Jump-Starting America

"What has been missing from our ongoing debate about inequality and bringing the fruits of prosperity to a much wider segment of people is an approach to make it happen in a way that is familiar to American society, tradition, and historical political success. Jon Gruber and Simon Johnson provide that missing link by demonstrating how smart public investment in science will build the capabilities and infrastructure that is the sine qua non for the investment that will generate returns in the form of new products, services, and other benefits that employ millions and are widespread geographically."--Ellen Dulberger, member of the Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy, the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine "This is the book America needs now. The blueprint for a dazzling future, filled with invention and growth, can be found in our recent past. Johnson and Gruber have resurrected the lost history of American science, and the era of big government that funded it. They have written a manifesto brimming with novel proscriptions that are themselves evidence that this country hasn't lost its capacity to innovate."--Franklin Foer, author of World Without Mind "This brilliant book brings together economic history, urban economics, and the design of incentives to build an ambitious proposal to jump-start growth across geographies and mitigate inequality."--Susan Athey, Economics of Technology Professor and director, Initiative for Shared Prosperity and Innovation, Stanford University "Something has gone profoundly wrong with the US economy over the last two decades. Economic growth has been disappointing, and the little of it we have witnessed has benefited the already rich and left everybody else behind. This wonderfully readable book by two leading scholars explains why and what to do about it. It is a powerful call for action for the government to get involved, encourage innovation in local clusters, and help the economy get back to creating good jobs for ordinary Americans. A must read."--Daron Acemoglu, coauthor of Why Nations Fail, and Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics, MIT "Opportunities for technological breakthroughs have never been greater, but America is fumbling its historic leadership. Gruber and Johnson explain with clarity, authority and insight how America can regain its innovation mojo."--Erik Brynjolfsson, director of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, and coauthor of The Second Machine Age "Long derided, at best for the hubris of officials trying vainly to do science and pick winners and at worst for its cronyism, industrial policy is making a comeback in many countries. Jonathan Gruber and Simon Johnson show how the government can promote innovation while avoiding the classic pitfalls of such policies. The United States of DARPA, NASA, the NIH or the NSF offers a perhaps-unexpected role model. This very important book by two world leading academics is a must-read not only for scholars, but also for all policymakers, from those who still doubt the power of industrial policy to those who might be tempted to apply it carelessly."--Jean Tirole, Toulouse School of Economics, 2014 Nobel laureate in economics "In this meticulously researched, highly readable, and exquisitely timed book, Jonathan Gruber and Simon Johnson of MIT propose a new, national plan, rooted in expanded scientific research, for accelerating US growth, reducing inequality, and jump-starting regions of America which have been falling behind. And, they show the funding mechanisms, federal and local decision-making processes, and actual areas of new research which would undergird it. It is brilliant at historical, economic, and political levels."--Roger Altman, former deputy secretary of the Treasury, founder and senior chairman of Evercore "In Jump-Starting America, Jonathan Gruber and Simon Johnson present an innovative a

Jonathan Gruber is the Ford Professor of Economics at MIT. A key architect of both Romneycare and Obamacare, he appears regularly on both Fox News and MSNBC. Slate has named him one of the top twenty-five "Most Innovative and Practical Thinkers of Our Time." In addition to over 160 academic articles, he is the author of Health Care Reform (Hill & Wang), a graphic novel about the Affordable Care Act. Simon Johnson is the Kurtz Professor of Entrepreneurship at MIT and a former chief economist to the IMF. His much-viewed opinion pieces have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the Atlantic, and elsewhere. With law professor James Kwak, Simon is the co-author of the bestsellers 13 Bankers and White House Burning and a founder of the widely-cited economics blog The Baseline Scenario.