Mark Skousen 
EconoPower [EPUB ebook] 
How a New Generation of Economists is Transforming the World

Foreword ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction: A Golden Age of Discovery 1
Part One: Personal Finance: Earning, Saving, Investing, and Retiring 15
Chapter 1: Economist Discovers a Painless Way to Triple Your Savings Rate: The $90 Billion Opportunity 17
Chapter 2: Modern Portfolio Theory: Can You Beat the Market? 25
Chapter 3: Yes, You Can Beat the Market . . . with Less Risk 31
Chapter 4: High-Return Investing: Lessons from Yale’s Endowment Fund 41
Chapter 5: How Chile Created a Worker-Capitalist Revolution 47
Chapter 6: The Call for Social Security Reform 53
Chapter 7: $4, 000 a Month from Social Security? 57
Chapter 8: How the Private Sector Solved Its Own Pension Crisis 61
Chapter 9: The Four Sources of Happiness: Is Money One of Them? 65
Part Two: Economists Enter the Corporate Boardroom 69
Chapter 10: Improving the Bottom Line with EVA 71
Chapter 11: How Ludwig von Mises Helped Create the World’s Largest Private Company 75
Part Three: Solving Domestic Problems 81
Chapter 12: Look, Ma’am, No Traffi c Jams! 83
Chapter 13: Patient Power: The New Consumer-Driven Medical Plan 93
Chapter 14: Back to Basics: Competition Enters the Classroom 103
Chapter 15: Chicago Gun Show 107
Chapter 16: Economists Catch Auction Fever 113
Chapter 17: If You Built It Privately . . . They Will Come: The Economics of Sports Stadiums 125
Chapter 18: Who Is Henry Spearman? Economics of the Mystery Novel 131
Part Four: Solving International Problems 135
Chapter 19: Eco-nomics Debate: Angry Planet or Beautiful World? 137
Chapter 20: The Population Bomb: Economists Enter the Malthusian Debate 143
Chapter 21: A Private-Sector Solution to Extreme Poverty 147
Chapter 22: Poverty and Wealth: India versus Hong Kong 153
Chapter 23: How Real Is the Asian Economic Miracle? 157
Chapter 24: Whatever Happened to the Egyptians? 163
Chapter 25: The Irish Economic Miracle: Can We Grow Faster? 167
Chapter 26: The Marginal Tax Revolution: The Laffer Curve Goes Global 171
Chapter 27: The Debate over Economic Inequality: The Rich Get Richer, and the Poor Get . . . 177
Chapter 28: One Graph Says It All: The Development of the Economic Freedom Index 185
Chapter 29: Amazing Graph: Economists Enter Sacred Ground 197
Chapter 30: Peace on Earth, Good Will toward Men: The Case for Religious Competition 201
Part Five: Predicting the Future 205
Chapter 31: New Yale Forecasting Model: Has the Irving Fisher Curse Been Lifted? 207
Chapter 32: Forecasting Elections: Economists Do It Better! 213
Chapter 33: What Drives the Economy and Stocks: Consumer Spending or Business Investment? 217
Chapter 34: The Midas Metal: A Golden Comeback 225
Chapter 35: Is Another Great Depression Possible? 233
Chapter 36: Today’s Most Influential Economist? 239
Chapter 37: Economics for the 21st Century 243
Notes 247
About the Author 265
Index 267

Mark Skousen is a professional economist, investment expert, university professor, and author of over twenty-five books. He has taught economics at Columbia Business School, Columbia University, and Rollins College. Currently, he holds the Benjamin Franklin Chair of Management at Grantham University. In honor of his work in economics, finance, and management, Grantham University renamed its business school, ‘The Mark Skousen School of Business.’ Since 1980, Skousen has been Editor in Chief of Forecasts & Strategies, a popular award-winning investment newsletter (www.markskousen.com). He is also Editor of The Worldly Philosophers Club, a weekly e-letter (www.worldlyphilosophers.com). Skousen is a former analyst for the CIA, a columnist for Forbes magazine, and past president of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) in New York. He earned his Ph D in economics from George Washington University.