Bücher veröffentlicht von AEI Press

Human beings depend on energy. From burning wood to harnessing the atom, we have relied on the consumption of natural resources. As civilization grows and the demand for energy increases, we must ask ourselves how toe best meet our energy needs while responsibly stewarding our resources.In Abundant Energy: The Fuel of Human Flourishing, Kenneth P. Green provides a brief history of our reliance on different sources of energy, explores the viability of both current and potential future sources, and offers a vision for the task of fueling human prosperity in the twenty-first century.

In response to the ongoing financial crisis, the U.S. government has significantly expanded its role in economy, resulting in new legislation and both public and private policy overhauls. But these hasty efforts to buoy the economy may ultimately do more harm than good. In No Way Out?, Vincent R. Reinhart and his coauthors provide a concise narrative of the financial crisis, the mismatched market incentives and government policies that precipitated it, and the likelihood of its recurrence. This volume is an indispensable resource for policymakers and financial leaders and a timely reminder that until we understand the history of government intervention in the marketplace, we are doomed to repeat failed policies.

Since Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, American housing policy has focused on building homes for the poor. But seventy-five years of federal housing projects have not significantly ameliorated crime, decreased unemployment, or improved health; recent reforms have failed to revitalize low-income neighborhoods or stimulate the economy. To be successful in the twenty-first century, American housing policy must stop reinventing failed programs. Housing Policy at a Crossroads: The Why, How, and Who of Assistance Programs provides a comprehensive survey of past low-income housing programs, including public and subsidized housing, tax credits for developers, and block grants for state and local governments. John C. Weicher's comparative analysis of these programs yields several key conclusions: Affordability, not quality, is the most pressing challenge for housing policy today; of all the housing programs, vouchers have provided the most choice for the poor at the lowest cost to the taxpayer; because vouchers are much less expensive than public or subsidized housing, future subsidized projects would be an inefficient use of resources; vouchers should be offered only to the poorest members of society, ensuring that aid is available to those who need it most. At once a history of housing policy, a guide to issues confronting policymakers, and a case for vouchers as the cheapest, most effective solution, Housing Policy at a Crossroads is a timely warning that reinventing failed building programs would be a very costly wrong turn for America.

In a time of record-setting deficits and concern over burgeoning debt, perhaps no single issue is more hotly debated than how to fix Social Security, a program long called the third rail of American politics because it killed the political career of anyone who touched it. But the immediacy of Americas fiscal problems presents an opportunity to reform and renew one of the largest expenditures in the federal budget. Fixing Social Security requires us to understand the purpose of the program, how it was designed to work, andy why it is going broke. In Social Security: The Story of Its Past and a Vision for Its Future, Andrew G. Biggs retraces the history of Franklin Roosevelts plan to provide for retirees, explains why the current system is unsustainable, and offers a plan to pay back legacy debt and create a sound Social Security system for the future.

As economists and policymakers strive to understand the causes of the global financial crisis, pinpointing the relationship between government size and economic growth is crucial. In this incisive economic study, Andreas Bergh and Magnus Henrekson find that in wealthy countries, where government size is measured as total taxes or total expenditure relative to GDP, there is a strong negative correlation between government size and economic growth-where government size increases by 10 percentage points, annual growth rates decrease by 0.5 to 1 percent. Bergh and Henrekson stress that statistical correlations, even when highly significant, are not law. Some countries with high taxes enjoy above-average growth, and some countries with small governments have stagnant economies. The Scandinavian welfare states, for example, have enjoyed steady growth over the last decade despite their large governments. However, these nations compensate for high taxes by employing market-friendly policies in other areas, such as trade openness and inflation control. Government Size and Economic Growth concludes that, in every case, economic freedom is a crucial determinant of economic growth_suggesting that government intervention in the marketplace may be the wrong approach to solving the economic crisis.

This volume examines the outlook for renewable energy in electricity generation-particularly wind and solar power-as a substitute for conventional fuels such as coal and natural gas. Economist Benjamin Zycher evaluates the central arguments in favor of policies that would make way for broader use of renewables and concludes that all are deeply problematic. "e;Renewable"e; energy sources are not superior in cost to conventional fuels; nor are they less taxing on the environment. The popular argument that increased use of renewables will create "e;green jobs"e; is likewise a fallacy-because wind and solar power are costly and inefficient, the net economic impact is a negative one. Zycher concludes that resource-use behaviors emerging from market competition are the best guides to effective, sustainable energy policies.

Despite record levels of government spending, America's transportation system is plagued by traffic congestion, decaying infrastructure, and politicization of transportation funding-leading to calamities such as the 2007 collapse an interstate highway bridge over the Mississippi River and political fiascos like Alaska's infamous 'Bridge to Nowhere.' In The Road to Renewal, R. Richard Geddes surveys the current state of U.S. ground transportation and finds that, like the roads themselves, transportation policy is in desperate need of repair. A shift toward increased use of public-private partnerships (PPPs)-contractual agreements that allow private participation in the design, construction, operation, and delivery of transportation facilities-could significantly improve the quality of U.S. roadways.

Since the first edition was published in 1989, Character and Cops has been considered the bible of police ethics training. The book is a comprehensive guide to the ethical challenges faced daily by police officers, especially in times of heightened security. The updated sixth edition features a new foreword by David Bores, a retired lieutenant colonel in the United States military police, and a new chapter titled From War Veterans to Peace Officers, which explores policies for incorporating soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan into the domestic police force.

In Iran Unveiled, Middle East expert Ali Alfoneh describes the coming revolt of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and the implications this would have on regional and international politics. As Iran experiences the most important change in its history since the revolution of 1979 and the establishment of the Islamic Republic, the regime in Tehran, traditionally ruled by the Shia clergy, is transforming into a military dictatorship dominated by the officers of the IRGC. This transformation is changing not only the economy and society in Iran, but also the Islamic Republic's relations with the United States and its allies. This book provides the legal, historical, ideological and military frameworks for what Alfoneh believes to be an escalating and inevitable revolution in Iran. Iran Unveiled informs and educates anyone with an interest in Iran-US relations and the future of Middle eastern politics at a time at a time of growing tension in one of the worlds most unstable but indispensable political zones.