Rating: 
Summary: A Fascinating Analysis of Difficult Times
Review: Phillips has provided a real contribution to the study of political economy over history. He delves in to the relationship of political power and wealth, emphasizing the development and concentration of each, and its relationship to the society as a whole. His analysis follows the accumulation of wealth, its jealous taking over of (and often feeding from) political power, and then the inevitable movement towards reform when the system breaks down from the burden of a greedy leisure class. Perhaps his best contribution is in recognizing, and explaining, the cyclical nature of the uneasy relationship between wealth and democracy. He makes a strong case that so many of the 'mantras' of our time:
- the emphasis on finance and service
- the increasing concentration of wealth
- the increasing gap between rich and poor
- globalization of financial speculation
- exporting real jobs and productive activity
all have been seen before, but unfortunately by empires that were looking back at better days. Phillips puts speculation, greed, and corruption in its place - outlining the loss of character and productive contribution to society that is always associated with it. Recognizing the interplay of wealth creation/accumulation and the government's activities is an important contribution to an understanding of our time and our challenges. This is an excellent treatise that explains in great detail the threat to democracy that is engendered in the power taken by the very wealthy. It is a tribute to Phillips that he has so presciently described and understood the collective malady while leaving hope for a possible peaceful and productive resolution. This book is well worth reading ' even if a bit scary in its diagnosis of a society coming to grips with some very dangerous power plays.
Rating:
Summary: The "and" in the title might be changed to "versus".
Review: A plenitude of piggish plutocrats are prioritizing political programs. It is not a new phenomenon in the world or in America.
Phillips traces the histories of empires that followed this pattern and, over reaching, self destructed. The over reaching always involved the monumental costs of waging wars. Phillips did not ask the question in this book, but I cannot help but wonder, "How large does the national debt have to be before the interest on it exceeds the amount taken in by taxes?". There is much food for thought (and political action) in these pages. It's too bad that 5 is the highest rating.
Rating:
Summary: Kevin Phillips writes an eyeopener.
Review: After reading "Wealth and Democracy" I am more resolute than ever in demanding that, as a citizen, a thorough wealth redistribution be accomplished. The book tells us how dependent on Government(i.e. The People) are the fortune accumulators of yesterday and today. Moreover, the book exposes how money "buys" political power(the candidate with the biggest war-chest overwhelmingly gets elected time after time). The richest people have undue influence on the electoral process by being the largest donors by far. Finally, we learn how the richest 1% of the people controls an unprecedented huge chunk of the wealth in the United States; something not seen before in U.S. history and bound to have catastrophical consequences as the example of wealth concentration in 18th century Holland shows. You will be much more aware of reality(economical & political) by reading this book.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant..A Classic
Review: I have read everything from Hayek and Freidman to Marx. Mr. Phillip's book is a true classic. The 1861 quote from Abraham Lincoln stating that labor was the superior of capital will stick with me forever. The "wealth without work crowd" with their capital gains tax break matra/myth should hide in shame.
After I read this book I could not help but be struck by the long history of the devaluation of labor. Whether it is slavery, feudalism, child labor, or modern day sweat shops, the rationalization of greed is an old sport. Great read. Highly recommended. Especially for free market utopians.
Rating: 
Summary: Phillips is shaking things up and attacking Greed
Review: It's about time that somebody tells it like it is and goes after the greedy and impotent government officials. All concerned (and open minded) Americans should read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Simpleminded Myth
Review: The book has a basic premis: that wealth disparity is a very bad thing. Phillips produces chart after chart reflecting growing wealth disparity... yet completely fails to explain the underlying economic factors leading us to wealth disparity... Its a poorly researched effort relying on the popular poor man's myth that wealth is bad... unless of course its in your pocket. He doesn't offer a single solution. He just hints that's its a conspiracy reducing maximum tax rates from 90%. He harkens back to an egalitarian era after WW II but fails to recognize that the US economy was the only major economy not destroyed and of course we were super competitive in all segments. He bemoans the plights of manufacturing workers in the US...not offering comment on why they are uncompetitive globally, but by contrasting fortunes made by others and fueling envy. His book isn't academic; its myth. The poorest sort.
After decrying the loss of our middleclass he says (p.118)"... second rank entrepreneurs with #2-8 million could hardly be called rich." Perhaps we are the new middle class? I could recommend numerous books on the wealth effects of the information revolution which author Phillips ought to read before he publishes again. If he is against global trade and the benefits to world stability of chinese or indian middleclass workers making ten times what they did; then perhaps he should just come out of the closet and say so. If he wants to wax philosophic about American manufacturing, perhaps he ought to cite all the hidden costs that make our workers so expensive, and perhaps he ought to examine why huge swathes of our culture refuse to educate adequately.
Thank goodness there are some rich in the US so employment continues. Wealth envy will not cure the problems. I personally found a lot of truth in "The Millionaire next door". Myself and 9 of ten millionaires I know are all self made, and we got there by working long, hard and smart. Not only do I resent Phillips' class baiting, but I find his work obviously thin.
Phillips tries to tie all of his innuendo into a purported threat to democracy. If he wishes to legislate us all into equalness, he'd best start researching Carl Marx. Best not to confuse it with equality of opportunity. If there's a hollow decadence to American democracy today, its because work like Phillips' passes for honest analysis.
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Summary: This concerns all of us
Review: If you read this, you will know why this country is in the problems it's in. The author does not draw conclusions as to whether the problems he details will be corrected, and my own belief is that they will not be.
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Summary: Heresy on the Right
Review: Do open markets necessarily serve representative government? No, asserts maverick conservative Kevin Phillips, who marshals considerable evidence of 30 years of entrenched conflict. That's the kind of apostasy that won't get him invited to the Bush White House any time soon. In fact, the political right has been conflating markets and democracy since cold war's end, the better to open up formerly closed economies. Globalization also rides hard on the heels of this equation and I'm sure it's no comfort to Wall St. power brokers or their apologists in academe to note Phillips' departure from their ranks. But then he's long been sensitive to the powers conferred on wealth inside a democracy, so there should be no great surprise. Not that he endorses the idea of redistribution. He doesn't. His approach is more like that of a value-neutral historian seeking to learn from history and pass along its lessons. And he does find lessons. Foremost is the effect of rising speculation upon a productive economy. The case studies are Holland, England, and to a lesser extent Spain. These historical studies show a correlation between an economy overtaken by speculation and (to simplify) a resulting imperial decline. The pattern, he believes, is there, while the warning to Wall St.'s expanding appetite for riches and power abroad could not be clearer. He also punctures the hot air sales pitch that pumped up the speculative balloon of the 90's, e.g. how technology and communications have ended the business cycle, a rising tide that lifts all boats, etc. As historical precedent shows, this sort of hyperbole is far from being the novelty it is to some, the better to rope in thousands of hapless [people] like Enron employees. There are other hot topics, like the role of WTO, NAFTA, et. al., those supranational outgrowths designed to aid international finance and its speculative arm. Revealingly, Phillips now appears closer to skeptics like Ralph Nader and Pat Buchanan than to current Repubocrat gospel. What becomes of democratic self-rule, he wonders, when unelected bodies like the WTO are given the power to overrule representative government. Having rejected the facile mantra of open markets equaling democratic governance, this is a question every conscionable conservative should be asking. Much of the book is given over to a history of wealth in America, replete with charts, trends, and other necessary impedimenta. The story here is a fairly familiar one with no particular surprises. In the past twenty years the rich have gotten far richer with deregulation, the poor poorer, with a middle class desperately hanging on. When capital so over-reaches, popular revolt follows, at least that is the pattern Phillips locates in our past. Thus, he points to a revolt that would appear in the offing, following wealth's most recent orgy. Perhaps, but perhaps not. Here's where cyclical theories of history can mislead. Consider Hardt and Negri's alternate scenario of an impersonal, decentered global empire, following upon a globalized capitalist economy, dominated by corporate communications, hollow democracy, and an international elite. In other words, the culmination of current trends. Such a real possibility would relocate struggle from within national boundaries to a world arena with no boundaries. Hence struggle in America would have to internationalize -- a serious departure from previous cycles, suggesting perhaps a new stage in human history that does not repeat old national cycles. Be that as it may, by pointing up how private wealth employs government to augment itself, Phillips distinguishes himself from many of his pundit colleagues on the right. Despite charges by detractors, there is precious little advocacy in this work. The story pretty much tells itself in facts and figures. For me, a long-time lefty, Phillips remains a must-read. As he should be for thoughtful conservatives as well.
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Summary: Phillips delivers a potent wake-up call
Review: I found Phillips' analysis of financial market focus verses manufacturing and what it portends for US hegemony very
interesting. Consider the number of industries that, thanks to NAFTA and the WTO, are increasingly being lost to China and Mexico. This type of economic policy is good for the top 1% club that will benefit by financing foreign industry. Once these industries are lost they won't be coming back in our lifetimes. How many articles of clothing or consumer electronic goods are manufactured in the US? Phillips also brings to light the extraordinary power wielded by the Federal Reserve and Alan Greenspan. How is it that someone who has never appeared on a ballot can wield so much power
in a democratic nation? Perhaps all the confusing statistics and abstruse pronouncements
from the Fed constitute a convenient farrago that shields elected officials from being voted out of office by the 99% of the population who haven't paid for their services.
Rating:
Summary: Death of the Middle Class
Review: This is one of the most illuminating books about our times. I have read ten books of this stripe this year and this one is probably the best. Your need to take a break from 9/11 and Afghanistan and read this book. As a sort of rebuttal to the negative reviews from the various social darwinists and self-styled anti-intellectual free marketers: Just because I don't work eighty hours a week and spend every second of my life trying to make money does not mean I do not deserve to live in a modest house and enjoy a modest lifestyle in the richest country in the world. Phillip questions the new greed. As we smugly worship the sacred dollar, the middle class, in attempting to ape the conspicuous consumption of the feckless new elite, slips into the lower class, while the tax-exempted top ten percent grows richer and more immoral. He ticks off point after point using a plethora of sources to support his thesis. Wealth and Democracy is an unrelenting attack on the New Aristocracy. Unfortunately, in the Era or Greed, things will get worse before they get better.
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