JUMP-STARTING AMERICA is written by Jonathan Gruber and Simon Johnson, professors at MIT of Economics and of Entrepreneurship, respectively. They make a robust argument for more government funding of research in order to stimulate private spending and to grow the economy, saying, "the major – and now mostly forgotten – lesson of the post-1945 period is that modern private enterprise proves much more effective when government provides strong underlying support for basic and applied science and for the commercialization of the resulting innovations." Beginning with a summary of Amazon's search for an HQ2, they note that by choosing already successful cities "the potential for Amazon to transform lagging communities remains unfulfilled." Therefore, Gruber and Johnson also discuss geography of localized benefits of investment, with an entire chapter titled "America: Lands of Opportunity." This is similar in some ways to Steve Case's and JD Vance's efforts with "The Rise of the Rest" bus tour which was recently profiled on 60 Minutes. Gruber and Johnson point out the high cost of housing, barriers to increased supply, and differences in mobility rates for college and high school graduates, contributing to a "continued divergence between the most and the least educated in our society." However, they also look at rankings for quality PhD programs and undergraduate institutions to explore why so few "superstar cities" emerge, offering anecdotes about both Microsoft and Amazon independently choosing Seattle over Albuquerque. JUMP-STARTING AMERICA is a fascinating look at past patterns and future potential for investment in education and research; roughly a third of this well-researched book is filled with appendices, notes and index.

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"Jump Starting America" by Jonathon Gruber (of ACA fame and for calling Americans stupid) and Simon Johnson (former Chief Economist at the IMF) is a dreadful book. Do NOT buy it! To start with both authors readily admit that spending an additional $100 billion dollars a year on government funded primary R&D research is for them an idea of first conceit about which they had zero existing expertise. For example, Prof. Gruber's area of research has been Public Finance & Public Policy. [Note: He was also an architect of Romney Care in Massachusetts and Obama Care.] and he had to begin from scratch. When he began "Jump Starting America" it was clearly a case of first impression. In an effort to justify their nostrum Professors Gruber and Johnson regale readers with an almost endless stream of alleged facts and figures many of which were drawn from newspaper and magazine articles. This book is thin gruel at best. These two members of MIT's faculty demonstrated very limited real scholarship. For example, they seem unaware that US Gini coefficient for "All Persons" (individuals) has remained flat during the interval that they assert the US has seem only rising income inequality. They would have done better to examine the increase in sociological factors (rising single motherhood, assortative mating, etc.) effecting US Households, Families and Tax Units. Of course realizing that the "stagnant" middle class has had very little economic foundation these two "tax and spend" liberals would have had almost no reason to write their terrible book.