Nothing Is Sacred: Economic Ideas for the New Millennium

by Robert J. Barro

Essays by the influential—and controversial— macroeconomist Robert J. Barro. Since the 1970s, Robert Barro's academic research has significantly influenced macroeconomic theory. For more than a decade, his writing has also enlivened the pages of publications such as the Wall Street Journal and Business Week. In Nothing Is Sacred , Barro applies his well-honed free market arguments to a remarkably diverse range of issues. These include global problems such as growth and debt, as well as social issues such as the predictive value of SAT scores, drug legalization, the economics of beauty, and the relationship between abortion rights and crime reduction.The book opens with a series of essays on famous economists, past and present, and other prominent figures whose work has economic implications, including Joe DiMaggio and Bono. In the book's second part, Barro discusses the economics of social issues. In the third part, he considers democracy, growth, and international policy, and in the final part he examines fiscal policy, monetary policy, and the macroeconomy. Throughout, he shows that even the most widely held beliefs are not sacred truths but are open to analysis.

Genres: Economics, Politics

208 pages, Paperback

First published September 9, 2002

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little over my head, but I was able to take away some interesting economic concepts that I didn't understand before. And it gave me insight into conservative economic policy (Barro is a libertarian/"classic liberal").

Barro might be an economic genius, but he's a dull writer. What a surprise, right? The major weakness of this book (not the writer's fault, but the reader's fault for reading it in 2008) is that the analyses aren't current. This book was published in 2003, so it unfortunately doesn't cover the Iraq war, housing crash, new Fed chief, and health care issues.

[Edgar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started reading this as I became more interested with pro-market literature reading Hayek and Friedman. So I read it without anti-liberal prejudice.

The book seems superfluous. Instead of presenting genuine arguments it mentions them often so brief that even sympathetic reader would be left unconvinced. His discussion of issues like inequality is rather simplistic and too sketchy.

Overall, rather than shattering core beliefs to show that 'nothing is sacred' the book present possibilities that those beliefs may not be true. But at last those possibilities are left as possibilities instead of truly belief-challanging arguments.

[Jackson Arnold · Rating 2 out of 5]

Barro speaks of the virtues of the free market with the zeal of the convert, high on the success of neoliberalism in the 90s and early 2000s. A few interesting ideas, but in general his rote thought process is: if it doesn't work, liberalize it. If it does work, probably still liberalize it. At least he concedes that airport security probably shouldn't be privately run.