This work aims to examine social and domestic policy choices confronting the United States government. With governments facing large deficits and slowly growing revenues, and with public distrust in the efficiency of government at all-time highs, the authors focus on education and training, homelessness, crime, support for research and science, and investment in public works. They evaluate which current activities should be curtailed and which should be expanded, while providing estimates of the cost of doing so, and of the country's ability to pay.

According to conventional wisdom, government may intervene when private markets fail to provide goods and services that society values. This view has led to the passage of much legislation and the creation of a host of agencies that have attempted, by exquisitely detailed regulations, to compel legislatively defined behavior in a broad range of activities affecting society as a whole-- health care, housing, pollution abatement, transportation, to name only a few.

When policymakers are in need of economic advice, professional economists are never far away. Policymakers, journalists, and citizens all rely on experts to explain various economic developments and policy proposals. While it is fortunate that experts are close at hand, those concerned with choosing or evaluating economic policies should themselves have an understanding of how the economy works. Unfortunately, many policymakers and interested citizens currently lack such knowledge; and they need to know at the least the basics of macroeconomics to make informed decisions on their own. In this...