No comments about Public Finances: An Introductory Textbook (Irwin Series in Economics).

No comments about Appeasing Bankers: Financial Caution on the Road to War (Princeton Studies in International History and Politics).

1 comments about Japan's Financial Crisis: Institutional Rigidity and Reluctant Change (Princeton Paperbacks).

1. Amyx is one of very few scholars doing the kind of yeoman's work in political science today that is necessary for successfully integrating original source field research with rigorous theoretical analysis. The payoff is the kind of detailed and informed study that made Johnson's MITI and the Japanese Miracle a classic. Amyx's analysis of networks inclusive of the Ministry of Finance provides a rich explanatory framework for policy paralysis over the course of a dozen + years. A particularly interesting insight is that networks (i.e., people) make institutions durable even as institutions structure incentives for individuals. This reinforcing relationship, in Japan's case, led to intransigence and suboptimal outcomes for nearly all parties. I highly recommend this to readers interested in an update on bureaucratic politics in Japan, and those interested in the backstory to the grim headlines on Japan in the financial papers over the last decade. Even as Japan starts its long-delayed turnaround, this book will help readers understand where change is most likely to occur, and where the bottlenecks still exist.

No comments about Financial Management in the Public Sector: Tools, Applications, And Cases.

2 comments about The Pro-Growth Progressive: An Economic Strategy for Shared Prosperity.

1. The Pro-Growth Progressive is an outline that promotes the agenda of the liberal movement (now self re-named as Progressive). This outline contains both strategy (to link policy ideas to American values of work, self reliance, fairness, equality of opportunites, etc.) and substance.
   
   Both strategy and substance are well organized and mostly balanced. I tend to overlook the occasional rhetoric and one-sidedness, since it was probably inserted to help maintain the interest of the extreme left. In short: this outline is mostly a re-statement of the Clinton adm. domestic policy goals, with some expanded, some re-worked, and with some interesting new ideas presented here.
   
   The main policies suggested here are:
   
   1. Universal 401(k)with $2-to-$1 matching tax credits on the 1st $2,000 invested (and portability, since ALL americans will be offered this program).
   2. Universal Pre-school.
   3. Universal after-school.
   4. Job re-training programs, and education assistance programs.
   5. Maintain Social Security in it's present form (fix it by adding a new 3% tax on all income above $200,000).
   6. Reject any/all attempts at protectionist trade policy.
   7. Maintain and improve the current progressive tax system.
   8. Reverse the Bush Tax cuts (at least on the top 2% and on the reduction of estate taxes).
   9. Modest increase in Fed. min. wage (to $7.00 - $7.25 in 2006).
   10. Expand/increase the Earned Income Tax Credit.
   11. Balance the budget (except in times of recession or other national urgency situation).
   
   While most moderates can agree with most of these policies, at least in principle, the author has presented few estimates of actual costs to taxpayers. This summary of costs should have been included in a final chapter - such final chapter was notably absent. The estimated costs are a necessary component of any serious policy discussion and should have been summarized in table form.
   
   Left to my own rough estimates, it seems that the Progressive agenda presented here would cost:
   - reverse the Bush tax cuts
   AND
   - increase taxes BY TWO TIMES the Bush-tax-cut-reversal-amount to balance the budget, to fully fund SS, Medicare, the Universal 401K, etc.
   
   While the policy objectives presented in this outline are noble and honorable, much elaboration is still needed on each item that would further examine the cost of the income transfers and the benefits to America as a whole.
   
   I did enjoy the author's style and his aggressive and fair debate. (BTW, I am a moderate Republican...) His relentless pursuit of a balanced budget is absolutely correct, and the proposal of Universal 401k is also a policy whose time is right. Finally, his analysis that free trade is good for all Americans proves that he is a Democrat that "gets it". It fact, the author thinks like an economist - understands there are ALWAYS trade-offs and secondary effects, and thereby measures his policy goals by their likely overall consequenses to the US economy. (Hence the "pro-growth" objectives.) The major question left TBD is whether the policy results themselves can provide more contribution to a "virtual cycle" or will the costs of poorly re-distributed capital create an excessive drag on the economy (thus hurting those that such policies are designed to help)?
   
   
   Republicans better get their act together - strategists like Gene Sperling have an agenda that if follwed by Dem candidates - will probably change the political landscape for a very long time. If Democratic candidates were to follow these guidelines, there could be a new majority in congress in 2006 and the WH in 2008.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   



2. Anthony Gibbens' review is superb, and I endorse it and amplify on it. THis book loses one star to two flaws: it begs too many key issues (such as health care, and corporate accountability), and it has no budget and no section on tax reform and increasing government revenue by eliminating fraud, waste, loopholes, and bribery-induced subsidies. That is always my litmus test for serious books about economic policy. One can use the National Budget Simulation, for example, and actually test all these ideas. I, for example, have taken the trouble to identify $550 billion a year in readily available increases in federal tax revenue, and another $300 billion a year in defense and intelligence spending that could be redirected toward soft power and open source intelligence/revitalization of education and national research. It's not real until it's in the budget. This book is platitudinous, worthy of consideration, but not legislatively enactable.
   
   There is no question but that Gene Sperling performed ably for President Clinton EXCEPT that he sacrified the American worker by opening the door for broad indiscriminate lay-offs (see my review of The Disposable American: Layoffs and Their Consequences by Louis Uchitelle) and he evidently did not see the economic urgency of completely recasting our national educational system (including exile of the stake-holders in the old system to Chinese re-education camps near Mongolia).
   
   On balance, Sperling is now one of those "has experience, listen to him" guys, but he is part of the last gasp of the old guard in the Democratic party, and for my money, a combination of Return of Rubin and Elevation of Matthew Miller would do more good. See my reviews of the books by both these stars.
   
   The author lacks real familiarity with emergent technologies, especially bio-technologies that are CRTICIAL to reducing poverty and illiteracy (see my review of Tofflers Revolutionary Wealth: How it will be created and how it will change our lives), and over-all the book does not represent a comprehensive strategy that reflects an understanding of system dynamics, both internal to the Republic and globally.
   
   Bottom line: worth reading, 30% of this will be useful, somewhat tired. Rubin is more mature, Miller more innovative. Sperling needs to be in the car, but not driving.

2 comments about Klaus Vogel on Double Taxation Conventions.

1. I am doing a doctoral thesis about national(Spanish)and international tax law. In this book I have read the best commentary about interpretation and the "qualification problem", at the Introduction and at the Commentary to the Art. 3(2)of the OECD MC. I agree entirely with the author's point of view. The exposition about the general concepts in double taxation conventions is really understandable. The literature, decisions and law (acts...) cited is amazing. I have spent a lot of time reading this book. It has more than 1600 pages! But I am completely satisfied. At this moment I have the book on my right and I'll have it for many time



2. This is, of course, the definitive reference on DTCs. I have had my own personal copy for some time now and call it my 'blue book'. (No mystery there, that is the colour of the dust jacket! :). As the previous reviewer wrote, it has been with me for quite some time & I hope it (or a newer edition) will remain with me for a long time to come.
   
   This is one work which should be within an arm's length (!) of a lot of us who are involved in DTCs, but it is a sad fact that there are many offices of many firms that do not have a single copy of this book (or, for that matter, any equivalent commentary)...
   
   Very highly recommended! I turn to it again and again, just to see whether the 'blue book' can cast any light on the new questions which an issue raises or the new twists in an otherwise familiar problem.
   
   It is beginning to show its age somewhat. The latest English edition was published almost 10 years ago (in 1997). There have been some changes in the commentary since then, and it would be nice to have a new edition which casts some light on, for example, the notorious example of the painter! But until that new edition comes (and I hope it will be published soon) this blue edition should remain firmly next to one's desk!
   
   I read in the acknowledgments that the original translation from the German was made possible by a grant from Dresdner Bank AG. Thank you to Dresdner Bank & Dr. Paul Franken for making this work available to a much wider audience.

No comments about The Political Future of Social Security in Aging Societies.

No comments about Taxes, Spending, and the U.S. Government's March Towards Bankruptcy.

2 comments about International Tax Primer.

1. This is the only book I found that actually explained everything in its table of contents in a way that I could understand. This is an excellent book for a total beginner just trying to understand the basic issues of thin capitalization rules, deductions vs. exemptions vs. credits, double taxation, tax sparing, tax havens, etcetera.



2. This book really is for the true beginner in international taxation. If you are a professional, it is probably not the source you are looking for. However, for a person who does not have knowledge in this field or has never practiced, I think it will be a brilliant book to read.
   
   The book in itself is very well structured and very clearly written. I use it a primer for my young associates when they join my firm and have been very pleased with what they learn from it. Once they have read and "metabolized" this book, they are ready to get started, and as far as I know, there is no other work to pick up where this primer leaves the subject.
   
   In other words, this is "only" a primer, but as far as primers go, it is a brilliant one. Buy it if you are a beginner or if you have lots of beginners in your firm.

No comments about Legislative Oversight and Budgeting: A World Perspective (WBI Development Studies).