A More Imperfect Union: How Inequity, Debt, and Economics Undermine the American Dream

Inflation and an addiction to debt characterize the U.S. economy. The author explains how the policies directed at avoiding deflation have yielded income and wealth redistribution and inequities; inflation; inordinate growth in government, the financial sector, money supply, and debt; currency debasement; fragility in the financial system; loss of international competitiveness; and distortions in interest rates, currency ratios, trade, labor and product pricing, and asset valuations. Whether through currency depreciation, unjust wage and price increases, the absence of real income gains for all through maximum price reductions from efficiency and technology gains, or other means, the unblessed are relatively impoverished by the wealth redistribution of the system courtesy of the distributional coalitions, big government, and the financial sector. The author provides a critical look at fundamental economic theory and practice in a nonmathematical, common sense presentation. He offers a new, insightful challenge to aspects of Keynesian and monetarist theories. These schools of thought have not been proffering solutions for our problems of debt, inflation, and relative poverty because they are unnecessarily anchored to a debt-based monetary system, interest rate management, and inadequately competitive markets. The U.S. and capitalism should have been producing better results. Our imperfect system is so flawed and has become so fragile that a major financial collapse may well challenge the actual survival of our political institutions. Other writers have addressed such subjects as the business cycle, failures of the banking system, inflation, debt, potential financial collapse, distributional coalitions, and the desirability of a system translating productivity growth into lower output prices. This book is unique in offering a unified, comprehensive view of these subjects and others in a nonmathematical, nontraditional, yet compelling manner. It will be useful to students, teachers, policymakers, and general readers who sense that something ails mainstream economics and seek a better understanding of the systemic deficiencies that have brought the U.S. to its fragile financial state and of the reasons so many past policies and programs have failed.