Includes bibliographical references (p. 149-161) and index.
Contents
Introduction : The pendulum -- pt. 1. The broken bargain -- Eccles's insight -- Parallels -- The basic bargain -- How concentrated income at the top hurts the economy -- Why policymakers obsess about the financial economy instead of about the real one -- The great prosperity : 1947-1975 -- How we got ourselves into the same mess again -- How Americans kept buying anyway : the three coping mechanisms -- The future without coping mechanisms -- Why China won't save us -- No return to normal -- pt. 2. Backlash -- The 2020 election -- The politics of economics, 2010-2020 -- Why can't we be content with less? -- The pain of economic loss -- Adding insult to injury -- Outrage at a rigged game -- The politics of anger -- pt. 3. The bargain restored -- What should be done : a New Deal for the middle class -- How it could get done.
Summary
Celebrated economic policy maker and political theorist Robert B. Reich argues that the nation's 2008 economic collapse is the result of an increasing concentration of income and wealth at the top--and a middle class that had to go deeply into debt to maintain a decent standard of living. To ensure that prosperity is widely shared, he continues, requires the implementation of a much broader safety net for the middle class financed by higher marginal tax rates on the very wealthy.
