Brock - American Gridlock: Why the Right and Left Are Both Wrong - Commonsense 101 Solutions to the Economic Crises

Contents

Copyright 2012 by Horace Wood Brock. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Brock, H. Woody.

American gridlock : why the right and left are both wrong commonsense 101 solutions to the economic crises / H. Woody Brock.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 9780470638927 (hardback); ISBN 9781118234624 (ebk);

ISBN 9781118220795 (ebk); ISBN 9781118241226 (ebk)

1. United StatesEconomic policy2009 2. Right and left (Political science)United States. 3. CapitalismSocial aspectsUnited States.

I. Title.

HC106.84.B76 2012

330.973dc23

2011039260

I have little patience with scientists who take a board of wood, look for its thinnest part, and drill a great number of holes where drilling is easy.

Einstein

Dedicated to Kenneth Arrow, the late Horace Brock, Sir Roderick Carnegie, the late John Harsanyi, Mordecai Kurz, Mendel Sachs, and Lloyd Shapley. Mentors all .

Additional Praise for American Gridlock

Woody Brocks writings are often the first place I encounter issues that soon become central debates within public policy. He is prescient, penetrating, broad, surprising and wise. Some writers illuminate yesterdays news, a few may shed light on tomorrows. But very few thinkers can help you to understand the issues that will shape not only next year, but also the next decade. As America faces a pivotal election, his book could not be more timely.

Edward Smith , The Times (London)

The events of the past several years have clearly exposed the faults in standard economic and financial analysis. And the economics profession currently seems at a loss to provide credible and practical policy prescriptions for the current malaise facing the U.S. and other major countries. In this fascinating book, Woody Brock stands above the crowd with his original and well thought out plans for a sensible way forward to a brighter future. It is a welcome counter to the widespread gloom that surrounds most of the discussion of the outlook.

Martin Barnes, Chief Economist, BCA Research

The world is bogged down by incremental thinking and yearns for some big ideas to liberate us from the serial crises that confront us. Over the years Woody Brock has proven himself as an original thinker whose solutions to problems often turn out to be right. Now, in this book, we have a set of recommendations that may put us on the right course.

Byron R. Wien, Vice Chairman, Blackstone Advisory Partners LP

Woody Brock tackles Americas big problems at a breathtaking scale. No small ideas here. And no flinching from the conclusions which follow from the fierce logic he applies. Read this book to find a way forward out of the broken politics and doctrinaire policies that leave so many disgusted and depressed to the prospect of a genuine prosperity.

Joseph Dear, Chief Investment Officer, California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS)

Woody thoughtfully addresses the critical issues facing our country and shows how they can be resolved using a different analytical approach. A must read for any serious market participant.

Susan E. Manske, Vice President and Chief Investment Officer, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Woody Brock is an American masterpiece. There is no one like Woody. No one is able to think as broadly as Woody, while simultaneously thinking so deeply. No one is as amusingly insightful, witty and provocative as Woody. Woodys economics are a blend of deep, revolutionary, insight and common sense. I will never know how he does it, but I deeply appreciate that he does it. No one is a better catalyst for my own thinking than Woody. Read American Gridlock . Savor American Gridlock . Allow yourself to be provoked and prodded by American Gridlock . Then put it down, go fishing, then reread a month later. You will be deeply and lastingly rewarded for your efforts.

Richard N. Foster, Investment & Advisory Services; former Managing Director, McKinsey & Company; author of Creative Destruction

For decades Woody Brock has enlightened a select audience with his logically rigorous, factually impeccable analyses of past developments and future trends. Time and again I have seen his insights prove true, especially in cases where he has challenged the prevailing wisdom of the era. Now for the first time he addresses a general readership, with a comprehensive assessment of how to cope with the most intractable public problems of our time. I dont agree with every one of his prescriptions, which is why I am all the more sincere in recommending the thoroughness and rigor of his logic.

James Fallows , The Atlantic

American Gridlock is a major endeavour containing deeply profound insights. It requires the courage to see that economics has largely failed and must be replaced as the master discipline by political theory and science, and with a new emphasis on fairness and justice in the distribution of benefits and rewards. Woody Brock is one of the few thinkers of our times who can tackle this mountainous task and unlock the paralysis in which the increasingly muddled debate about Capitalism has plunged us.

Lord Howell of Guildford, Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, UK

If Woody Brock did not exist, God would have had to invent him. He is a unique, challenging thinker who makes most conventional economic forecasters look like trend-followers. Serious investors and students of public policy should be delighted that he has finally written a book in which his renowned analytical approach focuses on public policy. This is badly-needed fresh air in a seriously polluted environment.