As the average age of the population continues to rise in industrialized nations, the fiscal impacts of aging demand ever-closer attention. Closing the Deficit examines one oft-discussed approach to the issue—encouraging people to work longer than they now do. Workers would spend more years paying taxes and fewer years drawing pension and health benefits. But how much difference to spending and revenues would longer working lives make? What steps could be taken to make longer working lives attractive? And what would happen to older Americans not in a position to prolong their work lives? Leading scholars examine these issues in Closing the Deficit, edited by Brookings economists Gary Burtless and Henry Aaron.

A New York Times Bestseller The leading thinker and most visible public advocate of modern monetary theory -- the freshest and most important idea about economics in decades -- delivers a radically different, bold, new understanding for how to build a just and prosperous society. Stephanie Kelton's brilliant exploration of modern monetary theory (MMT) dramatically changes our understanding of how we can best deal with crucial issues ranging from poverty and inequality to creating jobs, expanding health care coverage, climate change, and building resilient infrastructure. Any ambitious proposal, however, inevitably runs into the buzz saw of how to find the money to pay for it, rooted in myths about deficits that are hobbling us as a country. Kelton busts through the myths that prevent us from taking action: that the federal government should budget like a household, that deficits will harm the next generation, crowd out private investment, and undermine long-term growth, and that entitlements are propelling us toward a grave fiscal crisis. MMT, as Kelton shows, shifts the terrain from narrow budgetary questions to one of broader economic and social benefits. With its important new ways of understanding money, taxes, and the critical role of deficit spending, MMT redefines how to responsibly use our resources so that we can maximize our potential as a society. MMT gives us the power to imagine a new politics and a new economy and move from a narrative of scarcity to one of opportunity.

The Knowledge Deficit illuminates the real issue in education today -- without an effective curriculum, American students are losing the global education race. In this persuasive book, the esteemed education critic, activist, and best-selling author E.D. Hirsch, Jr., shows that although schools are teaching the mechanics of reading, they fail to convey the knowledge needed for the more complex and essential skill of reading comprehension. Hirsch corrects popular misconceptions about hot issues in education, such as standardized testing, and takes to task educators' claims that they are powerless to overcome class differences. Ultimately, this essential book gives parents and teachers specific tools for enhancing children's abilities to fully understand what they read.

This case allows students to analyze and provide workable solutions for closing the United States Federal deficit for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2011. Estimated at $1.3 trillion, the 2011 deficit pushed the overall US federal debt total above $15 trillion, mobilizing Congress to raise the US debt ceiling multiple times and leading to a downgrade in US debt by Standard & Poors. The case is particularly timely given the upcoming 2012 national elections. With candidates reluctant to make tough decisions to raise taxes or eliminate popular spending programs, the case arms students with workable estimates of federal expenditures, separated into familiar categories. The case also identifies tax revenues by source and income level for individuals. The student then is left to decide ... which taxpayers will have to pay more and which federal expenditures will have to be reduced.

T he generational wars are about to begin: competing for entitlements, wrestling over taxes, dancing around the deficit. Today’s children and grandchildren are tomorrow’s taxpayers and social fabric. The authors of Payment Due contend that our current policies of federal overspending are setting those children up for economic disaster. Former Representative Tim Penny (D-MN) knows how volatile the politics of the situation are; he retired because he couldn’t locate in Congress at large the institutional will (or stomach) to deal with the issues squarely. Political scientist Steven Schier understands the way in which the politics work against economics to solve the problem. Together, they take us inside the Capitol corridors to show us the lobbying, arm-twisting, and pork barrel politicking that goes on to derail policies designed to reduce the federal deficit. We get to play the “Washington Monument game” along with the worst of the offenders and to see firsthand how three schools of deficit thought—the wolves, pussycats, and termites—approach the prospect of cutting back federal outlays and weaning the great middle class from its own welfare dependency. A hallmark of the book is its three-tiered set of long-term entitlement reform proposals, complete with careful documentation of the contribution each recommended item makes toward reducing the federal deficit (or at least slowing its increase). Along with suggested short-term plans, these proposals give students the opportunity to try to solve both short- and long-term problems. Students will appreciate the timeliness and relevance of the book’s argument to their generation’s future plight, and all readers will benefit from the clear presentation of complex economic concepts and arguments essential to understanding the federal deficit debate—and to confronting the political, social, and moral payments now coming due.

From the authors of the national bestseller 13 Bankers, a chilling account of America’s unprecedented debt crisis: how it came to pass, why it threatens to topple the nation as a superpower, and what needs to be done about it. With bracing clarity, White House Burning explains why the national debt matters to your everyday life. Simon Johnson and James Kwak describe how the government has been able to pay off its debt in the past, even after the massive deficits incurred as a result of World War II, and analyze why this is near-impossible today. They closely examine, among other factors, macroeconomic shifts of the 1970s, Reaganism and the rise of conservatism, and demographic changes that led to the growth of major—and extremely popular—social insurance programs. What is unquestionably clear is how recent financial turmoil exacerbated the debt crisis while creating a political climate in which it is even more difficult to solve.