Unchecked and Unbalanced: How the Discrepancy Between Knowledge and Power Caused the Financial Crisis and Threatens Democracy

by Arnold Kling

Overview

In Unchecked and Unbalanced, Arnold Kling provides a blueprint for those who are skeptical of political and financial elitism. At the heart of Kling's argument is the growing discrepancy between two phenomena: knowledge is becoming more diffuse, while political power is becoming more concentrated.

Kling sees this knowledge/power discrepancy at the heart of the financial crisis of 2008. Financial industry executives and regulatory officials lacked the ability to fathom the complexity of the system that had emerged. And, in response, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke, said that they required still more power, including $700 billion to purchase "toxic assets" from banks.

Kling warns that increased concentration of power is a problem, not a panacea, for our modern world and suggests reforms designed to curb the growth of government and allow citizens greater control over the allocation of public goods.

Published in cooperation with the Hoover Institution

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442201248
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	12/16/2009
Series:	Hoover Studies in Politics, Economics, and Society
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	136
Sales rank:	745,891
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Arnold Kling was an economist on the staff of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from 1980-1986 and served as a senior economist at Freddie Mac from 1986-1994.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Contents
Chapter 2 Preface
Chapter 3 Chapter 1: The Financial Crisis of 2008
Chapter 4 Chapter 2: The Discrepancy Between Knowledge and Power
Chapter 5 Chapter 3: Mechanisms for Decentralizing Power
Chapter 6 Conclusion
Chapter 7 Acknowledgements
Chapter 8 Index

Editorial Reviews

Unchecked and Unbalanced is an interesting book….The questions Kling asks are not always the ones I would have asked, but they are thought provoking nonetheless.

The Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy

If it seems to you as if politicians and government officials are getting dumber, Arnold Kling has the explanation: As their power grows, they know less of what they need to know to exercise it wisely. Kling offers a remedy that is likely to arouse interest in the electorate, and apprehension in officialdom.

Glenn Reynolds

This is essential reading on the political dangers facing us today and the risk of excess centralization. Arnold Kling is one of my favorite commentators.

Tyler Cowen

Unchecked and Unbalanced is an interesting book….The questions Kling asks are not always the ones I would have asked, but they are thought provoking nonetheless.

Spring 2011 The Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy

Unchecked and Unbalanced is an interesting book….The questions Kling asks are not always the ones I would have asked, but they are thought provoking nonetheless.

Spring 2011 Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy