Review by Booklist Review
Crittenden is an economics writer who has covered a broad range of topics for many of the major business periodicals and news weeklies. In this original paperback, the publication of which is planned to coincide with the inauguration of President-elect Clinton, she offers a compendium of new ideas and possible solutions to America's economic woes, financial problems, and social ills, gleaned from citizens' initiatives, policy think tanks, academia, special commissions, and businesspersons. Many of the suggestions have already been tested in local and state government; others have been implemented abroad. With more than a passing nod to David Osborne's currently popular Reinventing Government (Addison-Wesley, 1992), all of them challenge the status quo. Crittenden claims political nonpartisanship, although she expresses disdain for the Bush administration, blaming it for four years of stagnation. Recommended for collections emphasizing current issues. ~--David Rouse
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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this clear, if brief, compilation of innovative economic proposals, Crittenden argues for more investment in education and infrastructure, and suggests we should ``accept a broader, less narcissistic definition of prosperity.'' The author, a former financial writer for the New York Times , is an exponent of what some call neoliberalism and others the ``new paradigm.'' Rather than increased taxes, she suggests the elimination of corporate tax breaks, such as those for advertising. Though it may seem politically impossible, she argues for means testing of government entitlements and of tax breaks to individuals. She proposes a ``new G.I. bill'' and a training program for former military personnel to become police officers and teachers. While Crittenden favors a Canadian-style national health insurance system, she suggests fraud enforcement would have to improve. She also discusses how to reform the banking system, how to create an ``industrial-extension service'' to advise smaller manufacturers and how to make American companies ``accept their obligations to their own country.'' Crittenden's accounts are sometimes too sketchy, however, as when analyzing welfare reform and education. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
The recent U.S. presidential campaign contained one driving substantive issue: the revival of the domestic economy and the best method to achieve it. This book's publication is appropriately timed as it represents a resource guide of ideas for reforming and restimulating the American economy. Crittenden has masterfully used her position as a financial writer for the New York Times , Fortune , and other periodicals to assemble ideas concerning economic reform that she characterizes as the best and boldest that have been postulated. She deals with public school improvement, job training for noncollege American youth, and more effective consumer protection. Unfortunately, her chapter on healthcare reform is rather uninspired, more or less summarizing the positions of the three 1992 candidates. Crittenden or her editors may also have made a tactical mistake by placing the chapter on taxation first. The inherent dryness of this (important) topic might keep some readers from going further. Nevertheless, all serious readers interested in economic policy should give this book their careful attention.-- Gene R. Laczniak, Marquette Univ., Milwaukee (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A progressive's remedies for perceived ills allegedly created by Reaganomics. Taking as an article of faith that ``the American people clearly want...drastic change,'' Crittenden (Sanctuary, 1988) offers a potpourri of proposals designed to promote economic equity as well as growth. More notable for breadth than depth, her agenda addresses a host of problem areas ranging from federal budget deficits through cutbacks in defense spending, executive compensation, financial institutions, health care, housing, job creation, pension rights, and welfare. At the heart of Crittenden's program (whose ideas are largely borrowed from public interest groups like the Financial Democracy Campaign or from liberal critics of Republican regimes) is a more active role for government. She advocates tax credits for the working poor, incentives for start-up enterprises, escalating levies on the wealthy as well as on big business, mandatory investment in apprentice training by companies with more than 20 employees, and pay-as-you-go deposit insurance. In many instances, though, Crittenden's reliance on moral intuition rather than statistical evidence undermines her well-intentioned positions. She fails to explain, for example, exactly how the US would be better off were Washington to make income distribution more equal. In like vein, it's arguable whether New Deal initiatives (rather than the onset of WW II) ended America's Great Depression. Nonetheless, Crittenden does come up with some genuinely constructive suggestions--e.g., a GI Bill for casualties of the cold war's end, more realistic accounting of government's capital expenditures, and the linking of congressional salaries to the nation's balance sheet (meaning lawmakers could be fined, say, $1,000 each for every $1 billion of red ink they incur). A thought-provoking, if scattershot, tract.
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Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
