[Peace-discuss] Failure by Design: The Story behind America's Broken Economy

[Carl G. Estabrook]

"In Failure by Design, the Economic Policy Institute’s Josh Bivens  
takes a step back from the acclaimed State of Working America series,  
building on its wealth of data to relate a compelling narrative of the  
U.S. economy’s struggle to emerge from the Great Recession of 2008.  
Bivens explains the causes and impact on working Americans of the most  
catastrophic economic policy failure since the 1920s.

"As outlined clearly here, economic growth since the late 1970s has  
been slow and inequitably distributed, largely as a result of poor  
policy choices. These choices only got worse in the 2000s, leading to  
an anemic economic expansion. What growth we did see in the economy  
was fueled by staggering increases in private-sector debt and a  
housing bubble that artificially inflated wealth by trillions of  
dollars.

"As had been predicted, the bursting of the housing bubble had  
disastrous consequences for the broader economy, spurring a financial  
crisis and a rise in joblessness that dwarfed those resulting from any  
recession since the Great Depression. The fallout from the Great  
Recession makes it near certain that there will be yet another lost  
decade of income growth for typical families, whose incomes had not  
been boosted by the previous decade’s sluggish and localized economic  
expansion.

"In its broad narrative of how the economy has failed to deliver for  
most Americans over much of the past three decades, Failure by Design  
also offers compelling graphic evidence on jobs, incomes, wages, and  
other measures of economic well-being most relevant to low- and middle- 
income workers. Josh Bivens tracks these trends carefully, giving a  
lesson in economic history that is readable yet rigorous in its  
analysis. Intended as both a stand-alone volume and a companion to the  
new State of Working America website that presents all of the data  
underlying this cogent analysis, Failure by Design will become  
required reading as a road map to the economic problems that confront  
working Americans."

http://www.amazon.com/Failure-Design-Americas-Economic-Institute/dp/0801450152/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0