The Prosperity Agenda: What the World Wants from America--And What We Need in Return

"The Prosperity Agenda" is a catchy name for the book, but a more accurate name would be "The Year In 2007 New York Times Op-Ed Pieces." Basically, this is a classic center-left collection of talking points, replete with sympathetic anecdotal examples, a convenient cocktail-party smorgasbord of interesting statistics, etc. etc. Salient points include: - Promoting prosperity abroad and building democratic institutions over the long term makes a heck of a lot more sense than overthrowing badly run regimes, occupying them, and hoping for the best. - Yes, we need to hunt down bin Laden, but if we can find it in our hearts to give more aid to the Muslim world than Hezbollah does, that will go much further towards stopping the threat of terrorism. - We should spend money fighting preventable diseases. - Free trade benefits the US, but it has to be smart and we have to have programs to help lower-income workers, because they're the ones who get screwed by free trade. - We should work to get rid of nuclear weapons, because the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is on the verge of complete collapse. - Nativist know-nothing militant Minutemen are idiots. "The Prosperity Agenda" is a worthy read, particularly if you feel underinformed on any of the issues the book covers. It's also a quick read. It's very broad in its scope, though it doesn't have time to be very deep. By far the most controversial idea here is that democracy without basic economic prosperity doesn't mean beans, because people without resources will care about that rather than about electing the best or wisest leader. (An aside: the very fact this idea is even controversial displays the depths to which our foreign policy thinking and our conception of democracy promotion has sunk in the Bush years.) But the scope here is too broad to go into comprehensive analysis of, say, why Latin American countries keep voting populist ideologues in. The answer is pretty obvious: the previous guys weren't giving them running water, electricity and a living wage. In our current political climate, I guess it's audacious of the authors to say so (rather than simply waving garlic at Hugo Chavez and hoping it'll drive him away). Anyway, it's a good book and if you're a Democratic candidate running for major office, you should read it because it's a blueprint of how to make good, smart policy SOUND good. Hint hint: Barack Obama should probably peruse this before the Presidential debates, if he hasn't already. (I know John Kerry's read it, 'cos he recommended it.) Nice book. I just found I'd read much of it already.