The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century
Author: Paul Krugman
List Price: $25.95
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ISBN: 0393058506
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company (September, 2003)
Sales Rank: 103
Average Customer Rating: 3.85 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 3 out of 5
Three stars for raising the issues
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: 5 out of 5
Brilliant Economic Analysis of What Ails Our Goverment
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: 4 out of 5
A great collection of opinion pieces
Paul Krugman, currently an opinion page writer for the New York Times, has collected together many of his opinion pieces from the past few years. His coverage ranges from purely economic topics to government skullduggery. He isn't a big fan of the Bush administration, but his arguments are generally clear and cogent, so readers on either side of the political spectrum should be able to stomach what he says (disagreeing with the conclusions, but not with the method).
It is discouraging to see the direction that the current administration is taking on many fronts, but the underlying theme of deliberate deception behind many of their public pronouncements is disturbing (and continues to be exposed by more recent works).
I would have enjoyed the book more if time had been spent taking the arguments presented in various opinion pieces over the years and reducing them to their minima. While seeing the progression in his opinion is interesting, and at times quite revealing, it can lead to repetition (since the opinion pieces were meant to stand on their own).
Even with this flaw, a book well worth reading.
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