The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century

Rating:
Summary: Three stars for raising the issues
Review: The Great Unraveling, like Greg Palast's book, "The Best Democracy Money can Buy," may be flawed in places and written from a left-wing perspective but it does provide important information regarding how our country is abandoning its principles and ultimately its people. My only complaint is that Krugman, like so many others these days, is an ideologue; as a result, he still believes there is a difference between left and right, Republican and Democrat. Although he may not see it this way, his book discusses the ways in which a global, corporate Sovietization of America is quickly subverting families, communities and ultimately the country. Though Palast's book is better, Krugman does provide information which so-called conservatives don't ever address. Unfortunately, Americans are being deceived into accepting the absurd idea that the leaders of our two parties are men of vision and principle with actual political philosophies they seek to implement - as if Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton were similar in stature to a Pericles, Cicero, or Bismarck. If the company you work for has sent jobs offshore, increased your copays, engaged in regular, year-end layoffs; if your HR department has engaged in Skinner-like behavior modification programs by showing you the absolutely ridiculous "Fish" program and talking endlessly about valuing its employees while rolling back benefits and increasing your amount of work; if you no longer trust your child's teacher; if you wonder why low-paying service sector jobs grow like weeds while white collar jobs disappear; if you know more and more people who have to declare bankruptcy even though they are a two-income family; if you know more and more people in their early to mid fifties who are being laid off not because of job performance but because their job has been "eliminated;" if you wonder why the pirates at Enron could go free while Martha Stewart is rounded-up; if you wonder why our government is bombing various countries for vague and/or indefinite reasons that mention "pre-emption" or "stabilization in the region" while our government kow-tows to human rights abuser Red China; if you wonder why more and more illegal aliens keep flooding the country - perhaps cooking the food you eat at fast-food and higher end restaurants, or working for the company that has agreed to put a new roof on your house; if crime seems to be a problem in your city, though you have been told crime it is at an all-time low; and, if you wonder why so-called conservatives talk endlessly about reducing the size of government yet support a president who is deficit-spending like crazy and expanding the role of the federal government, then read Krugman's book for clues - though not necessarily answers.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant Economic Analysis of What Ails Our Goverment
Review: This collection of columns written by Paul Krugman with some material to tie them together deliver a hard-hitting condemnation of the misguided economic and political ways of our current federal government. In some ways, this book is depressing because how time and time again the current administration has shown itself to be anything but fiscal conservatives. For 3+ years, the government has waddled from the bad policy of tax cuts as a cure for surpluses, deficits, war, you name it. Krugman addresses these issues from an economists view and delivers insights that cut through the political jargons to the heart of the matters. This book is a must read for anyone who wants to see spelled out how utterly bad and utterly corrupt Bush's policies are.

Rating:
Summary: Lucid, Intelligent and Frightening
Review: Are you ever puzzled by the fact that the Bush Administration seems to say one thing and then do another? Well this book explains the Bush Presidency not by what it says but by the consequences of what it does. Mr. Krugman's book will be attacked on this forum by all the right wing pundits, disclosed or undisclosed, who now write book reviews on Amazon for the purpose of dissuading the public from reading meaningful books or books that run counter to their own views. Read this book, think and be enlightened.

This book didn't start as a book but as columns Mr. Krugman, who teaches economics at Princeton, wrote mostly for the Op-Ed page of the N.Y. Times from 2000 to 2003. Therefore he had the benefit of a great deal of feed back from counter columns on the same page and elsewhere. His accumulated writings were then organized in topics and published in this book. His statements and concerns were tested in the public arena long before they became a book. If he were just attacking the Administration on trivial grounds or for minor compromises made to gain some larger political concession for the common good he would have been booed off the stage long ago. He was not and the reason is two fold, one, he is a gifted writer able to take complicated economic matters and political situations and make them lucid and readable and two, as an educator he has no stake to protect except that of a concerned citizen.

Why would Mr. Bush want tax cuts that send us in to mounting deficits? I always thought compassionate conservatives were against deficit spending. Well the unstated reason differs from the stated reasons of tax relief, economic stimulus, supply side capital formation for investment etc. The real reason is that the present administration wants to starve what they perceive as big, unnecessary government into small government. Something like we had in the nineteenth century. You remember the nineteenth century don't you with its unrestrained capitalism leading to the exploitation of the public and the rape of our natural resources, the sale of tainted food products, the exploitation of labor, the amassing of great wealth by a few while average families struggled to make ends meet on six day weeks with ten hour days etc. Male life expectancy then was around forty and widows with small children were common. Also you remember the Spanish American War. A war historians are still trying to explain. Was it to free Cuba, to acquire the Philippines as a colony, to make Puerto Rico a state or just to make the world safe from the despotic rule of Spain? Does this sound like Iraq?

Mr. Krugman examines the Administrations actions and points out with logic and with factual examples the following:
The compassionate conservatives are really radical conservatives, who wish the following:
1.To shrink government by tax cuts to the size it was in the administration of Herbert Hoover.
2.To bankrupt Social Security by using the SS security trust, meant for the Baby Boomers, to pay for other programs with budget deficits because of the draconian tax cuts that benefit mainly the top two percent of taxpayers.
3. To, shrink the SEC, Labor Department, Health Education and Welfare Departments and any other perceived department or bureau charged with the protection of the public (except the military with whom these people do a lot of business) so that it has a budget so small to make it meaningless. This is especially true of any environmental protection programs that might be bothersome to the friends of the Administration.
4. To regress foreign policy back to at least the McKinley Administration.
5. To limit taxes to the income earned by ones labor.
6.To eliminate taxes on income from capital.
7.To eliminate inheritance taxes.
7. To provide as much corporate welfare as possible at the expense of the wage earning citizenry.
8. To make economic and social opportunities dependent on ones connections rather than abilities.

These actions resemble the aims of those who wish to establish a plutocracy based on inherited wealth just in case such an aristocracy is not already in place.

Does all this sound way out there? Consider that in 1983 Senator Pat Moynihan, Alan Greenspahn and others on a committee to reform Social Security recognized that the baby boom generation created a huge bubble in the population. Social Security is set up so each generation pays for the preceding generations Social Security through payroll taxes. Since there would be less people working after the baby boom generation retired adjustments were made. A two percent increase in payroll taxes was enacted to be held in trust until it was needed to pay for the baby boomers Social Security. Well Bush has "borrowed" the trust money issuing treasury bonds as security. So thirty percent of every payroll tax dollar is going into the general fund. Something like one trillion dollars has been borrowed. This method of borrowing keeps interest rates down now because the government is not competing for private capital to finance the deficit, but the debt will have to be paid by future generations and since taxes have been cut to mainly benefit the top two percent of taxpayers the burden will fall on the middle class. Also payroll taxes are a very regressive tax falling mainly on the poorest segment of society and take money out of the hands of those most likely to spend it on consumer goods so in effect the cost of financing the government is falling on those least able to do so in a way most damaging to the economy.

This book tells us to stop listening to buzz words like, compassionate conservative, no child left behind etc and look to the actions of the Bush administration for the truth.

Since Bush took office the gap between rich and poor is steadily widening. Wondering why? Mr. Krugman explains the reasons for this. Do wonder if your children will have decent jobs or if you are a baby boomer, will you have a secure retirement? After you read this book you will know the reasons for your concern. When you finish this book then read Robert Rubin's, In An Uncertain World, for a further discussion of responsible fiscal and monetary policies. Edsopinion.hopto.org.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent! No American should miss it!
Review: This book is essentially a collection of Krugman's writings on Fortune and New York Times from 1998 to 2002. I read some of them after the 97 Asian Crisis. Today is 22nd Nov 2003. What, and simply all, he said are still true today. He's a genius and really deserves a Nobel prize. To me, he already is. I think it is more appropriate to quote the praise of a Nobel Laureatet from the back cover of "The Accidential Theorist.." than to write one myself because it's completely applicable and I just could not think of anything better to praise his new book.

"When it comes to popularized economic wisdom, there are a lot of balloons of ignorance out there, many of them reinforced by self interest and self confidence. Fortunately Paul Krugman is also out there, popping those balloons with intelligence, style and wit. You can learn a great deal, about economics and otherwise, by reading these delightful essays."

Robert M. Solow, Nobel Laureate
MIT

Warning: Please be well prepared that this book will certainly send some chills to your bone because it is so hard to believe that the current U.S. president and his administration are no better than the swindlers in the Enron and Worldcom scams.

Rating:
Summary: Bush fans need not read! Keep your head in the sand......
Review: If you are a George Bush fan this book is probably not for you. Paul Krugman is currently a columnist for the New York Times but is an economist and has been involved with politics since he worked with committeemen in the Reagan administration. The book was taken from his columns from 2000 to 2003. While he tries to simplify things his primary method of explaining things is through the use of numbers.

Krugman explains what happened to the surplus and why the big tax cuts are aimed at ELIMINATING Social Security. Paul Krugman also has some harsh words for his fellow journalists for taking comments from the administration at face value without even doing minimal investigation to check on their validity. If you are a moderate or left in your politics and want to know what happened in the last 3 years this book is for you. If you just want snappy comebacks for your right wing friends then I suggest Al Franken' book instead.

After all, the top 20 reasons for going to war stated by Bush, Cheny, Powell, and Rice have ALL been PROVEN wrong. We give tax breaks to the rich, yet the Bush administration announces they want to cut back on Social Security benefits. WOW! Don't you see something wrong with this?

Economist and Princeton professor Krugman explains why we are back into deficits, why the right-wing GOP refuses to work within the limits of the American political framework, why Americans are now pessimistic about most things, and he exposes George W. Bush for what he is -- A power hungry liar.
But, not only does Krugman point all this out with his great logic and wit, he also (unlike most current political authors) offers ideas on how we can get our great country back on the right track again.

If you are open minded and looking for those books begging for its pages to be turned...look no further. I just read a copy of Edgar Fouche's 'Alien Rapture,' which also blew me away. Fouche was a Top Secret Black Program 'insider', whose credibility has been verified over and over. I also really liked Dan Brown's 'Angels and Demons.' Want to be shocked, check out Dr. Paul Hill's 'Unconventional Flying Objects' which NASA tried to ban.

Rating:
Summary: He worked for Enron as a con$ultant
Review: Krugman tells Ameirca how we are losing our way while Krugman was on the payroll of one of the most crooked American companies in history. The man has no credibility.

Rating:
Summary: Exemplary reasoning
Review: I regularly read the author in the NY Times and find him to be erudite and authoritative. This collection of his columns over the years goes to show just how bad the Bush economic policies are and how awful the consequences will be for the country if they continue. By all means buy this book and tell everyone you know to do so!

Rating:
Summary: A concise, c lear & moderate map through American politics.
Review: I finished Krugman's book severasl hours ago and as a foreigner I was pleased to be able to read many of his past articles that had appeared in the NY Times but had been unknown to me. Krugman's easy journey through the neocon mysteries of American politics made fascinating and easy reading even for one who is out of the loop of U.S politics. Although his politics are a little, to say the least, conservative for me and I was unconvinced by the economic spin he gave to many of his articles but I still valued the illumination he gave to the many tortuous paths of Bush conservative "thought" and actions.

Pages 302 to 305 laid bare the extraordinary falsehoods fed to an incrediblly gullable America about the causes of what may turn out to be the biggest American economic scandal since Teapot Dome. Here in Fremantle we received intermittent and fragmented new's coverage of the California power crisis. I admit to being inherently distrustful of anything said by any part of American capitalism but even I was not prepared to assume that the power wholesalers were shutting down generator capacity in order to force up prices. How could capitalism be so bald faced in the land of Disney make believe and Hollywood happy endings? But, as Krugman and numerous investigative bodies have shown, that is exactly what happened-crude fleecing of the world's fifth largest economy.
Again on pages 379-381 Krugman lays bare the greate4st of all American evils [to use George's favorite word] her, by world standard's, extraordinary cheapness. As Krugman writes on page 380, America "... is the Scrooge of the Western world-the least generous rich nation on the planet". For "...about a dime a day for each U.S. citizen ..." the Americans would double their foreign aid budget and thereby save at least eight million lives a year. Yet the Americas won't do it, but they will attend their myriad number of churches each Sunday and exit after the service thinking what good people they are and secretly weondering why the world hates them.

Krugman's book is a mine of answers to the question of why America acts as it does.

Rating:
Summary: Honest criticism from a socialist
Review: In reading this book, it helps to understand the extent of Mr. Krugman's socialist economic agenda. Specifically, Mr. Krugman's ideal economic model is Sweden, a country collecting 63% of their GDP in taxes. The US by contrast collects 34% of GDP in taxes (from the chapter of this book entitled "Who Knew? The Swedish Model is Working", pp 400-402). Mr. Krugman would like to see the role of government in the US economy increase by 85%. This is where he is coming from.

Well, I don't come from there, and to me the economic analysis chapters are filled with disingenuous comparisons and misleading statistics. Mr. Krugman ignores the economic realities of the times and the legitimacy of some conservative views. Views like, for example, the idea that a flat tax rate for everyone earning over some minimum amount would be fair. For Mr. Krugman, the idea of such a flat tax is not only unfair, it is a revolutionary agenda from people who "really don't like America as it is." Krugman goes on to postulate a well financed right wing conspiracy bent on removing "long established American political and social institutions." Well, whatever -- an unfair, counter productive tax system deserves to be tossed out.

As you can imagine, I found it difficult to read (translate) the economic analysis because of Mr. Krugman's misrepresentations and lack of balance, but I slogged through it.

The stock market and economic prediction chapters provided welcome comic relief, because Mr, Krugman was without exception incorrect in his forecasts. It is amazing to me that he did not choose some articles where he was right in his predictions -- did he truly not have any to choose from? Most pundits have at least a few success stories, but Mr. Krugman literally had none. He was negative on the stock market throughout the boom of the 90's, grew more positive after the initial shock down in 2000, then got bearish again at the bottom in 2002. You simply couldn't do worse.

I liked some of Mr. Krugman's views, for example his criticism of tax dodging corporations. Taking it a step further, Krugman believes that conservatives are quietly complicit in this corporate tax avoidance, because they are philosophically against taxation of corporations in general. Along these lines, I read an editorial in the WSJ last week advocating no corporate taxes here in the US.

I'm with Mr. Krugman on this one. Corporations benefit from the US Government at least as much as citizens, and they should be called upon to cough up a proportionate share of their economic profits. I believe that President Bush would agree with both Mr. Krugman and I on the matter of corporate taxation. If he doesn't agree, I would like to know his rationale.

In the area of corporate malfeasance, Mr, Krugman did provide constructive criticism. The Enron/Worldcom/Tyco/NYSE scandals were not attacked with the ferocity they deserved by George W. Bush's administration. Mr. Krugman is probably correct in pointing to President Bush's own past business dealings as a root cause, along with those of Vice President Cheney and other administration officials. Playing fast and loose with accounting and insider trading laws was endemic in U.S. corporate society during the 1980's and 1990's, and Mr, Krugman is correct in castigating these actions and calling for a cleansing. There is still work to be done in this area. Corporate board members by and large, for example, seem to have skated through the scandals. Corporate board members should be held legally responsible for the actions of their companies as well as for rigorously acting in the best interests of their companies' shareholders (their constituency).

The vast conservative conspiracy Mr. Krugman talks about is baloney. The media is becoming more conservative in America because capitalism works. People believe in capitalism and are eschewing liberal tax and spend beliefs because acceptance of capitalism is their ticket to a better life for themselves and their families. People believe what works, and the media (whose success depend upon their audience numbers) reflects those beliefs. Its that simple.

I give the book three stars because of the constructive criticism mixed in with the socialist agenda.

Rating:
Summary: The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century
Review: A well-known commentator for the New York Times, Fortune, and Slate, Krugman (economics, Princeton) has collected more than 100 of his columns that ran between 1997 and spring 2003. Following a substantial preface, he presents the pieces, organized into topical sections that include introductions. The result is a coherent whole. For those not familiar with the author's work, this is a scathing (and, to some minds, well placed) collection of critiques, all aimed squarely at the White House and its current administration. He takes on George Bush from all angles: the fuzzy math inherent in the tax cuts to cronyism to the exploitation of 9/11 that furthered his agenda in the Middle East. Enron, the environment, and globalization are other large targets that also receive their due. This is a thought-provoking book, at times enraging or depressing, sometimes even funny (depending on one's political leanings). Highly recommended for all collections