Ferguson, who was a McCain advisor, tackles the decline of the West in this short but packed book on why we are failing. Lots of good info here. You might not agree with him on everything but he is focused and crisp in his delivery. Some great lines here like the rule of law being replaced by the rule of lawyers. He comes down on regulation by the government but I don't quite buy his argument. I completely agree with him that regulation should be simple and not complex and that throwing bankers in jail would solve the problem. Like many in the GOP he criticises Obama for being the CEO of the stationary state and it's not the government's job to make sure a family gets a decent wage or retirement. When Obama points out that government put a man on the moon, created the GI Bill, etc he reacts to this by saying that government didn't start every small business,etc. All Obama is saying that goverment is there to support the people not control them. Ferguson makes a lot out of our debt and he is no economist as he slams the Nobel Prize winter, Krugman. But Ferguson knows his economic history and he talks about the decline in the middle class and the buying power since the 1970's, which basically explains our situation. He gets into sociology too with the decline of associations and volunteering. This book is a great beachhead into all the subject matter experts Ferguson cites in a variety of fields from economics to sociology. You'll want to read them at length. I guess most would agree with a lot of what he says but when it comes time to implementing policies and strategies to address the problem that's when the polarization starts. It doesn't look good for the future.