Gene Sperling
Gene Sperling
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After two consecutive elections in which Democratic candidates failed to turn clear economic advantages into electoral victory, a debate is raging over what the Democrats should do now. The narrow, red state-blue state argument between chest-beating populists and soulless centrists offers the answer to neither the country's economic future nor the political future of the Democrats. In The Pro-Growth Progressive, President Clinton's longest-serving national economic advisor, Gene Sperling, argues that the best economic strategy for our nation -- and the best strategy for progressives whether they be Democrat, Republican, or Independent -- is to pursue policies that are both progressive and pro-growth, that promote progressive values of upward mobility, fair starts, and economic dignity as well as embrace markets and innovation.
Sperling describes how both parties offer the American public impoverished choices: Democrats in the-sky-is-falling party too often pretend that the way to promote progressive values and expand the American middle class is to slow the pace of the global economy, stop all outsourcing, and intervene in the market. Republicans of the don't-worry-be-happy party hold fast to the bankrupt vision that the best thing for economic growth is the smallest government possible, and have made the conservative deficit hawks of the 1990s an endangered species. But The Pro-Growth Progressive is neither an all-out assault on the Bush agenda nor a partisan call for Democrats to move further left. Both conservatives and progressives have to accept hard truths about the limitations of their approaches. Drawing on his years of policy experience, Sperling lays out a third way on the issues that are dominating the news and Bush's second term: social security, ownership, globalization, and deficit reduction. He explains the policy alternatives that respect the power of free markets while giving government a role in ensuring that the markets benefit all working families. Focused and timely, The Pro-Growth Progressive offers a realistic vision of free enterprise and economic growth in which government can improve education, reduce poverty, and restore the country to fiscal sanity.
- GenresEconomicsPoliticsNonfiction
368 pages, Hardcover First published November 1, 2005
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Gene Sperling
3books9followers
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
Will Atkins
305 reviews
This was like reading a 20-year old, out of date, economics textbook. The policies are OBE, the topic is dull, and it isn’t presented all that well. Let’s put this one out to pasture now. If anyone knows of a more current and accessible read on the same topic, let me know!
Nelson
155 reviews14 followers
I. MISS. BILL. CLINTON! Gene Sperling was Clinton's economic adviser at various positions for his entire eight-year tenure. A wonkish look at economics that flows from the New Democrat philosophy. I was surprised to see so much devoted to international trade, with attention to its impact on not just the USA but on those of the developing world. A "pro-growth progressive," according to Sperling, must not resort to protectionism but also cushion middle class and poor workers from its detrimental impact, a fine line to be towing. The book proceeds to discuss regressive nature of some of our current economic programs such as the mortgage credit. Solutions to spread wealth creation like a Universal 401K. Discusses the bind conservatives put mothers in: They don't want women to work, yet they oppose benefits for single moms that would help them sustain themselves without working. And finally, it discusses fiscal discipline. There is a nostalgia for the Clinton days. Clinton had legitimacy to ask Republicans to scrap tax cuts for the rich because he refused Democrat proposals to use the new surplus for infrastructure spending. Alan Greenspan thanked him for creating a deficit-cutting competition between Republicans and Democrats. My, those days are long gone. Additionally, he explained to liberals why economic growth is so important to progressive goals. In the Clinton years, the economy was so good, employers in Kansas City needed to hire so bad that they paid $8 an hour and gave them transit subsidies. Employers can't help but hire African Americans, Hispanics, and disabled people. Although this book is primarily policy proposals, he does cite a lot of studies. But there doesn't appear to be a program that he believes in scrapping. For example, Leavitt in Freakonomics showed that Head Start had no impact. He argues that he doesn't believe in scrapping programs that don't work, only mending them. He hasn't shown a study that showed any single one of his progressive policies don't work. This is a book for the policymaker.
- economics new-democrat-canon
Jay French
2,127 reviews83 followers
The strange thing is the author was a Clinton-ite, but the policy recommendations seem more John McCain than Democratic, at least at the 50,000 foot level. I'm sure I heard some of these policies borrowed by McCain in this election (I'm sure they're changed some). Seems almost quaint given the current environment -- too dated.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
