Who Stole the American Dream

New York, N.Y.: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2013. Fourth Printing. Trade Paperback. Very good. [2], xxxi, [1], 579, [11] pages. Inscribed by Hedrick Smith, on the half-title page. Inscription reads: To Bill Grigg--In memory of our mutual pal Charley McDowell--Hope this story [unclear] blood--Best wishes Hedrick Smith 5/16/14. Includes Prologue: The Challenge from Within. Also includes Acknowledgments, Appendix 1: Stolen Dream Timeline, Key Events, Trends, and Turning Points, 1948-2012; Appendix 2: The Powell Memorandum; Notes, Bibliography, and Index. Part 1 covers Power Shift; Part 2 covers Dismantling the Dream; Part 3 covers Unequal democracy; Part 4 covers Middle-Class Squeeze; Part 5 covers Obstacles to a Fix; and Part 6 covers Challenge and Response. In this magnificent work of history and reportage, Pulitzer Prize winner Hedrick Smith provides an eye-opening account of how, over the past four decades, a series of seismic changes dismantled the American Dream. This is a book full of surprises and revelations: the major policy change that began under Jimmy Carter; the accidental beginnings of the 401(k) plan, with disastrous economic consequences for many; how the New Economy disrupted the "virtuous circle," American's engine of shared prosperity; and how America lost the title of "Land of Opportunity." Hedrick Smith (born July 9, 1933) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning former New York Times reporter and Emmy award-winning producer and correspondent who has established himself over the past 50 years as one of America's premier journalists. After serving 26 years with The New York Times from 1962-88 as correspondent, editor and bureau chief in both Moscow and Washington, Smith moved into television in 1989, reporting and producing more than 50 hours of long form documentaries for PBS over the next 25 years on topics from the inside story of the terrorists who mounted the 9/11 attacks and Gorbachev's perestroika to Wall Street, Walmart and The Democracy Rebellion of grassroots citizen reform movements. Smith has authored five best-selling books including The Russians, The Power Game: How Washington Works, and Who Stole the American Dream, and co-authored several other books, including The Pentagon Papers and Reagan: The Man, the President. Smith is currently Executive Editor of the website ReclaimTheAmericanDream and the YouTube channel The People vs. The Politicians. Derived from a Kirkus review: Remarkably comprehensive and coherent analysis of and prescriptions for America's contemporary economic malaise by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Smith. "Over the past three decades," writes the author, "we have become Two Americas." We have arrived at a new Gilded Age, where "gross inequality of income and wealth" have become endemic. Such inequality is not simply the result of "impersonal and irresistible market forces," but of quite deliberate corporate strategies and the public policies that enabled them. Smith sets out on a mission to trace the history of these strategies and policies, which transformed America from a roughly fair society to its current status as a plutocracy. He leaves few stones unturned. CEO culture has moved since the 1970s from a concern for the general well-being of society, including employees, to the single-minded pursuit of personal enrichment and short-term increases in stock prices. During much of the '70s, CEO pay was roughly 40 times a worker's pay; today that number is 367. Whether it be through outsourcing and factory closings, corporate reneging on once-promised contributions to employee health and retirement funds, the deregulation of Wall Street and the financial markets, a tax code which favors overwhelmingly the interests of corporate heads and the superrich—all of which Smith examines in fascinating detail—the American middle class has been left floundering. For its part, government has simply become an enabler and partner of the rich, as the rich have turned wealth into political influence and rigid conservative opposition has created the politics of gridlock. One of the best recent analyses of the contemporary woes of American economics and politics.