Timestage Embassy

Review of Pity the Billionaire by Thomas Frank

title: Pity the Billionaire
author: Thomas Frank
publisher: Picador
genre: cultural criticism
hardcover: 01/03/2012 — 9780805093698
paperback: 09/18/2012 — 9781250020352

Release date: LAST WEEK!

Four years ago, our country suffered the most crippling economic collapse seen since the 1930s; as one might expect, America’s present political climate has mirrored the atmosphere of the Great Depression in many key ways, including unemployment, class tension, bailouts, and a massive, reactionary, populist movement. However, rather than progressive outcry against financial deregulation, the loudest voice that rose to the occasion in our times was a conservative revival, demanding an uncompromising return to the very free market that brought about the recession. Thomas Frank, author and Wall Street Journal columnist, explores this seemingly backward phenomenon in Pity the Billionaire, an erudite, sharp-tongued portrait of a nation where deceit, profit, and ideology feed each other in a titanic feedback loop.

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