The very rich have gotten a lot richer these past few decades, even during the current economic crisis, hile most Americans have not. How have they managed to restructure the economy to reap the lion's share, tearing new holes in the safety net and saddling all of us with increased debt and risk? In this book the authors trace the rise of the winner-take-all economy back to a major transformation of American politics in the late 1970s, under a Democratic...

The Republicans who run American government today have defied the normal laws of political gravity. They have ruled with the slimmest of majorities and yet have transformed the nation's governing priorities. They have strayed dramatically from the moderate middle of public opinion and yet have faced little public backlash. Again and again, they have sided with the affluent and ideologically extreme while paying little heed to the broad majority of...