Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America by Kurt Andersen

Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America

by Kurt Andersen

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History & Foreign AffairsSociety & Culture

In 1971 about 175 companies had lobbyists in Washington, and by the Reagan years nearly 2,500 did. Kurt Andersen's case is that the inequality you live with wasn't an accident: business and conservative interests spent decades deliberately remaking law, economics and politics in their own favor.

Core ideas
  • The Powell memo: In 1971 corporate lawyer Lewis Powell urged the Chamber of Commerce to fight for influence in the courts, media and universities, then joined the Supreme Court.
  • Shareholders first: Milton Friedman's 1970 case that a corporation's only responsibility is profit for shareholders marks the turn, while Koch and Scaife money backed Heritage, Cato and law programs.
  • The fix: Rather than a partisan remedy, the book calls for shifting economic power back toward workers and ordinary citizens.
Published2020
Pages430
ISBN9781984801364
ReadSep 2022

Connected to 8 other books

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