Book Forum 

# *Boom Towns: Restoring the Urban American Dream*

### (Stanford University Press, 2014) 

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Date and Time 

November 20, 2014 1 - 2:30 PM EST 

Location 

1st floor/Wintergarden 

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##### Featuring 

Featuring the author **Stephen J. K. Walters**, Professor of Economics, Loyola University Maryland; with comments by **Richard E. Wagner**, Professor of Economics, George Mason University; and **Mark Zupan**, Olin Professor of Economics and Public Policy, University of Rochester; moderated by **Steve H. Hanke**, Professor of Applied Economics, The Johns Hopkins University, and Senior Fellow, Cato Institute. 

[[![Media Name: boom-town-cover.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/optimized/public/images/boom-town-cover.jpg?itok=Y2JaOrNh)](/sites/cato.org/files/images/boom-town-cover.jpg)](http://www.amazon.com/Boom-Towns-Restoring-Urban-American/dp/080478163X/?tag=catoinstitute-20)

American cities, once economic and social launching pads for residents, are all too often plagued by poverty and decay. One need only look at the ruins of Detroit to see how far some once-great cities have fallen, or at Boston and San Francisco for evidence that such decline is reversible. In *Boom Towns*, Stephen J. K. Walters argues that commonplace explanations for urban decay are seriously incomplete. He reconceives of cities as dense accumulations of capital in all of its forms—which makes our labor more productive and our leisure more pleasurable. Policymakers, therefore, must properly define and enforce property rights in order to prevent the flight of capital that weakens urban centers. With its fresh interpretation of one of the quandaries of our day, *Boom Towns* offers a novel contribution to the debate about American cities and a program for their restoration.

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