From Democracy, a symposium on America 2021: Jobs and the Economy. Gilles d'Aymery on why the economy is not coming back (in three parts). From The Monkey Cage, a roundtable on Larry Bartels' Unequal Democracy. If America is to be rescued, the American people must be mobilized — but today, the money is mobilized and the people are not. The new American oligarchy: Creating a country of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich. A book salon on Matt Taibbi's Griftopia (and more). Workless: The price of a social safety net is low taxes for the wealthy — the cost is unsustainable. A review of The Trouble with Billionaires by Linda McQuaig and Neil Brooks. How should America improve its economy? Don't ask Americans for guidance. Fred Siegel reviews three books on the powerful political elites of America. Here's 15 mind-blowing charts about wealth and inequality in America. David Leonhardt on how resistance to the expansion of the social safety net stems from tension between two competing traditions in the American economy. Tyler Cowen on the inequality that matters: Most claims about inequality are groundless — one, however, is not. One of the great enduring mysteries of American politics is why Republicans attach so much importance to cutting taxes for the rich. Jim Manzi on how unbundling components — and understanding each one separately — can open up the path to achieving the goals of the welfare state in a modern environment. Though John Adams railed against it more than two centuries ago, we now find ourselves in a new age of aristocratic despotism. Notes from the Moral Underground: Andrew Oxford on how and why Americans are subverting their economy.
