"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 cofounder, 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
"Woody Brock is one of America's best kept secrets. My firm has had the good fortune of benefiting from his in-depth analysis of future political and economic trends for years. American Gridlock allows the reader to do the same."
—Stan Druckenmiller, Chairman and CEO, Duquesne Family Office
"Woody Brock is one of the most unreasonable men I know: because I agree with George Bernard Shaw that the reasonable man adapts himself to the world, whilst the unreasonable man persists in adapting the world to himself, and therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
—Sir David Tang, founder, Shanghai Tang, and author of An Apple a Week
Chapter 1 Dialogue of the Deaf 1
What to Do About It
What Went Wrong: Origins of the Dialogue of the Deaf
The Role of Deductive versus Inductive Logic in Policy Analysis
The Illogic of Policy Analysis Today
What Must Be Done to Raise the Level of Debate
Chapter 2 Must There Be a Lost Decade? 23
A Socratic Dialogue with the President Explains Why Not
Reasons for Lackluster Growth During the Remainder of this Decade
"Good" versus "Bad" Deficits, and the Main Policy Proposal
The Identifi cation and Ranking of Public Investment Projects by Their Return
When Huge Defi cits Are Justifi ed: A Unifi cation of the Arrow-Kurz and Keynesian Theories
Chapter 3 Resolving the Entitlements Spending Crisis 75
How to Drive Health-Care Spending Down while Increasing Access
A Supply-Side Solution to the Health-Care Crisis
Three Basic Assumptions for an Optimal Health-Care System
Expert Systems and Automation
Redressing the Social Security Deficit
Chapter 4 Preventing Perfect Financial Storms 119
When Everyone Was Too Clever by Half
The Four Origins of Today's Financial Crisis
The Role of Bad Economic Theory
Emergence of a Pathological Incentive Structure
Requisite Policy Reforms
Chapter 5 Bargaining Theory 101 157
How Not to Deal with China
The Origins of Economics Imperialism
The Possibility of the Hegemony of Political Science: The Nash-Harsanyi Pluralistic Bargaining Model
How Not to Negotiate with Thugocracies—The Case Study of China
The Remarkable Power of the Bargaining Model in Political Science and Beyond
Chapter 6 Beyond Democratic Capitalism 199
An Idealized Political Economy, with Distributive Justice
True Textbook Capitalism, and the Correct Role of Government
Beyond Effi ciency: The Eight Ideals of an Optimal Social System
Distributional Equity
A Comprehensive Theory of Distributive Justice
Conclusion 231
Appendix A Supply/Demand Summary of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 235
Appendix B Dynamics of Total Health-Care Expenditure 241
Notes 249
Index 267
