No as good as Bill Easterly's and Gregory Clark's book

books:


	• Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism, and the Economics of Growth and Prosperity William J. Baumol, Robert E. Litan, ... Yale University Press, 2007 - 336 pages average customer review:based on 20 reviews view larger image
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Macroeconomics At Its Best

"Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism and the Economics of Growth and Prosperity" is a great book because it discusses the essentials to an entrepreneurial capitalism. This book starts at the base of macroeconomics and expands into a true entrepreneurial capitalistic economy. "Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism" shows examples of the different capitalisms from around the world. The authors give great detail the pros and cons of the different types of capitalistic economies.

The book is easy reading for the non-economist who may not understand the finer details of economics. The book is broken into a variety of categories to emphasize the important details of what the authors are trying to explain. I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in our economy and the economies from around the world.

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A Must Read For The Virgin Student Of Economics

God Capitalism, Bad Capitalism was my first real look into the world of capitalism.
As a lay person to the field of economics, I found this book to be an easy read, as well as relatively interesting. The authors offer sound statistics to back up their claims, while providing an abundance of citations from Nobel Prize Laureates.

This book proved helpful in expanding my knowledge of capitalism, and awareness towards global economic policy. However, I'm at a loss for what actions I can take as a U.S. citizen to change macroeconomic policy. This book would have a lot more value if it were sent to my Congressional Representative who can actually implement the recommended actions outlined in the book.

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Jonathan Knee

A rare combination of clear policy prescription and thoughtful synthesis of available economic evidence. Engaging without ever being condescending, it is likely to have a meaningful impact on the policy debate.

No as good as Bill Easterly's and Gregory Clark's book

Compare with William Easterly's book and Gregory Clark's book, "Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism" is too weak. William J. Baumol and others argue that institution is the main factor of economics growth and it is my reason to give 5 stars. But Baumol argue that the best institution causes economics growth but why mixed institution capitalism system is the best for economics growth? William Easterly in his book "The Elusive Quest for Growth" give the definitive answer: It is the INCENTIVE that provide by the institution determine economics growth. If an institution does not provide the correct INCENTIVE, it will not lead to any economics growth. How do we know what mixed institution system will provide the best INCENTIVE system in different countries? On the other hand, Gregory Clerk argues that economics growth is the combined effects of Malthusian models and Darwin Natural Selection Evolution process. Institution plays only a minor role in Clark's model. Compare with William Baumol's economic growth model, Clark's model is more much radical and it creates more more problems than solved problems. Such as: Is gather hunter living standard is good as people in 18th century? Is rich people descendant have a better chance of survive under Darwin evolution process? Will this rich people descendants are the source of the Industrial Revolution and source of increasing livering standard and so on and on...? Compare with the other books, "Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism" is not a breakthrough, so I give it 4 stars.

Chris Tam
Hong Kong

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Educational - Should Be Read By All

Baumol et al are strong defenders of capitalism, crediting it with the growth of average American purchasing power by 10X over the last 100 years, and the only real hope for improvement in the future. "Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism," however, exposes readers to a closer ad more objective look at capitalism than most had already experienced. There are four versions, per the authors, with some good and some bad.

Another valuable insight is that "innovative" entrepreneurs (producers of a new product or service, or creators of new methods for producing an existing product/service), not "replicative" entrepreneurs are the key to rising standards of living. Most successful economies have a mix of innovative entrepreneurs and larger, more established firms that refine and mass produce the innovators' products.

Four elements contribute to an economic growth machine. 1)A relatively easy means of forming a business; business abandonment is also easy. 2)Society rewards socially useful entrepreneurial activity. 3)Government discourages activity that aims to divide up the economic pie rather than increase its size (eg. criminal behavior; lobbying and frivolous lawsuits to transfer wealth). 4)Government ensures openness to trade, and provides effective anti-trust enforcement.

Several commonly held essentials for economic success are actually myths. For example, the existence of hard-working individuals is not sufficient - Russian and Asian immigrants do much better in the U.S., despite having been frustrated in their native land. Geography is also not the key - look at Singapore, and to a lesser extent, Thailand. (Some contend that tropical climate and diseases precludes economic success.) Finally, education and/or democracy are also not key - the former Eastern European countries disproves the former, and China the latter.

The four different types of capitalism include:

1)A state-guided government tries to guide the market, mostly by supporting particular industries it expects to be winners. Government-provided loans are a common means; tariffs are another. This version is vulnerable when the economy reaches the technological frontier due to its lacking experience in seeing into a totally unknown future. Other problems include a vulnerability to corruption and difficulty in pulling the plug on failed ventures into new industries.

2)Oligarchic - the bulk of economic wealth is held by small groups. Government tries to support them; problems include high corruption and income inequality.

3)Entrepreneurial - a significant role is played by small, innovative firms.

4)Big Firms - limited innovative entrepreneurialism.

Pre-capitalism is another category listed - in this version governments are weak (clans or tribes set the rules for most), and there are limited property rights.

Bottom Line: "Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism" will broaden the perspectives of most readers.

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