SEEDS OF DESTRUCTION: Why the Path to Economic Ruin Runs Through Washington and How to Reclaim American Prosperity

By R. Glenn Hubbard and Peter Navarro

In this book, a top Republican and Democratic economist explain why Obama’s economic policies are failing…and offer a commonsense blueprint for re-igniting long-term growth and prosperity for all Americans. They show how to overhaul the tax system, increase business investment, slash government spending, control entitlements, and even rebuild American manufacturing.

In Seeds of Destruction, former Bush chief White House economist R. Glenn Hubbard and well-known CNBC commentator Peter Navarro explain why current economic policy is a catastrophic failure. Then, they offer a comprehensive, bipartisan blueprint for reversing the decline of America's currency, manufacturing base, and standard of living - setting the stage for the epic policy debates that will precede the 2010 elections. Hubbard and Navarro begin with a "checklist" of what it takes to be a prosperous, democratic nation - and show why Obama's policies (some of Bush's also) fail on every level. They explain why the activist Federal Reserve and Obama fiscal stimulus policies are doing far more harm than good... why we must restore the U.S. manufacturing base, whatever China says about it... how to transform tax policy into an engine of growth and innovation... how to apply the "tough love" needed to save Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid... why America must resign the job of world policeman... how market-based solutions can finally deliver real energy independence... how to reform our antique financial regulatory system without imposing heavy-handed rules that cause even more trouble.

Read an excerpt


REVIEWS:

“Hubbard and Navarro provide a cogent analysis of America’s dangerous economic decline as well as a carefully thought out plan for recovery based on a manufacturing renaissance.” – Clyde Prestowitz, Founder and President of the Economic Strategy Institute, and author of The Betrayal of American Prosperity and Three Billion New Capitalists

“A well-argued–and exceedingly timely–call to action for the White House and Congress to end partisan political bickering and move the American economy back to sound principles like free markets, entrepreneurship, and a renewed manufacturing base that will restore our nation’s greatness. Hubbard and Navarro focus a bipartisan perspective on practical policy reform.” – Larry M. Wortzel, Ph.D., Commissioner and former Chairman of the U.S.—China Economic and Security Review Commission

“It is time for a clean sheet of paper that creates the ultimate focus on creating real jobs and driving the success of our private sector by significantly improving our global competitiveness and not further eroding it. Kudos to Glenn Hubbard and Peter Navarro for doing just that!” – Dan DiMicco, Chairman, President, and CEO, Nucor Corporation

“Seeds of Destruction is everything that Washington policymaking is not: sober, lucid, reasoned, timely, bipartisan, and constructive. The United States is on a path to greater danger and diminished aspirations. Hubbard and Navarro illuminate the path to fulfilling this generation’s obligation to leave behind a nation with greater freedom and prosperity than it inherited.” – Douglas Holtz-Eakin, President of the American Action Forum, and former Director of the Congressional Budget Office (2003—2005)

“Glenn Hubbard and Peter Navarro combine their unique experiences in government and politics with their crystal-clear economic insights to produce a lively and compelling account of the origins of the financial crisis and the problems now plaguing the American economy. The book convincingly explains how government policy planted the seeds of destruction and how a change in government policy can root them out and plant the seeds of prosperity. Their diagnoses and remedies should be read, studied carefully, and applied.” – John B. Taylor, Mary and Robert Raymond Professor of Economics at Stanford University, and former Undersecretary of the Treasury for International Finance

“A thoughtful and politically provocative diagnosis of America’s economic ills.” – Kenneth S. Rogoff, coauthor of This Time is Different, and Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy, Harvard University

“This book is a ‘must-read’ for all persons who are concerned about our economic future. It shows the disastrous folly of our current economic policies and, more important, it lays out the proper policies to achieve a sound and prosperous economic future.” – John Cogan, Leonard and Shirley Ely Fellow, Hoover Institution, and Professor of Public Policy Program, Stanford University; former Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Reagan administration

"This is a compact blockbuster of a book that gives six reasons why the U.S. economy has sunk so far and offers ten initiatives that the authors believe will lift us back up. It spares neither political camp and it appeals to both camps to take actions that will repair the damage they have caused over the past decade." – Edmund Phelps, McVickar Professor of Political Economy, Columbia University, and 2006 winner of the Nobel Prize in Economic Science