The most explosive and political force of the last decade of the twentieth century has been the growth of personal investment. About half of all Americans now own stocks and bonds through IRAs, 401(k)s, and other financial devices.
Polls show that personal investment in corporations changes one's view of the economy, world events, and public policy toward taxes, government spending, regulation, and protectionism. Much of the growth of personal investing has been facilitated by innovations in the financial services and information technology arena--such as mutual funds and on-line trading--as well as accidental public policies investment vehicles.
This book represents an attempt to sketch out, across a host of public policy topics, a realistic strategy for shrinking the welfare state. To gain a clear understanding of the investor politics of the twenty-first century, the book looks backward to human history and even to prehistory to examine the origins of capital formation. As the facts demonstrate, politics has always been intimately linked with investment, understood in the broadest sense of the word.
Investor Politics is chock-full of interesting historical anecdotes, clever policy analysis, and surprising musings. Highly recommended. -- Kevin A. Hassett in the National Review, November 19, 2001
From the Author
From author John Hood's introduction to Investor Politics:
Over the next few decades, Americans must stop looking to Washington as a source of the money they need to take care of themselves--there is no alternative. They will need instead to look to investment and wealth creation on Wall Street and Main Street as the guarantors of their retirement security, their health security, their job security, and their children's futures.
John Hood is President and Chairman of the John Locke Foundation, a North Carolina think tank that issues policy studies, hosts dozens of events each year, produces radio and TV programs, and publishes Carolina Journal, a monthly newspaper with a readership of nearly 200,000 North Carolinians. Hood helped to found JLF in 1989.
In addition to his duties at JLF, Hood is a syndicated columnist for the Winston-Salem Journal, High Point Enterprise, Gaston Gazette, Durham Herald-Sun, and newspapers in 50 other North Carolina communities. He is a regular radio commentator and a weekly panelist on "N.C. Spin," a discussion program that is broadcast on 16 television stations in Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro, Greenville, Wilmington, Asheville, and elsewhere. He also created "Carolina Journal Radio," a weekly newsmagazine broadcast on 18 radio stations.
Hood's latest book is Selling the Dream: Why Advertising is Good Business (Praeger, 2005). Adweek raved that Selling the Dream offered "a refreshing argument" for the role advertising plays in benefiting consumers. Choice rated the book as "highly recommended," concluding that "Hood provides a fascinating look into the world of advertising and beyond to support his view that advertising provides a societal good."
He is also the author of Investor Politics: The New Force That Will Transform American Business, Government, and Politics in the 21st Century (Templeton Foundation Press, 2001). "John Hood has produced a timely and informative account of...the most significant demographic shift of this century -- the rise of a shareholder democracy in America," said Jack Kemp. National Review called Investor Politics "chock-full of interesting historical anecdotes, clever policy analysis, and surprising musings."
In 1994-95, Hood was a Bradley Visiting Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, the nation's premier conservative think tank. At Heritage, he researched and wrote a book entitled The Heroic Enterprise: Business and the Common Good (The Free Press, 1996). The Wall Street Journal praised Hood's book for "demonstrating the nexus between market incentives and socially desirable outcomes" and for providing "an avalanche of examples of Adam Smith's invisible hand at work in the modern corporation."
Hood writes and comments frequently on politics and policy issues for national media organizations. He covers state politics for National Review Online and blogs daily at NRO's "The Corner." His articles have appeared in both magazines -- such as Readers' Digest, The New Republic, National Review, Military History, and Reason -- and in newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and The Chicago Tribune. He's been interviewed by, among other news media, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, CNN, CNBC, NBC Nightly News, and the Fox News Channel.
Hood received his degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he founded a student magazine called The Carolina Critic in the mid-1980s that ultimately grew to encompass five campus editions (at UNC-Chapel Hill, N.C. State, UNC-Greensboro, UNC-Charlotte, and Wake Forest University). He is a Mecklenburg County native and currently resides in Wake County with his sons Alex and Andrew.
This review is from: Investor Politics: The New Force That Will Transform American Business, Government, and Politics in the Twenty-First Century (Hardcover)
I was pleasntly suprised by this volume from John Hood. I had not read anything by him previously, though I had heard him on the radio and was impressed by the good work of his John Locke Foundation here in N Carolina.
I say suprised because the subtitle led me to believe that the book was primarily a study of the effect that a growing class of american investors is likely to have on future US policies. What I found instead was a history of the relationship between govetnment and investing from prehistoric times to the present.
Fortunately Mr Hood doesn't get bogged down in some of the dead ends which such a history might entail if followed too rigorously, such as the common opposition to the charging of interest on loans throughout medieval Europe. He gets pretty quickly to US history where his strengths shine through.
A fair chunk of Investor Politics studies the history (and future) of the Social Security Administration, and is honestly the most even and thorough discussion I've seen. His recommendations for policy reforms are carefully thought out and backed by numerous, well explained studies.
My reasons for not giving a fifth star are that te book seems to bite a bit more than it can successfully chew, and its somewhat deceptive nature as I described above. But those things aside, the book is quite an exceptional balance between historical research, clear and simple explanations, and sensible policy prescriptions.
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