Do you remember Rutherford B. Hayes? What about Grover Cleveland? *American Colossus* covers a fascinating and underappreciated era of American history, which Brands interprets as a period of capitalism overpowering democracy.
Book review: “The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age”
Imagine a dystopian society where corporations run the world. Ah, crap. Wu gets his trustbusting on with this exceptional take on how the economic becomes the political. Competition, not non-intervention should be the supreme value of markets. Concentrated power of any form, including economic, is a threat to democracy.
Book review: “Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World”
This book offers a well-defended critique of markets. In sum: inequality is in part due to morally dubious behavior of corporate elites, and big philanthropy is an undemocratic process that circumvents elected representatives of the people. Bravo. You convinced me.
Book review: Lords of Finance
After reading one Pulitzer Prize winner, Gilead, I thought I looked into other recent prize winners, and this one caught my eye. What caused the Great Depression? Trying to dredge some of my knowledge from AP US History, I couldn't come up with a good answer. I doubt I could have answered it if it... Continue Reading →
Friedrich Hayek’s “The Road to Serfdom”: Why democratic socialism can’t last long
I have been meaning to pick up the works of Friedrich Hayek for a while now. I initially stumbled upon him in the "School of Life" series on Political Thinkers. His name kept coming up, first in "Conservatism: An Anthology of Social and Political Thought" and again in another book still on my to-read list... Continue Reading →