Essential reading for anyone interested in substantiating criticisms of supply-side economics and related theories.
A survey of the negative impacts of Republican economic policies that speculates as to why many people remain faithful to a party that’s working against their interests.
The focus of this dense volume is Weisberg’s assertion that the United States government is no longer a democracy but a plutocracy. He traces America’s economic history, placing greatest emphasis on events since the “Reagan Revolution.” He also takes time to explain various historical defenses and critiques of capitalism through the years. As reflected in the title, Weisberg doesn’t mince words. He calls out what he sees as the hypocrisy of “free-market fundamentalists” who espouse libertarian theories except when it comes to hot-button issues, such as abortion and LGBT rights. There are innumerable moments when he deftly characterizes specific policy decisions as hypocritical, as in an extensive discussion of the debt limit, which was raised 17 times under Ronald Reagan. Weisberg points out that many Republicans who held the government hostage on this issue during Barack Obama’s presidency voted for five increases “without objection” during George W. Bush’s administration. However, the author doesn’t exclusively criticize Republicans here; he also argues that Obama’s refusal to consider invoking the 14th Amendment during his negotiations with Congress constituted “an astonishing piece of ineptitude.” Weisberg also gives credit to those whom he sees as voices of reason within the GOP, such as former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, who argued against Bush’s tax cuts. Furthermore, the author shows the deleterious effects of specific policies on state and international levels, singling out Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s “supply-side delusions.” He also cites Great Britain and Chile as examples of flawed privatized retirement systems and underscores the failure of austerity measures in Europe. Weisberg is perhaps at his sharpest when discussing the causes of the recent Great Recession, the benefits of the bailouts and stimulus package, and the acute nature of the health care crisis: “In short, the Republicans were primarily responsible for the deficit, and now they were using it as a pretense pursuant to their STB [“Starve-the-Beast”] tactic, to minimize or eliminate the safety net.” The author fittingly adds an alarming epilogue in which the GOP has essentially ceded all control to the erratic leadership of Donald Trump. The “Glossary of Abbreviations” will help readers keep governmental acronyms straight, and the appendix presents excerpts from the Libertarian Party’s 1980 platform, featuring its vice-presidential candidate, the late David Koch—who was later a major Republican donor. Overall, the text’s one major drawback is its weak copy editing—missing words, imprecise punctuation, and spelling errors, including multiple instances of “United Sates” and “Regan.” In a well-documented volume with nearly 3,500 endnotes, it’s critical to know where quotations end and the author’s own words begin. Some crucial dates are fumbled, as well, such as “the November 2011 election” that granted Obama a second term. Despite all this, the project remains a valuable addition to the discussion of American voters who prioritize identity politics over policy.
Essential reading for anyone interested in substantiating criticisms of supply-side economics and related theories.Pub Date: June 28, 2019
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 940
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 6, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
This moving, potent testament might have been titled “Black Lives Matter.” Or: “An American Tragedy.”
The powerful story of a father’s past and a son’s future.
Atlantic senior writer Coates (The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood, 2008) offers this eloquent memoir as a letter to his teenage son, bearing witness to his own experiences and conveying passionate hopes for his son’s life. “I am wounded,” he writes. “I am marked by old codes, which shielded me in one world and then chained me in the next.” Coates grew up in the tough neighborhood of West Baltimore, beaten into obedience by his father. “I was a capable boy, intelligent and well-liked,” he remembers, “but powerfully afraid.” His life changed dramatically at Howard University, where his father taught and from which several siblings graduated. Howard, he writes, “had always been one of the most critical gathering posts for black people.” He calls it The Mecca, and its faculty and his fellow students expanded his horizons, helping him to understand “that the black world was its own thing, more than a photo-negative of the people who believe they are white.” Coates refers repeatedly to whites’ insistence on their exclusive racial identity; he realizes now “that nothing so essentialist as race” divides people, but rather “the actual injury done by people intent on naming us, intent on believing that what they have named matters more than anything we could ever actually do.” After he married, the author’s world widened again in New York, and later in Paris, where he finally felt extricated from white America’s exploitative, consumerist dreams. He came to understand that “race” does not fully explain “the breach between the world and me,” yet race exerts a crucial force, and young blacks like his son are vulnerable and endangered by “majoritarian bandits.” Coates desperately wants his son to be able to live “apart from fear—even apart from me.”
This moving, potent testament might have been titled “Black Lives Matter.” Or: “An American Tragedy.”Pub Date: July 8, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8129-9354-7
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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