What could be a more boring subject for a book than a review of global economics? The book starts out slowly, laying the groundwork, but then takes off. I've been studying Keynes and Friedman for a long time as a hobby. I could never figure out what the difference was between Monetarism and Supply-side Economics, until now. It's a small difference but a very important one.

I give Wanniski's work my highest recommendation for clarity, content, and depth of coverage. He lays out the proper explanations of correct monetary and fiscal policies and gives many, many examples of where its worked throughout world history.

The Way the World Works provides a supply side view of historic events to strengthen understanding of basic concepts in macro economics. I found the book enlightening, filled with common sense answers to complex questions; its the perfect way to counteract the Keynesian confusion created by liberal arts economists at colleges across the country

This may be the most revolutionary work on Political Economy since Kark Marx, less in terms of economic theory than in terms of political import. In ways that often parallel James Buchannan's "Public Choice" school of thought, Wanniski looks at people as an electorate, both economically and politically, and he lays out a theory which shows how the decisions of the electorate are translated into policy. It was by reading this book that I was first exposed to the diea that even dictatorships could be a kind of democracy, if "rule by the people" can be taken to mean that anyone, regardless of birth, may aspire to the top job without revolution or a coup d'etat. By this standard, for example, the USSR was democratic, if one examines the up-from-the-bottom origins of men like Khruschev.

The economics of the thesis are called "supply-side," and this is the first modern, book-length exposition of the doctrine, but in reality the tenents are really a restatement of Classical economics. Adam Smith would find little to argue with here. As an admirer of the Austrian School, I find Wanniski to be philosophically a very close fit, although not a libertarian in the Rothbardian sense; he would be closer in spirit to Wilhelm Rhopke ("A Humane Economy"). The idea that tax policy alters economic behavior is not new, but after 40 years of Keynesean domination (admittedly, Keynes would be opposed to much of what is offered in his name, and he considered himself a Classical economist) the ideas emerge with a freshness that was more striking in 1978 than in the post-Reagan/Kemp era.

One of the most pleasant things aboutthe book is the lack of hostility in its' pages, and the absence of partisanship. One gets the impression that Mr. Wanniski would be just as pleased if the liberal wing of the Democratic Party had triumphed on a supply-side platform, so long as they faithfully implemented the policy.

-Lloyd A. Conway