I read First Principles by John Taylor because the book came recommended by Amazon based on my ratings. While I agree with its premise, it’s a little too wonky for me. I had hoped that politicians were reading and ingesting his book and principles. When I found out that John Taylor was an advisor to Mitt Romney, I felt heartened by the fact that he is apparently making headway into the top political circles.
His Five First Principles are as follows:
Predictable policy framework
Rule of Law
Strong incentives
Reliance on markets
Clearly limited role for government
He goes on at length with an historical discussion of policies and administrations that have violated these principles and the resultant failure. Interestingly, it’s not always Democrats - bad and Republicans - good. The results directly correlate to an adherence to the first principles no matter which party is in power.
His solutions include tax reform aimed at reducing our debt, reforming the Fed to follow sound monetary policy, not discretionary policies, end crony capitalism, reform entitlements, and rebuild American economic leadership.
The book details many specific policy prescriptions. I would love it if we could just hand this book to the Congress and say, “Do this!” We’d certainly be on the road to success if we are not already over the hump.
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