Politics of Bad Ideas: The Great Tax Cut Delusion and the Decline of Good Government in America
Author: Bryan D Jones
For the past 25 years, Americans have been lead to believe that government can cut taxes without adjusting future spending and not harm government finance. Simply put, our government's economic policies have not worked as advertised.
That is the conclusion by two prominent scholars in the field-Bryan D. Jones and Walter Williams-and they support it with sharp and insightful analysis of the bad economic ideas that have shaped our economy. The authors look at the amazing resilience of these ideas and why they continue to survive, despite overwhelming evidence that they have caused damage to our long-term fiscal stability and the American economy.
Ending on a positive note, Politics of Bad Ideas concludes with suggestions on how we can get out from under the dead weight of these destructive strategies.
"Jones and Williams provide a valuable-and much needed-critique of "faith-based" analysis. This is essential reading for students of public policy."
-George C. Edwards III, Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Jordan Chair in Presidential Studies, Texas A&M University
"A lucid, convincing, and devastating critique of supply-side economics and a starve-the-beast route to shrinking the size of government. Jones and Williams document the high cost of the triumph of ideology over neutral competence in national policymaking and suggest ways of restoring honesty and responsibility to public finance in America."
- THOMAS E. MANN, Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution, and co-author of The Broken Branch
"Here's a good idea: Read The Politics of Bad Ideas. With care and without cant, Jones andWilliams'an acclaimed political scientist and an accomplished policy expert'eviscerate the free lunch mantra of radical tax cutters. They show that the "great tax cut delusion" has eroded not just our government's fiscal capacity, but also the health of our representative democracy.
- JACOB S. HACKER, Professor of Political Science, Yale University, and author of The Great Risk Shift
"This lively book is a clear window into the very soul of American politics. It helps explain how analysts convince themselves of the things they want to believe and why citizens so easily believe what they want to hear. It's at once a keen assessment of where we've been and a sharp look at the big, inescapable policy puzzles that lie ahead-and the challenges that America's political institutions face in trying to solve them."
-DONALD F. KETTL, Director, Fels Institute of Government, University of Pennsylvania
"The Politics of Bad Ideas is a ringing indictment of bad fiscal policy and an explanation of why and how bad fiscal policy persists. Writing with incisive clarity, Bryan Jones and Walter Williams present a lively description of the decline of evidence-based policy making and a principled defense of the classic concept of neutral competence among career policy makers. The Politics of Bad Ideas is an important contribution to political science, to public administration, and to policy analysis."
- H. GEORGE FREDERICKSON, Stene Professor of Public Administration, University of Kansas
"Bryan Jones and Walter Williams have delivered a devastating critique, filled with lots of empirical evidence, of the faith-based style of policy-making that has been in vogue since the days of Ronald Reagan's presidency and which has reached its apotheosis under the presidency of George W. Bush. But even more searing than its exposure of the calamitous policies of the Bush administration is the critique by the authors of our broken system of government.
- BERT A. ROCKMAN, Head and Professor of Political Science, Purdue University
"In writing this book, Bryan Jones and Walter Williams have performed a valuable public service: they have laid out in clear terms the nexus of political and economic arguments underpinning debates over the economy and federal budget. No small achievement, since most such arguments are so ideologically driven and academic jargon-riven as to be unheard by any larger public. The authors are clear about their own preferences and they may well not persuade their opponents, but this book certainly deserves a large audience."
- JOHN L. PALMER, University Professor, Maxwell School, Syracuse University
Table of Contents:
Preface
Chapter 1: The Politics of Bad Ideas
Chapter 2: The Tax Cut Theories
Chapter 3: Evaluating the Claims
Chapter 4: Budgetary Politics and the Spending Mind-Set
Chapter 5: Institutions, Rules, and Politics
Chapter 6: Big Government Republicanism Costs Money
Chapter 7: Politics, Economics, and Tax Theories
Chapter 8: The Impacts of Recent Fiscal Policies on America
Chapter 9:The Rise and Decline of Reality-Based Policymaking in the Federal Government, 1945-2006
Chapter 10: The Role of Institutions
Chapter 11:Why Do Bad Ideas Persist?
Chapter 12: Escaping the Dead Weight of Bad Ideas
Appendix
New interesting book: Failures of the Presidents or A Power Governments Cannot Suppress
Driving Value Using Activity-Based Budgeting
Author: James A Brimson
A practical guide to the ABCs of ABB
This unique resource takes an in-depth look at creating value through activity-based budgeting (ABB). As most organizations are dissatisfied with some aspects of their performance, ABB has become an increasingly popular process for which many companies are abandoning traditional methods that no longer meet their demands. Emphasizing the importance of budgeting by activities and features rather than by cost elements, Driving Value Using Activity-Based Budgeting offers a complete overview of feature costing, a technique used in conjunction with ABB, as well as the underlying principles of ABB, including linking strategy to activities, forecasting revenue, capacity management, and gap analysis. With numerous examples and case studies, it shows how to use state-of-the-art tools for achieving strategic goals, such as customer survey, core competency analysis, benchmarking, house of activities, reverse engineering to cascade strategy so everyone can act to create value for the organization.
In today's highly pressurized business environment, creating value is the number one priority for organizations. The key to achieving this is having a budget and accounting system that supports long-term goals. More and more organizations are now turning to activity-based budgeting (ABB), an innovative approach that can help organizations become more competitive by linking the budgeting process to organization strategy. Explaining the importance of budgeting by activities rather than by cost elements, this groundbreaking resource—the first book of its kind—is a practical how-to that covers the essentials of Driving Value UsingActivity-Based Budgeting.
Beginning with an overview of the fundamentals behind driving value, James Brimson and John Antos examine what exactly value is, how it is created, and why traditional planning and budgeting often lead to the destruction of value. Following a clear outline of the problems posed by the traditional budgeting process, the authors go on to explain that many companies have contemplated abandoning it altogether. In doing so, however, they must set performance targets and identify actions to achieve the targets: "Once those actions are implemented, there is a need to monitor the execution. Therefore, to drive value creation, organizations are implementing activity-based budgeting (ABB)." This comprehensive guide offers in-depth coverage of ABB and feature costing, a technique used in conjunction with ABB. ABB creates value by translating the business strategy into the activities necessary to implement that strategy. Feature costing creates value by understanding sources of product and customer variation and relating this variation to expected workload. Along with the benefits of using ABB and feature costing, Driving Value Using Activity-Based Budgeting addresses such essential topics as:
• Translating strategy into a process and activity framework—performing activities and cross-functional processes that support strategy and assessing current performance against strategic goals
• Forecasting revenue, volume, and workload—customer demographics and needs, the competition exploding a bill of activities, determining workload for special projects
• Capacity management—capacity defined, managing capacity, capacity management methodology, handling excess capacity
• Getting started—creating a business process budget, budget review panels, rank and select activities, cost budgeted activities
Filled with numerous examples and case studies, a complete glossary, and an appendix of target-setting techniques, this is must reading for everyone in your organization since all participants must continually ask themselves how they create value.
No comments:
Post a Comment