From Booklist
Frank reveals in her introduction that from 1980 to 1998 most of the benefits of American economic growth flowed to the very wealthiest families. By 1998, the richest 1 percent of U.S. households controlled half of all financial assets. Frank, a senior economic analyst at Rhode Island College, blames this in part on the fact that, beginning in the 1970s, jobs moved first to the nonunion South, then to Mexico and overseas. She submits this situation as a story of the triumph of the finance industry, the growing dominance of financial interests in setting our economic policy, and the limits on public discourse about U.S. economic policy. Frank assesses the debates over federal borrowing, debt, and the prospects for Social Security, and she examines the myths surrounding the conduct of monetary policy and the problem of inflation. Her timely and well-argued book has the purpose of "contribut[ing] to an environment in which economic policy can be discussed intelligently and honestly." George Cohen
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Book Description
Americans have fallen for the ticker tape. We watch our portfolios, happily or nervously. We know there were a few bad apples at Enron and World Com, but we also know:-The advent of mutual funds, low-cost brokerages, and the Internet has meant that the stock market is now more transparent, honest, and accessible to the small investor than ever before;-401(k)s give the individual responsibility and control over their retirement savings, and that makes us more responsible citizens; -Federal deficits are bad for the economy, especially, somehow, when they"re linked to social spending; and-Controlling inflation is the most important task of our economic policy.But as economist Ellen Frank shows us, what we know is wrong. Over the past twenty years, Americans have been fed a mash of confusing financial and economic information. This information has distorted popular understanding of how the economy really operates and camouflaged the transformation of economic policy from a tool for improving the living standards of all to a tool for securing the perquisites of those with financial wealth.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Over the past twenty years, Americans have been fed a mash of confusing financial and economic information. Economist Ellen Frank's alternately enlightening and shocking volume shows us how what we've been taught to think about stocks, interest rates, personal opportunities, employment, government spending, and inflation distorts popular understanding of how the economy really operates. But public confusion serves a distinct political goal: to camouflage the transformation of economic policy from a tool for improving the living standards of all to a tool for securing privileges for the wealthy.

This combination of misleading rhetoric and misinformation implies, for instance, that it is possible for all of us to become wealthy by investing in the stock market; that 401(k) plans are better than pension plans because they give individuals responsibility and control over retirement savings, making us more responsible citizens; that low unemployment leads to inflation; and that rising inflation impedes progress and forces people into poverty.

But as Frank shows us, much of what we think we know is wrong. Most American households actually lost wealth during the great bull market of the 1990s -- virtually all capital gains flowed to the top 10 percent of households. Companies have sought to do away with pension plans because retirees benefit from them at a cost to shareholders. Deficit spending does not cause interest rates to go up: in the 1990s, when Congress and the Clinton administration cut the U.S. deficit dramatically, fully expecting interest rates to plunge, the Federal Reserve instead doubled the short-term interest rate.

Sifting through confusing rhetoric on everything from the stock market to the federal budget to the global financial system, Frank reveals how we came to be so misinformed and lays out in clear and engaging prose the basis of real wealth and economic well-being.

SYNOPSIS