Self-Inflicted Wounds:: From LBJ's Guns and Butter to Reagan's Voodoo Economics

In a lively if scathing depiction of economic mismanagement, greed and bungling at the highest echelons of federal power, Washington Post syndicated columnist Rowen criticizes Lyndon Johnson for escalating the costly, unwinnable war in Vietnam while failing to raise taxes or cut government programs, thereby triggering a devastating spiral of inflation. Rowen argues that Nixon should not have dropped wage-price controls, faults Carter for his inability to curb inflation, and views the ``Reagan revolution'' as a sham that widened the gap between rich and poor while transforming the U.S. into the world's largest debtor nation. Among the luminaries Rowen charges with ineptitude are Alan Greenspan, David Stockman, Paul Volcker, Arthur Burns and other top financial administrators in Washington. He concludes that President Clinton must reallocate funds from military to civilian programs and invest in worker training and education, despite his pledge to reduce the deficit. Author tour. (Aug.)