Do most Americans like the society that we are becoming? Not by a long shot.

Americans want a very different economy and society – one that rewards work, protects us against misfortunes, and gives our children a decent chance to get ahead. Yet both political parties are in thrall to a small financial elite that has captured government policy impoverishing our democracy and undermining our economy.

The Squandering of America

In The Squandering of America (www.thesquanderingofamerica.com), acclaimed writer, editor and social critic Robert Kuttner looks at the economic forces weakening the United States, and explains how America can choose a better path.  Kuttner discusses the relationship between the failures of our politics and the narrowing of our prosperity.
He explains why it will take major changes to reclaim politics, reject today’s casino economy, and re-create a society of broad prosperity.  He connects the dots and illustrates how the political and economic pieces fit together.

*Speculative hedge funds, private equity, and the sub-prime mortgage meltdown are turning the economy into a casino, enriching a few insiders and putting the entire system at risk.  Kuttner explains how misguided leadership got us into this mess and how to prevent a repeat of 1929.

*Between 2000 and 2005, just three percent of working Americans got real increases in their pay, even though the economy’s productivity rose by more than 10 percent. Kuttner explains why all the gain goes, to the top—and how to broaden prosperity.

*Health insurance, pensions, and secure jobs are becoming less reliable, as companies shifts costs and risks onto wage earners. The best way for the young to get ahead is to have wealthy parents. Kuttner explains why economic security needn’t be limited to the rich.
Kuttner shows us how to think boldly, take back our politics and rebuild a brand of capitalism that works for regular Americans.

About Robert Kuttner:

Co-editor of The American Prospect, author of the award winning book, Everything for Sale, and a longtime BusinessWeek columnist, Kuttner is co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect magazine, as well as a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the think tank Demos and a fellow of the German Marshall Fund. His best-known book is Everything for Sale: The Virtues and Limits of Markets.  Kuttner was a longtime columnist for Business Week, and writes columns for the Boston Globe. His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine and Book Review, The Atlantic, The New Republic, The New Yorker, and Harvard Business Review. His editorial column was the winner of the John Hancock Award for excellence in business and financial journalism. He also received the Jack London Award for labor journalism. He appears frequently on radio and TV talk shows.

Additional Lecture Topics:

The Coming Economic Meltdown

Making Globalization Work for America

The Democrats: the Search for Courage, Heart, and Brain
 
“Bob Kuttner nailed it ten years ago in Everything for Sale: markets alone can produce wealth but alone they never produce justice or even a decent standard of living for all. Those are the work of democracy. Kuttner was a prophet. In his new and wise book he walks among the wreckage strewn across the landscape by the fundamentalist ideology that took hold in Washington and says there is still hope of averting lasting economic calamity. But his message is clear: Hurry!”
--Bill Moyers

“Robert Kuttner is a prophet whose time has come. This lucid, passionate, razor-sharp book carries a message as urgent as it is clarifying.”
--Hendrik Hertzberg
Senior Editor, The New Yorker
 
“If I could assign one book to all the presidential candidates it would be this one. Robert Kuttner, perhaps the most insightful economic commentator in the country, has done it again.”
--Barbara Ehrenreich
Bestselling author of Nickel and Dimed