New Books By Alan Greenspan and Naomi Klein: One is Prophetic, One is Pathetic
Arianna Huffington
from HuffPost
A fascinating dispute on modern economics -- and the dominant role it plays in our politics - is currently taking place in America's bookstores.
On one side is Alan Greenspan, whose The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World offers his usual free market uber alles philosophy, while attempting to rehabilitate his tattered image (which is worth about as much as the U.S. dollar these days).
On the other side is Naomi Klein, whose The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism offers an alternative economic history of the last 30 years and, using the war in Iraq as a mind-blowing example, pulls the curtain back on free market myths and exposes the forces that are really driving our economy.
Klein's book is powerful and prophetic. Greenspan's is pitiful and pathetic.
Yet it is Greenspan's 500-page memoir that been getting all the attention, as almost no traditional media outlet has been able to resist what Josh Marshall has aptly dubbed "The Greenspan Embarrassment Tour."
Greenspan's book is another in the growing pile penned by folks who lent their integrity to buttress the Bush presidency but who now, in horrified hindsight, want it back.
Now that it's clear what an unsound strategy investing in George Bush turned out to be, Greenspan wants us to know he was skeptical all along. Imagine his shock when he found out that in the Bush White House the "political operation was far more dominant" and that "little value was placed on rigorous economic policy debate or the weighing of long-term consequences." Yes, who could have imagined that sort of thing happening in a White House run by Karl Rove?
(Continued here.)
from HuffPost
A fascinating dispute on modern economics -- and the dominant role it plays in our politics - is currently taking place in America's bookstores.
On one side is Alan Greenspan, whose The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World offers his usual free market uber alles philosophy, while attempting to rehabilitate his tattered image (which is worth about as much as the U.S. dollar these days).
On the other side is Naomi Klein, whose The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism offers an alternative economic history of the last 30 years and, using the war in Iraq as a mind-blowing example, pulls the curtain back on free market myths and exposes the forces that are really driving our economy.
Klein's book is powerful and prophetic. Greenspan's is pitiful and pathetic.
Yet it is Greenspan's 500-page memoir that been getting all the attention, as almost no traditional media outlet has been able to resist what Josh Marshall has aptly dubbed "The Greenspan Embarrassment Tour."
Greenspan's book is another in the growing pile penned by folks who lent their integrity to buttress the Bush presidency but who now, in horrified hindsight, want it back.
Now that it's clear what an unsound strategy investing in George Bush turned out to be, Greenspan wants us to know he was skeptical all along. Imagine his shock when he found out that in the Bush White House the "political operation was far more dominant" and that "little value was placed on rigorous economic policy debate or the weighing of long-term consequences." Yes, who could have imagined that sort of thing happening in a White House run by Karl Rove?
(Continued here.)
Powered by Blogger
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home