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The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century ペーパーバック – 2004/8/30
英語版
Paul R. Krugman
(著)
ダブルポイント 詳細
A respected economist and columnist for The New York Times shares a collection of his most influential columns, along with commentary, that critically analyzes the course of the American economy, looking at the collapse of fiscal responsibility, corporate scandals, political dishonesty, and what the nation needs to get back on track. Reprint. 100,000 first printing.
- 本の長さ516ページ
- 言語英語
- 出版社W W Norton & Co Inc
- 発売日2004/8/30
- 寸法13.97 x 2.54 x 20.83 cm
- ISBN-109780393326055
- ISBN-13978-0393326055
商品の説明
レビュー
The title of Paul Krugman's The Great Unraveling might well have been The Great Usurpation. In a republic hijacked by the radical right whose leaders reject the legitimacy of our current political system, Paul Krugman's coruscant book calls for a "great revulsion" across the land before it is too late.--David Levering Lewis, author of W.E.B. DuBois: Biography of a Race
A rigorously argued, angrily eloquent, fiercely patriotic book.-- "Boston Sunday Globe"
The new Krugman book documents why this top-drawer academic economist deserves at least one Pulitzer Prize for his accurate Times op-ed columns that are a lone voice, telling things as they are and debunking Washington policies that are neither compassionate nor conservative. Plutocratic democracy is in the saddle. Rx. Krugman twice a week and in this coherent sum-up on relevant 2003-2010 economics. Buy. Read. Ponder. Benefit.--Paul A. Samuelson, Institute Professor Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
If I had a tenth of Paul Krugman's brain and a twentieth of his courage, I'd be the happiest person on the face of the Earth.--James Carville
Paul Krugman is the great discovery of recent American journalism. Lively, lucid, witty, superbly informed, his commentary on the state of the union is required reading for anyone concerned about the American future.--Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Paul Krugman is the indispensable American columnist, a voice of truth in a political world of lies and calculated injustice. This book is even better. It makes the case, unrestrained by deference, that a revolutionary right-wing movement is out to transform the United States-and is succeeding, rolling over a supine press and political opposition.--Anthony Lewis
A rigorously argued, angrily eloquent, fiercely patriotic book.-- "Boston Sunday Globe"
The new Krugman book documents why this top-drawer academic economist deserves at least one Pulitzer Prize for his accurate Times op-ed columns that are a lone voice, telling things as they are and debunking Washington policies that are neither compassionate nor conservative. Plutocratic democracy is in the saddle. Rx. Krugman twice a week and in this coherent sum-up on relevant 2003-2010 economics. Buy. Read. Ponder. Benefit.--Paul A. Samuelson, Institute Professor Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
If I had a tenth of Paul Krugman's brain and a twentieth of his courage, I'd be the happiest person on the face of the Earth.--James Carville
Paul Krugman is the great discovery of recent American journalism. Lively, lucid, witty, superbly informed, his commentary on the state of the union is required reading for anyone concerned about the American future.--Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Paul Krugman is the indispensable American columnist, a voice of truth in a political world of lies and calculated injustice. This book is even better. It makes the case, unrestrained by deference, that a revolutionary right-wing movement is out to transform the United States-and is succeeding, rolling over a supine press and political opposition.--Anthony Lewis
著者について
Paul Krugman, recipient of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics and best-selling author, has been a columnist at The New York Times for twenty years. A Distinguished Professor at City University of New York, he lives in New York City.
登録情報
- ASIN : 0393326055
- 出版社 : W W Norton & Co Inc; Reprint版 (2004/8/30)
- 発売日 : 2004/8/30
- 言語 : 英語
- ペーパーバック : 516ページ
- ISBN-10 : 9780393326055
- ISBN-13 : 978-0393326055
- 寸法 : 13.97 x 2.54 x 20.83 cm
- カスタマーレビュー:
著者について
著者をフォローして、新作のアップデートや改善されたおすすめを入手してください。
1953年生まれ。マサチューセッツ工科大学(MIT)でPh.D.を取得。イェール大学、MIT、スタンフォード大学などで教鞭をとる。現在プリンスト ン大学教授。82~83年、大統領経済諮問委員会委員。IMF、世銀、EC委員会のエコノミストも務める。91年、40歳以下の最も優れた経済学者に贈ら れるジョン・ベーツ・クラーク賞を受賞、2008年、ノーベル経済学賞を受賞した。著書多数(「BOOK著者紹介情報」より:本データは『 自己組織化の経済学―経済秩序はいかに創発するか (ISBN-13: 978-4480092564)』が刊行された当時に掲載されていたものです)
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トップレビュー
上位レビュー、対象国: 日本
レビューのフィルタリング中に問題が発生しました。後でもう一度試してください。
2003年10月9日に日本でレビュー済み
Amazonで購入
想像するよりも、過激な本でした。だって序文で、KISSINGERの処女作のRESTORED WORLDを取り上げてブッシュ政権の性格付けをしていたのには驚きました。もはや、これは革命政権だと言い切っているわけですから。基はニューヨークタイムズに掲載されたコラムです。取り上げられているのは基本的にブッシュ政権の政策、並びに政権の性格に着いての驚くほどの批判のオンパレードです。カリフォルニアの電力危機、減税政策、環境政策、エンロン問題など多岐にわたりますが、ほとんどの問題については、私の知識では正邪の判断をつけることは無理です。ただこの政権の持つイデオロギー性の指摘については、強い印象を受けました。結果として、読者に、こんな政権や政治は果たして長持ちするのでしょうかという疑問を抱かせることには成功していると思います。結構、メランコリックになっているのは、Ralph Naderについての部分ですね。逆に力が入っているのは、チェイニーやイギリスの料理の変化の部分かな。あっという間に読める本です。
2005年4月1日に日本でレビュー済み
Paul Krugman, professor of economics and op-ed writer for the New York Times, is nothing but a left-wing hack. While he may know theoretical Keynesian economics like the back of his hand, he has major difficulties squaring his teaching with the reality of facts.
For example, he warned that the Bush tax cuts of 2003 would plunge the country into a new economic depression, the opposite, in fact, has occured. The economy not only recovered, but is soaring. But never mind that, Krugman, in his ivory tower, simply ignores this incovenient fact in his op-eds and bashes the tax cuts anyway.
Don't waste your time with his bull!
For example, he warned that the Bush tax cuts of 2003 would plunge the country into a new economic depression, the opposite, in fact, has occured. The economy not only recovered, but is soaring. But never mind that, Krugman, in his ivory tower, simply ignores this incovenient fact in his op-eds and bashes the tax cuts anyway.
Don't waste your time with his bull!
他の国からのトップレビュー
Edsopinion.com
5つ星のうち5.0
Lucid, Intelligent and Frightening
2004年3月28日にアメリカ合衆国でレビュー済みAmazonで購入
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.
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.
Thomas E Beach
5つ星のうち4.0
The way things might have been...
2015年6月9日にアメリカ合衆国でレビュー済みAmazonで購入
This book by Paul Krugman makes you realize that, buried by the national insanity of Bush/Cheney's Iraq war mania, there were actual real voices that saw things another way. Had anyone listened, we'd be living a very different world right now. This indictment of the true evil-doers of the era -- Bush, Cheney, et al -- is thorough, and thoroughly depressing.
Theodore A. Rushton
5つ星のうち5.0
Explaining the revolution launched by President Bush
2003年10月13日にアメリカ合衆国でレビュー済みAmazonで購入
President George Bush is a liar.
This comes as a shock to Paul Krugman, a usual resident of a comfortable ivory tower, who doesn't seem to understand that all politicians are liars. Another surprise for him is that journalists, even when the lies are obvious, obsequiously accept them as profound truths.
It's how the world works outside the ivory tower. Life is a series of lies, to ourselves and to others; success consists of seeing through these lies without unduly embarrassing others. Anyone who believes everything the politicians tell them is also likely to believe used car salesmen and the developers who sell Arizona desert land.
For Krugman, it's an eye-opening experience to discover the Bush administration has been, is and will continue to lie to the American people. What is far more interesting, and which makes this book a gem, is that Krugman offers an original and frightening reason for these lies. First of all, you need to think of the US government -- which spends 90 percent of its revenues on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the military -- on the same basis as an intelligent economist (Krugman).
On that basis, the US government is a big insurance company which also has an army.
Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare are insurance programs. The Bush administration wants to turn these insurance programs over to private insurance companies and leave the government only in the military business, plus housekeeping duties (national parks, federal lands, business regulation and the like). This is a genuine revolution, a total rejection of America as it now exists and a rejection of almost every social measure enacted since President Herbert Hoover. It is a bold leap forward into a survival-of-the-fittest future -- based on a philosophy in which Pharisees (rich Americans) are praised for passing by the travelers wounded by our society.
His analysis of the Bush administration is the great strength of this book. Most journalists think of politicians as saints or sinners; Krugman is astute enough to look beyond the lies to discern the real agenda. In the main, the book is a collection of columns from the past four or so years detailing the utter folly of thinking about Bush in terms of politics as usual. Instead, he argues convincingly that Bush is waging a true revolution in American social policies.
If you read it with a simple mind, on the basis of liking Bush or disliking Bush, you will either learn nothing new or will think Krugman is a liar.
If you accept his premise that Bush is waging a genuine economic revolution, creating deliberate events such as far distant wars to distract the public, then whether you love or hate Bush you'll be fascinated by the insights this book offers.
Bush may be a liar, but he's not stupid. Bush may be the best tonic for America since President Theodore Roosevelt, but that doesn't make him trustworthy. In either case, Krugman deftly pulls back the layers of deception (call it a smokescreen if you're a Bush fan) to illustrate a very dynamic revolution in America.
This is a tremendous book. It's a tale of terror for those who hate Bush; it's a triumph for those who think the government should get out of the insurance business.
This comes as a shock to Paul Krugman, a usual resident of a comfortable ivory tower, who doesn't seem to understand that all politicians are liars. Another surprise for him is that journalists, even when the lies are obvious, obsequiously accept them as profound truths.
It's how the world works outside the ivory tower. Life is a series of lies, to ourselves and to others; success consists of seeing through these lies without unduly embarrassing others. Anyone who believes everything the politicians tell them is also likely to believe used car salesmen and the developers who sell Arizona desert land.
For Krugman, it's an eye-opening experience to discover the Bush administration has been, is and will continue to lie to the American people. What is far more interesting, and which makes this book a gem, is that Krugman offers an original and frightening reason for these lies. First of all, you need to think of the US government -- which spends 90 percent of its revenues on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the military -- on the same basis as an intelligent economist (Krugman).
On that basis, the US government is a big insurance company which also has an army.
Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare are insurance programs. The Bush administration wants to turn these insurance programs over to private insurance companies and leave the government only in the military business, plus housekeeping duties (national parks, federal lands, business regulation and the like). This is a genuine revolution, a total rejection of America as it now exists and a rejection of almost every social measure enacted since President Herbert Hoover. It is a bold leap forward into a survival-of-the-fittest future -- based on a philosophy in which Pharisees (rich Americans) are praised for passing by the travelers wounded by our society.
His analysis of the Bush administration is the great strength of this book. Most journalists think of politicians as saints or sinners; Krugman is astute enough to look beyond the lies to discern the real agenda. In the main, the book is a collection of columns from the past four or so years detailing the utter folly of thinking about Bush in terms of politics as usual. Instead, he argues convincingly that Bush is waging a true revolution in American social policies.
If you read it with a simple mind, on the basis of liking Bush or disliking Bush, you will either learn nothing new or will think Krugman is a liar.
If you accept his premise that Bush is waging a genuine economic revolution, creating deliberate events such as far distant wars to distract the public, then whether you love or hate Bush you'll be fascinated by the insights this book offers.
Bush may be a liar, but he's not stupid. Bush may be the best tonic for America since President Theodore Roosevelt, but that doesn't make him trustworthy. In either case, Krugman deftly pulls back the layers of deception (call it a smokescreen if you're a Bush fan) to illustrate a very dynamic revolution in America.
This is a tremendous book. It's a tale of terror for those who hate Bush; it's a triumph for those who think the government should get out of the insurance business.
Drew Buehler
5つ星のうち3.0
Good writing and great commentary but becoming somewhat irrelevant to ...
2015年1月4日にアメリカ合衆国でレビュー済みAmazonで購入
Good writing and great commentary but becoming less interesting compared to what happened in the recession of 2008-9. There are many parallels between the time period this book talks about and present day (2014-15). The book can seem redundant in its criticisms of the Bush Administration after awhile. However he effectively sheds light of the radical right-wing workings of the Bush Administration which caused many of the problems we are dealing with today.
Barron Laycock
5つ星のうち5.0
Terrific, Enticing Collection Of Krugman's Columns!
2003年10月7日にアメリカ合衆国でレビュー済みAmazonで購入
Princeton economist Paul Krugman sits in the catbird seat to better view the massive socioeconomic and political changes that have washed over the United States and the world in the last decade. As a columnist for the New York Times he has consistently demonstrated an uncanny ability to see the larger picture in which specific social, economic, and poltiical events are meaningfully embedded. This collection of winsome and worldly columns gathered from those published over the last several years provide a telling snapshot of a system in change, in terms of its values, its mores, and its leaders. And it is in the depiction of these leaders, both in private and public life, that the reader senses the alarm and concern the author so earnestly conveys regarding the cultural changes sweeping over us.
Krugman's columns comprise a collectively pessimistic view of people acting badly, selfishly, and with little regard for the welfare of the people from whom they derive their power, whether it be economic, social or political. And Professor Krugman reserves special scorn and sarcasm for George W. Bush, who he sees as a man who personally embodies the notion of incredibly bad leadership, and whose Bush administration takes on the power of a `revolutionary' movement foisted on the unsuspecting public by public servants who neither respect the populace they serve nor hold the ideas of the current political system as legitimate. Indeed, for Krugman these knaves prancing in knights' attire are really radical zealots presenting themselves as much more moderate and practical denizens of change. HE reserves special scorn for their disingenuous stated policies on issues such as social security, which Krugman understands are based on a cooking of the books, and which are the direct result of forty years of ignorance and dissembling politics on both sides of the political aisle.
Krugman's greatest strength is his savvy and knowing ability to meaningfully employ numbers and statistics in support of his articulations concerning the sorry state of affairs regarding our corporate and political leaders. HE waxes well on subjects as diverse as social security, as mentioned above, as well as on tax programs, the conscious and perhaps criminal manipulation of the stock market in the runaway 1990s, the federal budget and its priorities, and the sudden transformation of a massive budgetary surplus into an equally staggering deficit. Yet, alas, what really won my heart is Krugman's taking to task of his fellow media mavens, who in his opinion have fallen asleep on the journalistic beat, and have allowed many of the social, economic and political events of the last several years to pass unexamined, and by doing so have badly disserved the American public, who should, in his estimation (and mine) have been able to expect more from its designated watchdogs. This is a terrific book to carry with you, as each piece is fairly short and comprises a stand alone article which can be read nicely during a lunch break or while sitting in an airport terminal waiting for your luggage to magically reappear. Enjoy!
Krugman's columns comprise a collectively pessimistic view of people acting badly, selfishly, and with little regard for the welfare of the people from whom they derive their power, whether it be economic, social or political. And Professor Krugman reserves special scorn and sarcasm for George W. Bush, who he sees as a man who personally embodies the notion of incredibly bad leadership, and whose Bush administration takes on the power of a `revolutionary' movement foisted on the unsuspecting public by public servants who neither respect the populace they serve nor hold the ideas of the current political system as legitimate. Indeed, for Krugman these knaves prancing in knights' attire are really radical zealots presenting themselves as much more moderate and practical denizens of change. HE reserves special scorn for their disingenuous stated policies on issues such as social security, which Krugman understands are based on a cooking of the books, and which are the direct result of forty years of ignorance and dissembling politics on both sides of the political aisle.
Krugman's greatest strength is his savvy and knowing ability to meaningfully employ numbers and statistics in support of his articulations concerning the sorry state of affairs regarding our corporate and political leaders. HE waxes well on subjects as diverse as social security, as mentioned above, as well as on tax programs, the conscious and perhaps criminal manipulation of the stock market in the runaway 1990s, the federal budget and its priorities, and the sudden transformation of a massive budgetary surplus into an equally staggering deficit. Yet, alas, what really won my heart is Krugman's taking to task of his fellow media mavens, who in his opinion have fallen asleep on the journalistic beat, and have allowed many of the social, economic and political events of the last several years to pass unexamined, and by doing so have badly disserved the American public, who should, in his estimation (and mine) have been able to expect more from its designated watchdogs. This is a terrific book to carry with you, as each piece is fairly short and comprises a stand alone article which can be read nicely during a lunch break or while sitting in an airport terminal waiting for your luggage to magically reappear. Enjoy!