Customer Reviews

Fuzzy Math: The Essential Guide to the Bush Tax Plan

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Every policy-maker and voter should read this book. After months of Krugman's anti-tac-cut NY Times Op-Eds, I was sick of hearing about this debate. But "Fuzzy Math" literally changed my mind in one night. It is not only a guide to the Bush tax cut but also a layman's guide to general tax policy, tax law, the federal budget, and distributional issues. Not only that, but Krugman provides a novel theory (at least to me) on why anti-big-government ideologues prefer tax cuts for the rich disproportionately over tax cuts for the bottom 99%. Krugman also exposes many statistical and other tricks that policy-makers play on the public in order to promote their programs. In short, this book does so much so thoroughly, and I am amazed that Krugman fit it all into so few pages.

Almost as many people voted for Bush as voted for Gore -- and Bush ran on his tax-cut plan. In a slim volume (I read it in two sittings with no problem) Krugman very clearly spells out how the Bush campaign and administration hoodwinked the public into thinking his tax cut was for the middle class.

The fact is that 45% of the tax cut goes to the wealthiest 1% of families. Even "working stiffs" earning $400,000 per year get it bad. The truth is revealed in the Treasury departments own released numbers (see Table 7 on page 111) which are cleverly packaged in such a way that they SEEM to say the exact opposite. But Paul Krugman is not fooled, and he explains why you should not be either.

Favorite line: (on last page) "But there's a special reason to oppose the Bush plan, quite aside from its actual merits or lack thereof. This is the utter dishonesty of the sales campaign. At every stage of the debate Bush and his people have tried to obscure what they were really proposing."

For your own good, you must read this book.

Whether you find yourself rooting for George Bush's ten-year tax cut plan or against it, Paul Krugman's concise, well documented, and straightforward "Fuzzy Math" will add depth to your argument. If the countless divergent articles, statistical tables, and TV pundit's gibbering commentary, on the subject of George Bush's flagship campaign issue, have failed to satisfy your desire to understand it, you owe it to yourself to listen to Princeton's Proffesor Krugman demystify the issue.

What taxes it affects, where the money is coming from, and to whom it is going, are just some of the answers that this brisk and short narrative provides. A must read for anyone interested in the nuts and bolts of "the ten-year tax cut" debate.

I recommend this book to anyone, even though the tax cuts Paul Krugman argues against have already come. Krugman, who is a New York Time od-ed writer and also a policy professor at Princeton, presents clear reasons why the Bush tax cuts are not a good idea.

Conservatives will find the book biased, which it is since Krugman is pretty democratic. Although conservatives might be able to argue the political philosophy of progressive versus regressive taxes, they will find it very difficult to challenge the numbers that Krugman presents. The end conclusion is that Bush has used "fuzzy math" to propose a tax cut and that the money is just not there for such a huge cut. Krugman is right.

Even though the cuts have already come, this book is a great (and quick) read because it gives a clear explanation of social security, medicare, and other issues related to the national budget. Clear, concise, and easy to understand.

This book needs to be read by every voting American, even those who support the Bush tax cut. Author Paul Krugman clearly explains the economic and political environments in which this tax plan takes place and concludes, first, that the tax cut is not only a bad idea but might have serious consequences as the Social Security/Medicare system becomes strapped and second, that "at every stage of the debate Bush and his people have tried to obscure what they were really proposing."
"Fuzzy Math" is a book written for intelligent lay people. I personally read it in two sittings (it's only 122 short pages), then, thinking that I must have missed smething, went back and read it again. It turns out I missed nothing. Krugman breaks down complex economic concepts and explains them with great lucidity and a little bit of wit. It's really an easy read.
Krugman begins by explaining how Bush arrived at his tax cut as the centerpiece of his campaign, first as an antidote to Steve Forbes' "Flat Tax" crusade and second, to secure the support of the far right elements of the Republican Party. He then describes the efficacy of tax cuts as an economic tool, particularly as they might be used to stimulate a sluggish economy (never an issue for Bush until the economy suddenly turned sour). He concludes that this is best left to the Federal Reserve Board's manipulation of interest rates. He further compares "demand side" tax reductions, aimed primarily at consumers, with "supply side" cuts which are directed toward potential producers and demonstrates that despite the Reagan rhetoric, the economic recovery of the early '80's was demand side driven and that a real supply side expansion occurred during the late '90's happened despite Bill Clinton's upper bracket tax increase.
Nexy Krugman explains the Federal Budget, beginning with where the money goes and then where it comes from. He explains that we've gone from being a "military state" to a "retirement state". He admittedly caricatures that, based on federal spending "the federal government has become a large retirement community that does some military stuff and a bit of humanitarian stuff on the side". He also explains that our national retirement program is not fully funded (as is a private pension plan). Instead the current group of retirees is living off the contributions of the current group of workers and that enormous problems will begin when the number of retirees begins to swell as the number of workers begins to shrink (about 2011). This is aleo why privatization of Social Security/Medicare is a bad idea: it will simply pull the rug out from under the feet of the current group of retirees. He discusses the origins of the recent budget surplus andhow it was tied to the recent economic boom.
He then breaks down the Bush tax cut, explaining who gets what. Using figures from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and Citizens for Tax Justice (stats from conservative think tanks are unavailable) he concludes that about 40% of American families will get nothing or very little while the top 1% will collect about 45% of the benefits. He analyzes the Treasury Department's statistics in light of this data and exposes the hucksterism involved in the official Bush line. Unfortunately this is the only piont at which Krugman cites sources although he uses statistics elsewhere in this book. More citations would have given the book a little more authority.
Finally he proposes an alternative, a "smaller, faster, cheaper, better" cut that will get money into the hands of consumers faster and will be "front loaded" (benefits sooner) as opposed to Bush's "back loaded" (most benefits arrive much later) and so will have an immediate effect on the economy.
Krugman concludes with a swipe at the "utter dishonesty of the sales campaign".
There is no reason why every American citizen should not read this book. It explains what's going on in the tax debate and does so clearly and simply. In fact, bookshelves in any participatory democracy should be full of books like this.

This is a superb book. Krugman shows the following: (1) that Bush's tax cut is so large that it will lead to significant problems with maintinaing anything close to current government service levels or in financing any kind of meaningful Social Security reform; (2) that the Bush tax cut is overwhelmingly tilted towards the top 1% of the population. In the process of making this case, Krugman also provides a considerable education on the roles of fiscal policy, the composition of federal taxing and spending, and the nature of the Social Security program. At the same time, Krugman's critique is fair. As he shows, one could make a case for the Bush tax cut if one believes the following: (1) large cuts in marginal tax rates on income and estates of the rich will have extremely large supply-side benefits for the economy; (2) federal services should be cut to levels not seen since the 1920s. However, the Bush Administration has not made this case because there is no popular support for these possible arguments for a tax cut. Rather, the Bush Administration has attempted to disguise the true size and distributional effects of the tax cut. As of this writing, they appear likely to succeed. I wish Krugman's book could have been available a few months ago, when it might have had more influence on the politics of the Bush tax cut.

It's a nice and handy book. However, most of the salient points in this book, which is about the sloppy and rather misleading math behind the Bush Tax cut has already been made in his New York Times Op-Ed articles (which could be read for almost free.

I like this book, and as with all Krugman's books, it's highly readable and enjoyable. His arguments are convincing and clear. But, I've read them before. So I'm giving it less stars. The fact that it comes in a handy book form that can be read and marked easily, does create real value, though.

In "Fuzzy Math," Paul Krugman debunks the deceptive hype deployed on behalf of the tax cut of 2001. Krugman points out how so extravagant a tax cut will force serious reductions in services - most likely, to social security.

Four years later, pundits and analysts told Americans of the dire threat to social security - a threat those same pundits and analysts dismissed when defending the cuts. As Krugman suggested they would.

Still, some might be disappointed to find that Krugman is less prophetic than simply an academic applying basic economic observations in a realistic manner. By clarifying processes of taxation, spending, and budgeting, Krugman succeeds in clearing away fog and myth, offering a healthy handbook for economics to all American citizens.

While reading this book it is helpful to keep Krugman's (Nobel Prize winning economist) political stance in perspective (he himself admits this in the book). He is decidedly anti-conservative in his statements but seems to have taken on a more centrist approach lately.

The book itself is based on hard economic data and essentially shreds to pieces the Bush team's claims of the tax cuts being pro-poor and middle clsss. In fact the cuts disproportionately favored the rich and seriously rich families. Krugman lays out his case using numbers available to him in 2000 but the past 9 years seem to be bearing out his claims. The cuts did not favor a supply-side led boom in investment (which is the Republican stance) and in fact have helped pushed the federal deficit to historic highs. Add in the government led bailouts and spending programs being enacted by the current Democratic govt and the deficit is projected to reach 100% of the nation's GDP in the next decade.

Krugman details his claims as to why Bush favored tax cuts (smaller government) and why sometimes a case may be made for tax increases. The book does not go into much depth on this topic and very little economic justifications are provided for this point of view.

I cannot give this book more than 4 stars because it is too short (~120 pages) for a topic as deep as the federal deficit and tax reform. There are no references, notes or even an index which makes it seem as if Krugman has had the last word. However it is a good text that sheds light on how government fiscal policy may be analyzed by a curious citizen to separate fact from fiction.

Krugman's argument is convincing. I could not find flaw with it. He clearly makes the case the the numbers behind the justification fo the Bush tax cut are flawed. Can his math be refuted?

W., your move.