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How the Failure of Our Politics Undermines Our Prosperity
Knopf
November 2007
On Sale: November 6, 2007
352 pages
ISBN: 1400040809
EAN: 9781400040803
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
The incomes of most Americans today are static or declining.
Tens of millions of workers are newly vulnerable to layoffs
and outsourcing. Health care and retirement burdens are
increasingly being shifted from employers to individuals.
Two-income families find they are working longer hours for
lower wages, with decreased social support. As wealth has
become more concentrated, the economy has become more
recklessly speculative, jeopardizing not only the prospects
of ordinary Americans, but the solvency of the entire
system. What links these trends, writes Robert Kuttner in
this provocative, engaging, and necessary book, is the
consolidation of political and economic power by a narrow
elite, who blocks the ability of government to restore broad
prosperity to the majority of citizens. Kuttner—one of our most lucid economic critics—explores the
roots of these problems and outlines a persuasive, bold
alternative. In BusinessWeek, The Boston Globe, and The
American Prospect, he has established himself as a prophetic
voice connecting economics and politics. Here he
demonstrates how our economy has fallen hostage to a casino
of financial speculation, creating instability as well as
inequality. He debunks alarmist claims about supposed
economic hazards, such as Social Security and Medicare, and
exposes the genuine dangers: hedge funds and private equity
run amok, sub-prime lenders, Wall Street middlemen, and
America’s dependence on foreign central banks. He describes
how globalization of commerce has been used by business less
to promote free trade than to escape the balanced regulation
that delivered widespread abundance in the decades after
World War II. While our financial security has weakened under President
George W. Bush, Kuttner also faults many Democrats for
failing to offer compelling alternatives. Now, with
financial markets in crisis and public opinion supporting a
more active role for government, he offers a new model of
managed capitalism that can deliver security and
opportunity, and rekindle democracy as a check on
concentrated wealth. Here is a passionate, articulate naming of the problem and a
call for reform. The Squandering of America sets out a path
for reclaiming our democratic politics—and our prosperity.
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