PSEUDO-CAPITALISM

In an exploration of what he dubs “pseudo-Capitalism,” Bindman provides an overview of the current U.S. economy and cogently presents its shifting emphasis from a society rooted in capitalism to a society that emphasizes and unjustly rewards the wealthy elite.

In 18 dense chapters, Bindman dissects a wide variety of economic and social factors that have propelled the United States into its current recession, including the bursting of the housing-market bubble, the role of the Bush administration, the changing nature of CEOs, the outsourcing of American companies and jobs, and the shifting status of several other countries, especially China. He also briefly reviews capitalism in the context of U.S. and world history and introduces those new to economics to major players in the increasingly global field. To provide context for much of his material, the author includes input from many prominent economists and historical figures. However, Bindman generally does not include references, limiting the potential for further reader investigation. As he states in the text’s introduction, many of these chapters have been previously published on various websites and the Los Angeles Free Press between 2005 and 2007. This is quite evident in chapters which repeat basic content to bring readers up to speed on economics, and because the book primarily focuses on that time period, though the author has updated some chapters with recent material. While the book is educational, Bindman avoids the bland language and boring tone of most economics textbooks. Instead, he presents a highly confrontational volume that reads in places like a screed against the rich and the U.S. government–although entertaining, this may call into question the balance and validity of his argument.

A strident economic call-to-arms.