Good advice from Alan Greenspan. But his previous bad advice made following his current advice virtually impossible.
Alan Greenspan, who provided crucial cover for legislators who might otherwise have been nervous about the Bush tax cuts with his nonsense about how paying off the debt was dangerous because the government would start owning stocks, now says we ought to be running surpluses.
He’s right, of course. But it’s better to be right before you’ve supported the choices that make doing what you say we ought to do impossible.
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
View all posts by Mark Kleiman