Books in Brief

American Abundance: The New Economic and Moral Prosperity, by Lawrence A. Kudlow (Forbes American Heritage, 179 pp., $22.95)

LARRY Kudlow is bullish on Bill Clinton. Yes, this brash free-market economist, NR contributing editor, and onetime Reagan advisor gives President Clinton credit for America’s current boom. However, he notes, the prosperity was induced by President Reagan, and it continues because, since the 1993 tax hike, Clinton has stayed out of the way—supporting free trade, a strong dollar, and Alan Greenspan’s inflation-fighting efforts. In this anthology, Kudlow gloats over the emergence of supply-side as the new economic orthodoxy. He is, after all, among its most trenchant champions: “You tax something, you get less of it,” he says—from cigarettes to income. Kudlow has the ability to crystallize complex theories into information that the 125 million Americans who are invested in the stock market can understand and use. He also places economics into a political and moral context: e.g., he observes that the nation’s affluence has reduced crime and welfare dependency. Having a job makes people more likely to behave themselves (though it hasn’t worked for Bill Clinton).

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American Abundance: The New Economic and Moral Prosperity, by Lawrence A. Kudlow (Forbes American Heritage, 179 pp., $22.95)

LARRY Kudlow is bullish on Bill Clinton. Yes, this brash free-market economist, NR contributing editor, and onetime Reagan advisor gives President Clinton credit for America’s current boom. However, he notes, the prosperity was induced by President Reagan, and it continues because, since the 1993 tax hike, Clinton has stayed out of the way—supporting free trade, a strong dollar, and Alan Greenspan’s inflation-fighting efforts. In this anthology, Kudlow gloats over the emergence of supply-side as the new economic orthodoxy. He is, after all, among its most trenchant champions: “You tax something, you get less of it,” he says—from cigarettes to income. Kudlow has the ability to crystallize complex theories into information that the 125 million Americans who are invested in the stock market can understand and use. He also places economics into a political and moral context: e.g., he observes that the nation’s affluence has reduced crime and welfare dependency. Having a job makes people more likely to behave themselves (though it hasn’t worked for Bill Clinton).