Jonathan Chait.
The Big Con: Crackpot Economics and the Fleecing of America.
alternate subtitle: The True Story of How Washington Got Hoodwinked and Hijacked by Crackpot Economics.
Boston & New York: Mariner Books / Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2007; paperback reprint 2008.
Book information: Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.
The Big Con discusses the interaction of politics and economic policy in the USA. Recall what should by now be well know economic history: the economic policies of the U.S. government over the last 40 years have resulted in the greatest income inequality since the 1920s, intensified boom-bust business cycles, huge trade deficits, and the largest government debt ever. Further, public opinion polls conducted over that same period (as reported in Chait's The Big Con and Ferguson & Rogers' Right Turn) have consistently show that large majorities of the public oppose the economic policies of the Republican Party, and yet the Republicans have dominated economic policy making. Why and how did this happen?
The Big Con covers the period from the 1970s with the Lewis Powell Memo and the introduction of the crackpot ideas of supply-side economics to the 2000s with the unashamed full-blown corruption of the Bush administration and the Republican Party. Chait provides an informative discussion of the Republicans' K Street Project in Chapter 2.
After introducing the Republicans' economic policies (the plutocratic agenda: tax cuts for upper income groups instead of using government revenue for education, health care, reducing government debt; financial deregulation; deregulation or non-enforcement of previously established law in areas of environment, health, safety, union organizing, worker rights) Chait explains and documents various factors that eased their implementation. (1) Deception: Republicans lie about their intentions. (2) Media: political journalists lack the training, patience, and intellectual capacity to adequately analyze and report on economic policy and are consequently easy to manipulate. (3) Political culture/circus: political campaigns, especially at the national level, are conducted based upon candidates' spurious "character" traits and ignore substantive policy issues; the Republicans especially have mastered this technique which fits in well with a media press corps it finds easy to manipulate. The tactics Republicans use to exert the power they have aquired through elections Chait calls an "abuse of power"; in this I think Chait is excusing the Democrats' astonishingly weak and ineffectual response to the Republican onslaught. Chait notabley ignores the action and inaction of the Republicans' partners in corruption (the Democrats) whose acquiescence and collaboration with the Republicans' misguided policies has smoothed the path to today. That blindness aside, this is an excellent book.
Some Jonathan Chait links:
Jonathan Chait, Wikipedia.
Jonathan Chait at New York Magazine.
Jonathan Chait at BloggingHeads.TV.
Jonathan Chait at The New Republic.
Jonathan Chait Blog at The New Republic.