The political consensus in the United States today is that the nation avoid deficit spending. But as virtuous and unassailable as that goal sounds, it has fallacies and dangers. In a lucid, nontechnical writing style, Benavie shows that deficits can be either good or bad and explains how to tell the difference. Deficits, or government borrowing, can be beneficial or harmful depending on what the government does with the money. Preventing such borrowing, Benavie points out, would be comparable to preventing one's family from borrowing money to buy a house or to put a child through college....

With all of the competing information in the news these days about how--and whether--to reform Social Security, how is a concerned citizen to know which is the right path? This book is the answer. Arthur Benavie gives readers the tools necessary to make decisions on this subject that they and their children will not regret. The US public has been offered false information on this issue, told that Social Security is going bankrupt unless it is reformed immediately. Benavie refutes these arguments and separates the economic facts from ideological value judgments. This book is an invaluable...