Showing that 1970s inflation made budget surpluses look like deficits and that the recession was a combination of tight money and restrictive federal spending, the author argues that the federal deficit has long been miscalculated and examines the resulting implications

How Real Is the Federal Deficit?

Business & Money

Eisner, Robert

Economics

Free Press

Conventional measures of national income and product and its components have proved enormously useful as indexes of economic activity and as the empirical foundations of much of macroeconomic analysis. Robert Eisner's The Total Incomes System of Accounts (TISA) brings critical new dimensions to those measures. It offers systematic extensions and expansions in an effort to count all of the output that goes into economic well-being, now and in the future. Eisner counts nonmarket as well as market production, including vast amounts of services produced by housewives and others in the home, capital formation by government and households as well as business, human and intangible capital invested in education, R&D, and health care, as well as tangible capital. He offers measures of net revaluations of tangible assets, redefines the critical boundaries between final and intermediate outputs, and presents separate sector accounts for business, nonprofit institutions, government, government enterprises and households, which make clear the major contributions of nonbusiness sectors to our total national income. For these and other extensions, Eisner's TISA offers detailed and comprehensive income and product accounts in current dollars and product accounts in constant dollars for all of the years from 1946 to 1981, along with measures of capital stocks. Estimates of consumption, investment, and production functions with the new data sets, a review of other sets of extended accounts, and a detailed description of sources and methods are also provided.

The Total Incomes System of Accounts

University of Chicago Press

Travelers to an Antique Land: The History and Literature of Travel to Greece

Stories of scholars, writers, artists, and explorers woven together in a narrative of Greek travel

Literature & Fiction

History & Criticism

University of Michigan Press

Stories of scholars, writers, artists, and explorers woven together in a narrative of Greek travel

History

Americas

Univ of Michigan Pr

Looks at how nine classical myths, including Oedipus, Electra, and Psyche are used to explain psychological theories, and assesses the validity of these comparisons

The Road to Daulis: Psychoanalysis, Psychology, and Classical Mythology

Religion & Spirituality

Syracuse Univ Pr

A tax form the size of a postcard? That would be one result of Robert E. Hall and Alvin Rabushka's flat tax proposal. This idea, first suggested by the authors in 1982, is now the subject of wide-spread discussion in both popular and academic circles. In this up-to-date volume, the authors argue that a flat tax of 19 percent would raise the same revenue as the present income tax, while fundamentally redesigning our system of taxation to encourage savings and investment. Dick Armey urges passage of legislation to institute a flat tax, which, he believes, would simplify taxpayers' lives and encourage economic growth. Robert Eisner disagrees with the Hall-Rabushka flat tax, challenging claims for increased fairness and efficiency. He offers, instead, an alternative flat tax proposal of his own. According to Herbert Stein, the present federal income tax is full of "anomalies, distortions, and complexity, " allowing for "plenty of room for tax reform, " but for necessarily of the flat tax variety. These experts present a lively discussion of the pros and cons of the proposals for a flat tax, think through the likely effects of such a radical change, and make clear what can seem a confusing array of facts and figures.

Fairness and Efficiency in the Flat Tax

Hall, Robert Ernest

Rabushka, Alvin

Stein, Herbert

Armey, Dick

UNKNO

American politics often seems to be focused on three deficits, real and potential: the federal budget, the Social Security Trust Fund, and the trade balance. Robert Eisner, past president of the American Economic Association, explains why this is an unhealthy situation as well as a source of much misunderstanding. He argues that simply looking at the raw numbers creates misimpressions about the country's real economic situation, as well as provoking potentially damaging ideas for "remedies." Eisner points out that Social Security Trust Fund deficits can be "fixed" by simple changes in accounting procedures or funding requirements. And America's trade deficit will not bankrupt the country—servicing America's foreign obligations will take only a tiny share of its national wealth. As with any other loan, Eisner reminds us, it is what deficits are spent on that counts: tax cuts or investments in education, research, or the nation's capital stock. Eisner maintains that the economic dragons the American nation should be attempting to slay do not entail mythically measured budget or current account deficits. The real economic troubles that America faces are those of poverty, income inequality, and a failure to invest in human capital and public infrastructure.

The Great Deficit Scare: The Federal Budget, Trade, and Social Security

The Century Foundation

As baby boomers retire over the next three decades, some claim they will break the bank of the Social Security system. These fears of insolvency have generated a wide range of reform proposals, some of which would transform the current program drastically. Robert Eisner, however, argues that many of the proposed reforms would undermine Social Security's continuing success in dramatically alleviating poverty among the elderly. In this clearly written, provocative report, Eisner rejects the most alarmist views about the solvency of Social Security and provides a blueprint for keeping the system strong and fair. He makes the case that projections about the future of the program are overly pessimistic and that, even if borne out, minor adjustments in tax and benefit levels could keep the system functioning effectively. Eisner suggests that the system could be made more efficient and fair by paying benefits out of general income taxes instead of current payroll taxes. Because income taxes are relatively progressive, taxing earnings from sources other than wages, a greater share of Social Security's financing burden would thus be shifted to those who can better afford it. In addition, Eisner proposes supplementing the current system by offering workers the opportunity to make additional tax-deductible Social Security contributions, which would provide them with larger benefits upon retirement. Workers would have the option of directing their supplementary accounts toward an indexed, passively managed stock fund, or Treasury securities paying a somewhat higher rate than those held in the Social Security trust fund. The main purpose of the accounts would be to increase what are currently low levels of both national and household savings.

Social Security: More, Not Less

Priority Pr Pubns

Explains how economic and social progress should be measured, arguing that government accounting is fundamentally flawed since it fails to distinguish between current and capital expenditures

The Misunderstood Economy: What Counts and How to Count It

Harvard Business School Pr

Everybody talks about the economy. Everybody has complaints or recommendations. But often, nobody knows what they're talking about. So asserts Eisner in this authoritative analysis of the real and imagined ills of the U.S. economy. In clear, easy-to-understand language, this book explains how economic and social progress are and should be measured, challenging widespread misconceptions about debt and deficit, government spending and taxes, unemployment and inflation, foreign investment and international trade. Eisner argues that government accounting is fundamentally flawed since it fails to distinguish between current and capital expenditures, the way every business firm does. Not only is the deficit--when properly measured--not as large as we think, but government spending is in fact not high enough. Indeed, Eisner claims that we are starving this public investment, which is essential for improving our productivity--and our competitiveness--now and in the next century.

Harvard Business Review Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Eisner, Robert. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Eisner, Robert

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Eisner, Robert. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

How Real Is the Federal Deficit?

The Total Incomes System of Accounts

Travelers to an Antique Land: The History and Literature of Travel to Greece

Travelers to an Antique Land: The History and Literature of Travel to Greece

The Road to Daulis: Psychoanalysis, Psychology, and Classical Mythology

Fairness and Efficiency in the Flat Tax

The Great Deficit Scare: The Federal Budget, Trade, and Social Security

Social Security: More, Not Less

The Misunderstood Economy: What Counts and How to Count It

The Misunderstood Economy: What Counts and How to Count It