy, resulting in new legislation and both public and private policy overhauls. But these hasty efforts to buoy the economy may ultimately do more harm than good. In No Way Out?, Vincent R. Reinhart and his coauthors provide a concise narrative of the financial crisis, the mismatched market incentives and government policies that precipitated it, and the likelihood of its recurrence. This volume is an indispensable resource for policymakers and financial leaders and a timely reminder that until we understand the history of government intervention in the marketplace, we are doomed to repeat failed policies.

Since Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, American housing policy has focused on building homes for the poor. But seventy-five years of federal housing projects have not significantly ameliorated crime, decreased unemployment, or improved health; recent reforms have failed to revitalize low-income neighborhoods or stimulate the economy. To be successful in the twenty-first century, American housing policy must stop reinventing failed programs. Housing Policy at a Crossroads: The Why, How, and Who of Assistance Programs provides a comprehensive survey of past low-income housing programs, including public and subsidized housing, tax credits for developers, and block grants for state and local governments. John C. Weicher's comparative analysis of these programs yields several key conclusions: Affordability, not quality, is the most pressing challenge for housing policy today; of all the housing programs, vouchers have provided the most choice for the poor at the lowest cost to the taxpayer; because vouchers are much less expensive than public or subsidized housing, future subsidized projects would be an inefficient use of resources; vouchers should be offered only to the poorest members of society, ensuring that aid is available to those who need it most. At once a history of housing policy, a guide to issues confronting policymakers, and a case for vouchers as the cheapest, most effective solution, Housing Policy at a Crossroads is a timely warning that reinventing failed building programs would be a very costly wrong turn for America.

In a time of record-setting deficits and concern over burgeoning debt, perhaps no single issue is more hotly debated than how to fix Social Security, a program long called the third rail of American politics because it killed the political career of anyone who touched it. But the immediacy of Americas fiscal problems presents an opportunity to reform and renew one of the largest expenditures in the federal budget. Fixing Social Security requires us to understand the purpose of the program, how it was designed to work, andy why it is going broke. In Social Security: The Story of Its Past and a Vision for Its Future, Andrew G. Biggs retraces the history of Franklin Roosevelts plan to provide for retirees, explains why the current system is unsustainable, and offers a plan to pay back legacy debt and create a sound Social Security system for the future.

As economists and policymakers strive to understand the causes of the global financial crisis, pinpointing the relationship between government size and economic growth is crucial. In this incisive economic study, Andreas Bergh and Magnus Henrekson find that in wealthy countries, where government size is measured as total taxes or total expenditure relative to GDP, there is a strong negative correlation between government size and economic growth-where government size increases by 10 percentage points, annual growth rates decrease by 0.5 to 1 percent. Bergh and Henrekson stress that statistical correlations, even when highly significant, are not law. Some countries with high taxes enjoy above-average growth, and some countries with small governments have stagnant economies. The Scandinavian welfare states, for example, have enjoyed steady growth over the last decade despite their large governments. However, these nations compensate for high taxes by employing market-friendly policies in other areas, such as trade openness and inflation control. Government Size and Economic Growth concludes that, in every case, economic freedom is a crucial determinant of economic growth_suggesting that government intervention in the marketplace may be the wrong approach to solving the economic crisis.