American Gridlock: Why the Left and Right are Both Wrong
Channel: New America
Date: 2012-05-08

American Gridlock:
Why the Left and Right are Both Wrong

The pressing problems of massive debt, high unemployment, and anemic economic growth have increasingly divided the populace into warring political camps. Yet the current overwrought debate between free market capitalism and a government-driven economy distracts us from reaching logical, common-sense solutions to our biggest economic and social problems.

Starting with first principles and using deductive analysis, leading economist and financial markets analyst H. Woody Brock eschews today's ideologically determined positions and offers new "win-win" policy prescriptions that transcend the current ideological divide. In his new book, American Gridlock: Why the Left and Right are Both Wrong -- Commonsense 101 Solutions to the Economic Crises, Dr. Brock tackles the five challenges critical to the nation's future: preventing a Lost Decade with permanently high levels of unemployment; sparing the nation long-run bankruptcy from exploding healthcare costs; preventing future financial storms; standing up to authoritarian mercantilist economies like China; and addressing the vital issue of distributive justice or ensuring fair shares of wealth and income.

Dr. Brock will be joined in the discussion by James Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic, who writes regularly on many of the national issues that are the subject of Dr. Brock's book. A founding member of New America's Board of Directors, Mr. Fallows has recently completed a new book, China Airborne, which will be released next month.

Please join Woody Brock and James Fallows as they discuss and debate American Gridlock.

Reception to Follow

Praise for American Gridlock:

"With rigorous logic, American Gridlock identifies five major problems confronting the nation. These range from salvaging today's "lost decade," to the unequal distribution of wealth, to preventing bankruptcy from "entitlements spending," and to preventing future financial market crises. Woody Brock does not simply offer his opinions about these crises. Rather, he deduces win-win solutions to each of these from First Principles. It is high time for such a book, especially during a presidential election year."

―Dr. Nouriel Roubini, Chairman and Co-Founder, Roubini Global Economics

"Woody Brock is a brilliant economic thinker, and we should heed his call for an infrastructure Marshall Plan to lift our national economy. This book should be required reading for everyone who cares about America's future, particularly our elected officials."

—Ambassador Felix G. Rohatyn, Lazard Frères & Co. LLC

"Woody Brock's new book American Gridlock is going to force everybody to think through their views on the critical issues of public policy facing America today. It is not just a question of a failure of leadership. It is also a question, as he puts it, of a failure of thought and analysis. He focuses on this in order to overcome what he terms 'the Dialogue of the Deaf': the shouting match between the Left and the Right and its inevitable manifestation as gridlock. Agree or not, this is the kind of book to which everybody should pay attention."

—Mortimer Zuckerman, Editor in Chief, U.S. News & World Report


Participants:

H. Woody Brock
Author, American Gridlock: Why Right and Left are Both Wrong- Commonsense 101 Solutions to the Economic Crises
President and Founder, Strategic Economic Decisions (SED) Inc.
                                                                                                                                             James Fallows
National Correspondent, The Atlantic
Author, China Airborne (forthcoming)

http://www.newamerica.net/events/2012/american_gridlock