This book is the story of The Trump Economic Miracle-and the agenda that will make America great again, again.
In late August 2023, President Donald Trump contacted us to meet with him. It was déjà vu for the two of us, as it reminded us of our first meeting with Trump back in early 2016-the first time he ran for the White House. Trump was proclaiming that we could get to 5 percent growth with the right set of pro-business policy ideas. We were ecstatic that finally someone was frontally assaulting the tyranny of low expectations that sold America short.
When we met with Trump at his office in Bedminster, New Jersey, it was like we were starting right where we left off. He wanted us to help him again in 2020 with the rebuilding job ahead.
Will you help me write a tax plan that is even bigger than Reagan's? he asked.
We looked at each other, grinned, and said: We're in.
As we left that meeting, Steve mentioned on the way out that we knew he could make the American economy great again, because he already had done it once.
No, actually, Steve, he replied, I did it twice. I did it after Obama. And I did it after Covid.
With a foreword by Angela Garbes
From the president of the Economic Security Project, a book that shows how a just future is around the corner, if we are ready to seize it
The Guarantee asks us to imagine an America where housing, health care, a college education, dignified work, family care, an inheritance, and an income floor are not only attainable by all but guaranteed, by our government, for everyone.
NOW IN PAPERBACK The book the American Prospect calls an essential resource for future reformers on how not to govern, by America's leading defender of the public interest and a bestselling historian
An essential read for those who want to fight the assault on public goods and the commons. --Naomi Klein
A sweeping exposé of the ways in which private interests strip public goods of their power and diminish democracy, the hardcover edition of The Privatization of Everything elicited a wide spectrum of praise: Kirkus Reviews hailed it as a strong, economics-based argument for restoring the boundaries between public goods and private gains, Literary Hub featured the book on a Best Nonfiction list, calling it a far-reaching, comprehensible, and necessary book, and Publishers Weekly dubbed it a persuasive takedown of the idea that the private sector knows best.
From Diane Ravitch (an important new book about the dangers of privatization) to Heather McGhee (a well-researched call to action), the rave reviews mirror the expansive nature of the book itself, covering the impact of privatization on every aspect of our lives, from water and trash collection to the justice system and the military. Cohen and Mikaelian also demonstrate how citizens can--and are--wresting back what is ours: A Montana city took back its water infrastructure after finding that they could do it better and cheaper. Colorado towns fought back well-funded campaigns to preserve telecom monopolies and hamstring public broadband. A motivated lawyer fought all the way to the Supreme Court after the state of Georgia erected privatized paywalls around its legal code.
Enlightening and sobering (Rosanne Cash), The Privatization of Everything connects the dots across a wide range of issues and offers what Cash calls a progressive voice with a firm eye on justice [that] can carefully parse out complex issues for those of us who take pride in citizenship.
The book the American Prospect calls an essential resource for future reformers on how not to govern, by America's leading defender of the public interest and a bestselling historian
An essential read for those who want to fight the assault on public goods and the commons. --Naomi Klein
A sweeping exposé of the ways in which private interests strip public goods of their power and diminish democracy, The Privatization of Everything has elicited a wide spectrum of praise: Kirkus Reviews hailed it as a strong, economics-based argument for restoring the boundaries between public goods and private gains, Literary Hub featured the book on a Best Nonfiction list, calling it a far-reaching, comprehensible, and necessary book, and Publishers Weekly dubbed it a persuasive takedown of the idea that the private sector knows best.
From Diane Ravitch (an important new book about the dangers of privatization) to Heather McGhee (a well-researched call to action), the rave reviews mirror the expansive nature of the book itself, covering the impact of privatization on every aspect of our lives, from water and trash collection to the justice system and the military. Cohen and Mikaelian also demonstrate how citizens can--and are--wresting back what is ours: A Montana city took back its water infrastructure after finding that they could do it better and cheaper. Colorado towns fought back well-funded campaigns to preserve telecom monopolies and hamstring public broadband. A motivated lawyer fought all the way to the Supreme Court after the state of Georgia erected privatized paywalls around its legal code.
Enlightening and sobering (Rosanne Cash), The Privatization of Everything connects the dots across a wide range of issues and offers what Cash calls a progressive voice with a firm eye on justice [that] can carefully parse out complex issues for those of us who take pride in citizenship.
A Financial Times Best Economics Book of the Year
A Foreign Affairs Best Book of the Year
A Fareed Zakaria GPS Book of the Week
Greedy corporate interests have been lying to us for centuries. Here's an illustrated, entertaining road map for navigating through their hypocrisy and deception From praising the health benefits of cigarettes to moralizing on the character-building qualities of child labor, rich corporate overlords have gone to astonishing, often morally indefensible lengths to defend their profits. Since the dawn of capitalism, they've told the same lies over and over to explain why their bottom line is always more important than the greater good: You say you want to raise the federal minimum wage? Why, you'll only make things worse for the very people you want to help! Should we hold polluters accountable for the toxins they're dumping in our air and water? No, the free market will save us! Can we raise taxes on the rich to pay for universal healthcare? Of course not--that will kill jobs! Affordable childcare? Socialism! It's always the same tired threats and finger-pointing, in a concentrated campaign to keep wealth and power in the hands of the wealthy and powerful.
Corporate Bullsh*t will help you identify this pernicious propaganda for the wealthiest 1 percent, and teach you how to fight back. Structured around some of the most egregious statements ever made by the rich and powerful, the book identifies six categories of falsehoods that repeatedly thwart progress on issues including civil rights, wealth inequality, climate change, voting rights, gun responsibility, and more. With amazing illustrations and a sharp sense of humor, Corporate Bullsh*t teaches readers how to never get conned, bamboozled, or ripped off ever again.
Former CEO of CKE Restaurants, Inc. Andrew F. Puzder exposes how the secretive consolidation of financial power under the guise of ESG represents a new collectivist threat to the free market.
In this passionate and powerful book--part manifesto, part plan of action--the renowned economist Jeffrey D. Sachs offers a practical strategy to move America, seemingly more divided than ever, toward a new consensus: sustainable development. Sustainable development is a holistic approach that emphasizes economic, social, and environmental objectives in shaping policy. In focusing too much on economic growth, the United States has neglected rising economic inequality and dire environmental threats. Now, even growth is imperiled.
Sachs explores issues that have captivated the nation and political debate, including infrastructure, trade deals, energy policy, the proper size and role of government, the national debt, and income inequality. Not only does he provide illuminating and accessible explanations of the forces at work in each case, but he also presents specific policy solutions. His argument rises above the pessimism born of political paralysis, economic stagnation, and partisanship to devise a brighter way forward, achievable both individually and collectively. In Building the New American Economy, Sachs shows how the United States can find a path to renewed economic progress that is fair and environmentally sustainable.As the Japanese economy languished in the 1990s Japanese government officials, business executives, and opinion leaders concluded that their economic model had gone terribly wrong. They questioned the very institutions that had been credited with Japan's past success: a powerful bureaucracy guiding the economy, close government-industry ties, lifetime employment, the main bank system, and dense interfirm networks. Many of these leaders turned to the U.S. model for lessons, urging the government to liberate the economy and companies to sever long-term ties with workers, banks, suppliers, and other firms.Despite popular perceptions to the contrary, Japanese government and industry have in fact enacted substantial reforms. Yet Japan never emulated the American model. As government officials and industry leaders scrutinized their options, they selected reforms to modify or reinforce preexisting institutions rather than to abandon them. In Japan Remodeled, Steven Vogel explains the nature and extent of these reforms and why they were enacted.Vogel demonstrates how government and industry have devised innovative solutions. The cumulative result of many small adjustments is, he argues, an emerging Japan that has a substantially redesigned economic model characterized by more selectivity in business partnerships, more differentiation across sectors and companies, and more openness to foreign players.
Japan grew explosively and consistently for more than a century, from the Meiji Restoration until the collapse of the economic bubble in the early 1990s. Since then, it has been unable to restart its economic engine and respond to globalization. How could the same political-economic system produce such strongly contrasting outcomes?
This book identifies the crucial variables as classic Japanese forms of socio-political organization: the circles of compensation. These cooperative groupings of economic, political, and bureaucratic interests dictate corporate and individual responses to such critical issues as investment and innovation; at the micro level, they explain why individuals can be decidedly cautious on their own, yet prone to risk-taking as a collective. Kent E. Calder examines how these circles operate in seven concrete areas, from food supply to consumer electronics, and deals in special detail with the influence of Japan's changing financial system. The result is a comprehensive overview of Japan's circles of compensation as they stand today, and a road map for broadening them in the future.