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A brilliant new reading of the economic crisis—and a plan for dealing with the challenge of its aftermath—by one of our most trenchant and informed experts.
When the nation’s economy foundered in 2008, blame was directed almost universally at Wall Street. But Robert B. Reich suggests a different reason for the meltdown, and for a perilous road ahead. He argues that the real problem is structural: it lies in the increasing concentration of income and wealth at the top, and in a middle class that has had to go deeply into debt to maintain a decent standard of living.
Persuasively and straightforwardly, Reich reveals how precarious our situation still is. The last time in American history when wealth was so highly concentrated at the top—indeed, when the top 1 percent of the population was paid 23 percent of the nation’s income—was in 1928, just before the Great Depression. Such a disparity leads to ever greater booms followed by ever deeper busts.
Reich’s thoughtful and detailed account of where we are headed over the next decades reveals the essential truth about our economy that is driving our politics and shaping our future. With keen insight, he shows us how the middle class lacks enough purchasing power to buy what the economy can produce and has adopted coping mechanisms that have a negative impact on their quality of life; how the rich use their increasing wealth to speculate; and how an angrier politics emerges as more Americans conclude that the game is rigged for the benefit of a few. Unless this trend is reversed, the Great Recession will only be repeated.
Reich’s assessment of what must be done to reverse course and ensure that prosperity is widely shared represents the path to a necessary and long-overdue transformation. Aftershock is a practical, humane, and much-needed blueprint for both restoring America’s economy and rebuilding our society.
When the nation’s economy foundered in 2008, blame was directed almost universally at Wall Street. But Robert B. Reich suggests a different reason for the meltdown, and for a perilous road ahead. He argues that the real problem is structural: it lies in the increasing concentration of income and wealth at the top, and in a middle class that has had to go deeply into debt to maintain a decent standard of living.
Persuasively and straightforwardly, Reich reveals how precarious our situation still is. The last time in American history when wealth was so highly concentrated at the top—indeed, when the top 1 percent of the population was paid 23 percent of the nation’s income—was in 1928, just before the Great Depression. Such a disparity leads to ever greater booms followed by ever deeper busts.
Reich’s thoughtful and detailed account of where we are headed over the next decades reveals the essential truth about our economy that is driving our politics and shaping our future. With keen insight, he shows us how the middle class lacks enough purchasing power to buy what the economy can produce and has adopted coping mechanisms that have a negative impact on their quality of life; how the rich use their increasing wealth to speculate; and how an angrier politics emerges as more Americans conclude that the game is rigged for the benefit of a few. Unless this trend is reversed, the Great Recession will only be repeated.
Reich’s assessment of what must be done to reverse course and ensure that prosperity is widely shared represents the path to a necessary and long-overdue transformation. Aftershock is a practical, humane, and much-needed blueprint for both restoring America’s economy and rebuilding our society.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I loved Robert Reich's previous book "Supercapitalism" and this book, written in our more troubled times, continues the same trail of thought, and pushes on further with some quite radical proposals.
The main theme of this book is that in the US, growing income inequality and the relatively lower purchasing power of the middle classes is the major factor contributing to America's economic problems. It is quite a strongly Keynesian viewpoint, which stresses the difference between middle class consumers who spend and therefore re-circulate a high proportion of their income, and the very wealthy who do not have consumption habits so widely beneficial to their fellow countrymen, and who instead speculate, and invest / spend abroad.
The quality of Reich's writing and the historical and anecdotal insights are as satisfying to read as ever, but to me some of the final analysis and proposals are too brutally socialist to be widely accepted or effective. For example, the case for making the tax system in the US much more progressive in response to widening inequality is a good one, but going beyond that and topping up middle class wages by substantial transfer payments is very radical.
Middle class Americans nostalgic for a time when their country's technological lead meant that their low and medium skilled workers could command high wages may love this book, and find Reich a champion of their interests. However trying to reverse or replace this lost comparative advantage of the US worker with large transfer payments from the rich is a very blunt instrument indeed, which may have many side effects. Also there is an implicit assertion running through this book that the standard of living of the American middle class should be maintained and perpetually rise. For me this sits uncomfortably with the future of our world environmental issues.
It could be argued that it is international trade, and the catching up of countries like China in their technological ability which has caused both the growing inequality and economic problems in the West. Therefore it could be argued that the solution to the problems of the US and others needs to confront more directly these fundamental international trade issues at the root, rather than using the state to treat the symptoms of the problem. In this book Reich warns against "killing the cow", meaning a reactionary response born out of envy of the rich, which could endanger the wider prosperity of our free market and free trade system. This kind of caution is characteristically wise, but perhaps others may have less worries about the free-trade/free-market cow, and perhaps be happy to see it, if not killed, then penned in and put on a diet.
The main theme of this book is that in the US, growing income inequality and the relatively lower purchasing power of the middle classes is the major factor contributing to America's economic problems. It is quite a strongly Keynesian viewpoint, which stresses the difference between middle class consumers who spend and therefore re-circulate a high proportion of their income, and the very wealthy who do not have consumption habits so widely beneficial to their fellow countrymen, and who instead speculate, and invest / spend abroad.
The quality of Reich's writing and the historical and anecdotal insights are as satisfying to read as ever, but to me some of the final analysis and proposals are too brutally socialist to be widely accepted or effective. For example, the case for making the tax system in the US much more progressive in response to widening inequality is a good one, but going beyond that and topping up middle class wages by substantial transfer payments is very radical.
Middle class Americans nostalgic for a time when their country's technological lead meant that their low and medium skilled workers could command high wages may love this book, and find Reich a champion of their interests. However trying to reverse or replace this lost comparative advantage of the US worker with large transfer payments from the rich is a very blunt instrument indeed, which may have many side effects. Also there is an implicit assertion running through this book that the standard of living of the American middle class should be maintained and perpetually rise. For me this sits uncomfortably with the future of our world environmental issues.
It could be argued that it is international trade, and the catching up of countries like China in their technological ability which has caused both the growing inequality and economic problems in the West. Therefore it could be argued that the solution to the problems of the US and others needs to confront more directly these fundamental international trade issues at the root, rather than using the state to treat the symptoms of the problem. In this book Reich warns against "killing the cow", meaning a reactionary response born out of envy of the rich, which could endanger the wider prosperity of our free market and free trade system. This kind of caution is characteristically wise, but perhaps others may have less worries about the free-trade/free-market cow, and perhaps be happy to see it, if not killed, then penned in and put on a diet.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Politicians and pundits like to blame Americans' excessive debt for plunging the economy into recession in 2008. But middle-class earners had a good reason for borrowing: Their incomes have dropped since 1980, during a period when the US economy's gains increasingly went to the wealthy. According to former US Secretary of Labor Robert B. Reich, the only way out of the doldrums now is to redress that imbalance and help the middle class resume its role powering the economy. In this book, Reich explores the dire consequences of failing to get workers back to work. Without seeming particularly worried about stirring controversy, he offers his suggestions for restoring the "basic bargain" of shared prosperity: People work and the government supports good jobs backed by a "safety net" of public services. getAbstract recommends Reich's sobering review to those studying ideas about what's broken and how to fix it.
3 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I listened to the Author being interviewed in the US earlier this week, and he clearly knows exactly what he is writing about. It is absolutely fascinating, and I endorse his views completely.
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