In the years surrounding the Second World War, a serendipitous confluence of events created a healthy balance between the market and the polity-between the engine of capitalism and the egalitarian ideals of democracy. Yet, from the 1970s on, a power shift occurred in which financial regulations were rolled back, taxes were cut, inequality worsened and disheartened voters turned to far-right, faux populism. Robert Kuttner lays out the events that led to the post-war miracle and charts its dissolution all the way to Trump, Brexit and the tenuous state of the EU. He asks whether today's poisonous alliance of reckless finance and ultra-nationalism is inevitable, and whether democracy can find a way to survive.

With history and the extraordinary parallels between Biden and FDR as his guide, the veteran political analyst diagnoses what's at stake for America in 2022 and beyond Joe Biden has found his way back to Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. After four decades of diminishing prospects for ordinary people, the public likes what Biden is offering. Yet American democracy is in dire peril as Republicans, increasingly the national minority, try to destroy democracy in order to cling to power. It is the best of times and the worst of times. In Going Big, bestselling author and political journalist Robert Kuttner assesses the promise and peril of this critical juncture. Biden, like FDR in his time, faces multiple challenges. Roosevelt had to make terrible compromises with racist legislators to win enactment of his program. Biden, to achieve the necessary governing coalition, needs to achieve durable multiracial coalitions. Roosevelt had to conquer fascism in Europe; Biden must defeat it at home. And after four decades of neoliberal policy disasters reflecting Wall Street's political influence, Biden needs to go beyond what even FDR achieved, to restore a democratic economy of broad possibility. From a writer with an unparalleled understanding of the history and politics that have made this moment possible, this book is the essential guide to what is at stake for Joe Biden, for America, and for our democracy.

The 2020 presidential election will be pivotal for the credibility of government and for democracy itself, argues Robert Kuttner in this compelling call to arms. Either America continues the twin slides into corrupt autocracy and corporate plutocracy-the course set in the past half century by Republican and Democratic presidents alike-or Americans elect a progressive Democrat in the mould of FDR. At stake is nothing less than the continued success of the American experiment in liberal democracy. Kuttner convincingly shows that a progressive Democrat also has a better chance than a centrist of winning the presidency in the current political environment. The Stakes is the book to read ahead of the 2020 primaries.

The severity of the Great Recession and the subsequent stagnation caught many economists by surprise. But a group of Keynesian scholars warned for some years that strong forces were leading the U.S. toward a deep, persistent downturn. This book collects essays about these events from prominent macroeconomists who developed a perspective that predicted the broad outline and many specific aspects of the crisis. From this point of view, the recovery of employment and revival of strong growth requires more than short-term monetary easing and temporary fiscal stimulus. Economists and policy makers need to explore how the process of demand formation failed after 2007, and where demand will come from going forward. Successive chapters address the sources and dynamics of demand, the distribution and growth of wages, the structure of finance, and challenges from globalization, and inform recommendations for monetary and fiscal policies to achieve a more efficient and equitable society.

The severity of the Great Recession and the subsequent stagnation caught many economists by surprise. But a group of Keynesian scholars warned for some years that strong forces were leading the US toward a deep, persistent downturn. This book collects essays about these events from prominent macroeconomists who developed a perspective that predicted the broad outline and many specific aspects of the crisis. From this point of view, the recovery of employment and revival of strong growth requires more than short-term monetary easing and temporary fiscal stimulus. Economists and policy makers need to explore how the process of demand formation failed after 2007 and where demand will come from going forward. Successive chapters address the sources and dynamics of demand, the distribution and growth of wages, the structure of finance and challenges from globalization, and inform recommendations for monetary and fiscal policies to achieve a more efficient and equitable society.

In the years surrounding the Second World War, a serendipitous confluence of events created a healthy balance between the market and the polity-between the engine of capitalism and the egalitarian ideals of democracy. Yet, from the 1970s on, a power shift occurred in which financial regulations were rolled back, taxes were cut, inequality worsened and disheartened voters turned to far-right, faux populism. Robert Kuttner lays out the events that led to the post-war miracle and charts its dissolution all the way to Trump, Brexit and the tenuous state of the EU. He asks whether today's poisonous alliance of reckless finance and ultra-nationalism is inevitable, and whether democracy can find a way to survive.

Here is a book that explores what American economic policy should and can be--a superb yet controversial interpretation of the relation between domestic economic health and international politics, and of how we should set priorities to maintain our economy and our competitive vigor in the future.

In "The Economic Illusion" Robert Kuttner sets out to refute the conventional view that a more egalitarian distribution of income and services is only achievable at the expense of a prosperous and growing capitalism. By carefully examining issues where economic growth and social justice appear to be in conflict--issues such as social security, protectionism, income taxation, and welfare--he convincingly argues that equality and economic prosperity are not mutually exclusive pursuits.As a means to reconcile equality with efficiency--i.e., prosperity--Kuttner argues for economic polices that would deemphasize private markets, for an increase in trade protection, and for an adapted version of the technical approaches of such countries as Sweden, Germany, Austria, and Japan.Kuttner concludes his arguments with the suggestion that injustice is not necessarily an economic issue and that practical social alternatives are possible.

Family Reunions explores the strains in relations between the middle-aged and their adult children, on the one hand, and their elderly parents on the other. Baby boomers in their search for advice on how to negotiate healthy relations at either end usually come up empty-handed. Amid a forest of self-help and pop psychology books, shelves of how-to manuals on parenting, where is the book that addresses the yearning that parents and grown children have for meaningful, authentic, "adult" connection? Now, here is the book that shows how autonomy and connection are not opposites, but complements. A true collaboration between a husband who is a respected journalist, columnist, and author, and a wife who was a practicing psychologist and author. Dr. Trotter died before the book was finished, yet her ideas and therapy experience rise up from these pages. Because of the unusual circumstances of its writing--Sharland Trotter learned she had cancer about a year into the work of the book--and the unusual way the author dealt with her mortal illness, this is a highly personal book. Any adult picking up this book will be able to find it relevant to her own age and circumstance because the narrative follows the entire life course. Wise and informed, the authors examine and propose strategies for the traps that parents and grown children fall into. Ultimately, they offer hope that it is never to late to create loving, respectful family ties.

This text disputes the laissez-faire direction of both economic theory and practice that has gained prominence since the mid-1970s. Dissenting voices, the author argues, have been drowned out by a sea of circular arguments and complex mathematical models that ignore real-world conditions and disregard values that can't easily be turned into commodities. Included is an explanation of how some sectors of the economyrequire a blend of market, regulation and social outlay.