Jude Wanniski - Influence

Influence

Wanniski has been credited with coining the term supply-side economics to distinguish it against the more dominant "demand-side" Keynesian and monetarist theories. But he told a friend that the actual phrase should be credited to Herbert Stein, for Stein's phrase "supply-side fiscalists."

The rising GOP star Jack Kemp became a supply-side economics advocate due to Wanniski's tutelage, and would work to put his proposals into legislative practice.

The Way the World Works initiated a revival in classical economics and was named one of the 100 most influential books of the 20th century by National Review magazine. Conservative commentator Robert D. Novak said, in the introduction to the 20th anniversary edition (1998) of the book, that it was one of two books that "shaped mature philosophy of politics and government." (Whittaker Chambers' Witness is the other.)

Starting in 1987, Wanniski edited an annual "Media Guide" in which he rated pundits on a four-star scale. Some conservatives, such as George F. Will and Norman Podhoretz received only a single star.

In 1998, Wanniski attempted to foster dialogue between Louis Farrakhan and those who had labeled him anti-Semitic. He arranged for Farrakhan to be interviewed by reporter Jeffrey Goldberg who had written for the Jewish weekly The Forward and the New York Times. The extensive interview was never published in either publication, and Wanniski posted it on his website in the context of a memo to Senator Joseph Lieberman.