OUTSOURCING AMERICA: What's Behind Our National Crisis and How We Can Reclaim American Jobs

Two Ph.D.s weigh in on globalism's hottest button. In the Hiras' preface, they note that "Ronald Reagan made most Americans feel proud because he stood for American values, including supporting democracy and free markets abroad." That kind of giant, unexamined assertion does not bode well for a work purporting to be analytical, and this book is best read as a polemic. The economic arguments are legitimate, but following the CNN anchor's foreword calling for a moratorium on outsourcing, the two economist authors give subtle and not-so-subtle cues throughout, starting with the subtitle, that they find the practice dubious at best. Yet, in a refreshing change from the spate of protectionist conservatives calling for the end of outsourcing, the Hiras (they are brothers) offer a worker-friendly set of prescriptions that include adequate notice, legislated relief for displaced workers and—hold on to your desk chair—Canadian-style socialized medicine. A decidedly mixed bag, this book contains surprises. (May 26)