Great Unraveling [Paperback]

Drawing on the early writings of Henry Kissinger, Krugman characterizes the Bush Regime as a revolutionary power whose leaders refuse to accept the legitimacy of the current American political system and who are taking radical steps to change it. Seen in this context, the inexplicable fiscal and economic disasters of the Bush Regime begin to make sense. The Bush Regime does not really believe that it can provide social services to the majority of Americans along with a massive tax giveaway to the rich, but it publicly makes this claim knowing that the press and the majority of Americans will never examine whether or not it is possible. According to Krugman, we have inherited a political climate in which leadership is judged exclusively by the appeal of its appearance and speech acts, and never by the ramifications of its policies. As a result, Krugman argues, the Bush Regime can make endless promises to the electorate without fearing the results of failing to deliver.

Krugman argues that when radical extremists such as the Bush Regime come to power, they generally encounter little resistance even when they implement dreadful and unpopular policies such as the gradual dismantling of social security and medicare. This takes place, according to Krugman because people either take the radical extremists' policies at face value instead of examining their actual impact, or worse yet, once they realize how disastrous these policies are, they sit back and hope that the radical extremists will eventually moderate their behavior. But this will never happen, as Krugman correctly points out, because radical extremists remain bound to their ideological convictions no matter what the result.

Krugman warns readers that the findings in his book are quite depressing. The majority of Americans are funding the Bush Regime's tax giveaway to the super rich and they will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Under the Bush Regime's current fiscal policies, the elimination of social security, medicare, and other social services that most of us have paid for with payroll taxes is inevitable. The massive deficits generated by the Bush Regime's runaway spending will eventually result in large interest rate hikes whose consequences will include astronomical mortgage and credit card bills, and of course personal bankruptcy for many. These policies, in other words will break the back of the middle class financially, politically, and socially. Seen from that context they may be cruel and ruthless but they are not the product of stupidity.

Ultimately, Krugman argues, the only beneficiaries of the Bush Regime's economic policies will be a tiny minority of crony capitalists in very specific industries included but not limited to energy companies, auditing firms, and of course defense contractors. The rest of American businesses however can look forward to the flight of foreign investment capital in a manner that is comparable to the Asian economic crisis in the late 90s. Corporate scandals, according to Krugman, required an immediate push for justice and reform on the part of the executive branch of government not for moral reasons but to assure foreign investors that they could trust American companies with their money. But the Bush Regime is bound too tightly to known corporate criminals, according to Krugman and cannot implement the necessary punishments, checks and balances to make the system safe for investment again. This portends disastrous consequences for the American economy for years to come.

Some may object to the format of this book that consists of a few introductory essays and a series of the author's New York Times columns arranged chronologically according to specific categories. I found this format particularly useful however, because many of the most important arguments are repeated in several different contexts over an extended period of time. As a result, difficult concepts, such as the relationship between deficit spending and rising interest rates, are presented to the reader and gradually refined through a series of different arguments. By the end of the book, even readers such as myself who are ignorant of economic theory will easily grasp the implications of payroll taxes, deficit spending, supply side economics, and transparent standards for reporting corporate profits.

I urge all Americans, regardless of their political convictions to read this book. Conservatives will quickly discover that there is nothing conservative about the Bush Regime's fiscal policies, which are in fact radical. Similarly, this book may help liberals to realize that the most critical issue in American politics today is actually conservative in nature. Do we want a government that disrupts and dismantles the time honored political and economic foundations of America to pursue its own radical agenda, or do we want to honor the conservative tradition of keeping our nation and our way of life intact? Of course ideologues on the right and the left will never agree on anything, but moderate conservatives and progressives should realize that the very fabric of their nation is being altered against their will-and often in their name.

The short Introduction bowled me over. It's one of those things that you want to make mandatory reading for every presidential candidate, media employee and business person - or any acquaintance who starts talking about the economy or politics. It's astoundingly good.

Living outside the political and media centers of Washington and New York has apparently helped Krugman maintain a clear head and rational perspective. The columns reprinted in the book display a clarity of thought and logic that one wishes everyone messing with or commenting on money possessed.

Pulitzer, Nobel, Fed Chairman or the highest elected office - after reading this book Krugman's got my vote.

While the book is essentially a collection of Krugman's New York Times columns, I found it very valuable for seeing how various stories unfolded, from the growing awareness that California's energy crisis was in fact engineered by Enron traders "gaming" the system to the deceitful manner in which the Bush adminstration lured the country into the misguided and tragic war in Iraq.

But more than anything, this book is not to be missed because of Krugman's excellent introduction, in which he explains how the Bush administration constitutes (in Henry Kissinger's term) a "revolutionary power" that will brook no compromise and will do anything (issue bogus terror alerts, out CIA agents, knowingly lie to the American public, etc.) to maintain and extend its power and ram its extremist agenda down our throats.

The Great Unraveling is a much-needed wakeup call for the American public and an urgent and timely warning of the dangers the Bush administration poses to our cherished democracy.