Brookings Press Blog

What’s on your bookshelf, Ben Bernanke? A copy of the Brookings Press book “Too Big To Fail”

Photo Credit: Christopher Morris for TIME

Ben Bernanke was recently named TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year. A photo of the Fed Chair’s bookshelf is included alongside his interview in the print edition, and the publication points out that his collection includes the prescient Brookings Press book Too Big To Fail. When first published in 2004, the book’s authors Gary Stern and Ron Feldman cautioned that the belief that some financial institutions were “too big to fail” was a serious problem and they believed the situation was getting worse and needed attention. Unfortunately, Stern and Feldman’s warning went unheeded, and as a result, the U.S. government spent billions of dollars over the past two years rescuing large financial institutions such as Citigroup, AIG, and Bear Stearns.

The paperback edition of Too Big to Fail, published in April 2009, includes a timely new preface, with recommendations that should constitute a core part of any new approach to managing TBTF.

- Learn more about Too Big to Fail

- See Bernanke’s bookshelf

 

Clive Crook discusses “Creating an Opportunity Society” in Financial Times: “book is full of excellent analysis and proposals”

In his Financial Times column, Clive Crook finds much to like in Creating an Opportunity Society, the new book by Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill.

The great virtue of this book—a comprehensive policy manual and the outline of a new social contract—is not just in recognizing that upward mobility in the U.S. is less than it should be, but is in calling for action, and in insisting on fiscal discipline. Its real strength is its distinctively American remedies, with their emphasis on rewarding effort rather than idleness, and insisting on personal responsibility.

Crook applauds the bold centrist and fiscally responsible policies Haskins and Sawhill outline to beef up spending on early education, improve schools, provide incentives to work, and postpone having children until after marriage.

- Read the column

- Learn more about Creating an Opportunity Society

Too Big to Fail?

Déjà vu, 5 years later

Gary H. Stern and Ron J. Feldman's book, Too Big to Fail, was first published back in 2004. While it seems fitting that we've just released an updated paperback edition, CNBC's Gloria McDonough-Taub puts it best when she says, "...the book is back – with new insight and new recommendations....You can imagine all the questions the authors are fielding now – like why wasn’t their book written back in 2004 given more attention? Oy!" Perhaps we'll all pay closer attention this time around.

- Read Gloria McDonough-Taub's "Bullish on Books" post on CNBC.com

- Read the transcripts from Gary Stern's interview with CNN's "Your Money"

- Learn more about the new paperback edition of Too Big to Fail

The Push for Working Longer

Working Longer continues to receive nationwide attention

Did you laugh when you heard that working longer could save your retirement plan? Did you scoff and decide that others could work past the retirement age of 62, but certainly not you? Be prepared, because the last laugh may not be yours; it seems the bandwagon is filling up as the media alerts Americans to the possibility that Brookings authors Munnell and Sass are spot on! Working longer could indeed be the solution to the retirement income challenge. Following coverage by the Wall Street Journal and The Economist, The New York Times has just reviewed the Brookings Institution Press book Working Longer.

Harry Hurt’s conclusion: this “thought-provoking” guide “tackles the issue of surviving one’s so-called golden years” but the ultimate decision to push the retirement age lies with Congress. Hurt does not seem hopeful stating that he has“learned to expect the worst”.

- Read Alicia Munnell and Steven Sass’ plan for salvaging your retirement plan in Working Longer: The Solution to the Retirement Income Challenge.

- Read The New York Times' review of Working Longer.

- Read The Economist's review of Working Longer.

- Read The Wall Street Journal's review of Working Longer.

The Federal Budget

Third edition of classic Brookings bestseller takes on the U.S. deficit

With the federal budget deficit for 2007 projected at $158 billion, the fiscal future of the United States remains a hot topic. As the deficit continues to grow, will America be fully able to fund its priorities, such as maintaining an effective military and looking after its aging population?

In the third edition of The Federal Budget, Brookings scholar Allen Schick examines how surpluses projected during the final years of the Clinton presidency turned into oversized deficits under George W. Bush. In his detailed analysis of how the budget process works and the politics and practices surrounding the federal budget, Schick addresses issues such as the collapse of the congressional budgetary process and the threat posed by the termination of discretionary spending caps. This edition updates and expands his assessment of the long-term budgetary outlook, and it concludes with a look at how the nation’s deficit will affect America now and in the future.

- Learn more about The Federal Budget.

Washington Post Op-Ed Denounces Bush Budget

Restoring Fiscal Sanity 2007 Helps to Understand the Issues

In today’s Washington Post, op-ed columnist and Brookings Senior Fellow E.J. Dionne Jr. called President Bush’s budget a “collection of artificial numbers” and claimed that “The cutbacks in health coverage for lower-income working families are among the most egregious of the president's fiscal choices.” If you’re as disconcerted by President Bush’s budget as Dionne, or if you’re just plain confused by it, you might be interested in Alice M. Rivlin and Joseph R. Antos’s forthcoming book, Restoring Fiscal Sanity 2007: The Health Spending Challenge. In clear, concise language, the book offers readers an explanation of the $2 trillion per year health spending crisis and the consequences every American will face if it is left uncontrolled. Focusing on policies that do not shift costs to the states or the private sector, the authors suggest reforms in federal programs that have the potential to reduce the growth of spending for the entire health system, increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the care provided, and enhance health outcomes.

Both editors boast years of experience in economics and public policy. Rivlin was director of both the White House Office of Management and Budget and the Congressional Budget Office, and has served as vice chair of the Federal Reserve Board. Antos has held senior positions at the Congressional Budget Office, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Council of Economic Advisers, and the Office of Management and Budget.

(Photo by Ron Sachs, washingtonpost.com)

- Read “Budget Games That Hurt Children” on washingtonpost.com.

- Learn more about Restoring Fiscal Sanity 2007.