Customer Reviews

One Market Under God: Extreme Capitalism, Market Populism, and the End of Economic Democracy

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I'm a Republican, sort of, and I've known and usually disagreed with Tom Frank for several years. Disagreed partly because of his and my age, educational, and career differences. But, as an older market research professional, disappointed with the ethos and ethics of our time, I heartily agree with Tom in his view that the American public has been sold a wrongful message on the state and - more importantly - the future of our economies. Plural is important, domestic plus export and import sales. I disagree with him on the unions' role, because he does not look at work rule problems. But otherwise, Tom Frank is right: The democratization of capital is largely a myth. Really, this is a thoughtful and - How did he have the time and stomach to read all that junk blah-blah management literature? - a very well researched and written book. The newspaper reviews, like the Chicago Tribune's, are right. Tom's written an important book about our futures.

This thoughtful, well researched, highly praised, and cogently written book was published three years ago, so why all the recent vitriol from negative reviewers? In fact, these harshly negative reviewers are *really* annoyed at the favorable response to the author's new book (see the just-published WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS?). And in their zeal to trash the author and his useful discussion of how conservative voters have ceded their own true economic interests to calculated -- but essentially dead-end -- appeals to conservative values, these frustrated rightwing critics have extended their campaign to all things Tom Frank-related. If they actually read any of Frank's books, they might find much in his work that is sympathetic and fair-minded. Unfortunately, they have yielded to the right-wing preference for shrillness and black and white thinking over nuanced argument and real debate (but alas, that's what's the matter with liberals). Ignore the bombast and read this book -- and decide for yourself.

Before I say anything else about this book, I want to address the very strange claim made by a couple of reviewers that Thomas Frank doesn't understand economics. What is bizarre about that statement is that nowhere in the book does Frank talk about economics. If you look at most of the books by people like George Stigler or Gary Becker or Kenneth J. Arrow or any of a host of economists, you will find few of the issues discussed in this book. What is closer to the truth is that Frank discusses some of the assumptions that people make about business and the market. But this is largely unrelated to economic theory. When Milton Friedman argues for a radically free market economy, he has ceased speaking as an economist and has become a political philosopher, just as when Amartya Sen ceases writing about economics and begins talking about issues of justice and fairness in a political system, he has become a political philosopher. One speaks as an economist when stating what the effect of strong central regulation has on foreign investment, but one speaks as a political scientist when saying that deregulation is a bad or a good thing.

Nonetheless, Frank is very definitely concerned with the assumptions that underlie much free market-oriented policy of the past decade or so. In a sense, Frank is trying to revive questions that progressives such as Teddy Roosevelt, William Jennings Bryan, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin Roosevelt asked about the fairness of a society in which the needs of the many could be ignored in favor of the needs of the few. These individuals, like Frank, were deeply concerned with issues of economic equality. In the past two decades, a revival of Social Darwinism has occurred, with the result that we are in the midst of the most dramatic concentration of wealth in the hands of a tiny elite at the expense of the middle class and the impoverished. A whole litany of statistics can be marshaled here. Frank notes that according to Federal Reserve numbers in 1979 20% of the wealth was in the hands of the top 1%, a number that strikes me as far too large. Yet by 1999 37% of the wealth was in the hands of the top 1%. After several rounds of tax cuts for the wealthy and investor classes, what would that percentage be today? 43%? 45%? 48? Clearly it is a pattern that has that been reversed. All economic indicators reveal that in the past twenty-three years there has been a dramatic shift in the wealth of the nation from the middle class to a small economic elite. Real wages for the middle class have fallen, while we are experiencing a dramatic increase in the number of millionaires and billionaires. Frank clearly thinks this is completely messed up, and I doubt if many Americans would disagree.

ONE MARKET UNDER GOD deals with the panoply of problems that result from the allied beliefs in market populism (which is one of the ultimate oxymorons) and extreme capitalism. The passion for making all roads straight for rampant capitalism, the mania for deregulation, the utter disregard for all criteria for the economic health of any nation other than how the markets are doing, are all unquestioned manias that dominate current social and political discourse. Yet FDR insisted that it was a shameful situation where we as a nation considered that the nation as a whole was doing well if the majority of the citizens were not doing well. But in the market craze of the past two decades, most Americans have not done well. Frank implies that we might want to rethink a society that thinks that America benefits from a company laying off 20,000 workers because their stock goes up as a result. As Frank points out, consideration for workers and the masses has largely dropped out of the picture.

Frank chronicles the obsession with extreme capitalism that characterizes our society (and continues to do so even after the bubble collapse suffered in 2001), and the vast array of prophets that harkens not its desirability (in fact, no one even thinks to argue that the hyper capitalism that has gripped our society is a good thing; they merely assume this as a given) but to its inevitability. Frank finds all this more than a little nutty and the obvious point of the book is to make us all stand back a bit and reconsider whether this turbo capitalism will truly result in a kind of world that we truly want.

Frank brings a number of strengths to the table in this book. First, he is a fine historian, with a much deeper grasp of trends and developments in American history than is needed for this study. Second, he is a fabulous writer. He isn't quite as funny as a comic such as Al Franken, but he is the equal of a Molly Ivins. So, in addition to being incredibly informative and to being crucial in making us rethink our national goals, it is also a pleasure to read.

I'll close with a personal anecdote. As I was reading this book (which I interrupted to read his more recent and equally superb book, WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS?), I mentioned to some friends over Thai food that I was reading a great book by Thomas Frank. One of my friends remarked, "Oh, I had a friend at the U of C who had a brother named Tom Frank. They roomed together and threw some really great parties. He edits THE BAFFLER now." Well, the author of this book is the founder, of course, of THE BAFFLER, and I find it somehow comforting that such a pertinent and morally powerful book was written by someone who knows how to party.

Thomas Frank has trenchantly skewered the ideology of the market. Somehow this ideology has managed to insinuate itself so deeply that it is not recognized for what it is - an ideology - but is taken as simple common sense. Frank puts it back where it belongs as just one among many social class ideologies. He does this in two ways - by clearly showing where it came from and by exposing its absurdity in a range of areas from the internet to business to academia. I was going to write 'satirically exposing' in the last sentence, But Frank doesn't satirize, the material he quotes satirizes itself.

Frank has been criticized for repetitiousness and beating a dead horse. I did not find this to be true at all. What he conveys - forcefully - is the pervasiveness of this ideology everywhere in American life. His theme is that market ideology has replaced New Deal ideals and the labor movement with a patently self serving system of thought which inevitably enriches the few at the expense of the many. He contrasts this ideology with the postwar system of strong labor, effective government regulation of both business and the economy, and an adequate welfare safety net. He doesn't need to outline an alternative to the market, it existed only 20 or 30 years ago and still exists in places like France.

I hope that more works like Frank's appear before the Market Populists complete their bridge to the nineteenth century.

Noam Chomsky once observed that the US was one of the most ideological societies on earth but this was also what made it so interesting to work there. Thomas Frank, who as editor of left-wing magazine The Baffler has consistently and eloquently chronicled the will to power of America's business class must sometimes have to suppress an author's bubbling sense of glee at such fertile material. His latest book One Market Under God is based on a simple proposition - that during the 1990s, the American public allowed themselves to be seduced into thinking that anything that was good for corporate America was ultimately good for everyone. The results, Frank laments, can been seen in the rampant casualisation of the workplace, the ripping up of the welfare state, the spiralling prison population and the incredible statistic that in 1999 the average income of CEOs was 475 times that of blue collar employees. The ideological tool with which this determined assault on the relatively egalitarian settlement of the `middle class republic' of the `50s and `60s was carried out, Frank dubs `market populism'. Ditching the conservative culture wars of the `80s just as the internet boom was beginning to take off, Wall Street and its journalistic outriders embraced the wisdom of the common man. From rebel teenagers to midwestern grandmothers in investment clubs, everyone was seen to be making money from the unstoppable boom of the new economy (partially, though this was seldom mentioned, to compensate for stagnating wages and the decline of social security). The market became the embodiment of the popular will, expressed through consumer preferences and stock options - much more immediate and representative than clunky, once every four years elections. Newsweek expressed the faith in borrowed soundbite - `Markets `R' Us'. The reverse logic of this equation of democracy with the market was that anyone or anything that opposed the unfettered will of capitalism such as the regulatory state or trade unions were, by definition, elitist enemies of democracy and progress, and deserved to be dumped in the dustbin of history together with Stalin, Castro and the French in general for being so snobbish and protectionist. As Frank relentlessly trawls the endless repetitions of the market faith culled from business literature, journals and the mainstream press, you are left, as with parts of No Logo, with anxious sense of unreality, tinged with a naive wonderment at how people can, not just comply with the market, but come to imbue it with a divine, supernatural wisdom. As one `soloist' consultant approaches a lull in her career: `I decide to let the market tell me what it wants from me, and in a few days I get an invitation to have lunch with Andrew, a successful investment banker.' Or in New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman's assertion that if God were to design the ultimate economy He would ensure that it had `the most flexible labor market in the world' and that managers could `hire and fire workers with relative ease'.The afterlife as sweatshop. At times, as Frank assiduously brings out, business thinkers cannot decide whether they are celebrating the will of the people or demanding that the world's populus meekly submit to the dictates of a divinely-inspired perfect system. Very often, the latter is held in reserve should the former fail to convince. `The two ideas were often connected, rhetorically in a kind of good cop/bad cop routine,' says Frank. `The market will give you a voice, empower you to do whatever you want to do - and if you have any doubts about that, then the market will crush you and everything you've ever known.' Even though the book makes only occassional sideglances to the anti-capitalist movement, it will undoubtedly be read, as has No Logo, as an expression of that movement's thinking. Curiously at times, and maybe this says something about anti-capitalism, Frank appears as something of a rebel conservative in his nostalgia for the `middle-class republic' of the post-war boom and his narrow definition of `economic democracy' as a broad equality of income and workplace rights. The strength is of the book is that, as with Chomsky, you are left with a far more sensitive awareness of the ideology that bombards you every time you pick up a newspaper or magazine. His description of Time, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal and The Economist all lining up Pravda-style to accuse Seattle demonstrators of stopping the world's poor from making a decent living is memorable. Behind the righteous exterior and `end of history' certainty, there was more than a little nervousness that things might be getting out of control.

Thomas Frank's "One Market Under God" will be welcomed by anyone who thought that iconoclasm died with Thorstein Veblen, Vance Packard or C. Wright Mills. Anyone who has felt they were missing reading best sellers like Tom Peters', "In Search of Excellence", "Who Moved My Cheese", Thomas Friedman's "Lexus and Olive Trees" will feel vindicated in not reading these tracts. A reader can only be amazed that Tom Frank read through all these books and more, attended conferences on advertising "planners" and and maintained a healthy skepticism intact in the face of an ever rising NASDAQ. Anyone who senses deja vu in the Nation's obsession with materialism and corporate values will value the insights Thomas Frank has about our culture.

As usual, Mr. Frank is good at spotting some issues. However, he misses the mark with the cause. People have lost the bright line distinction between a free market and mercantilism. When the government fosters certain larger endeavors at the expense of mom and pop stores it is NOT capitalism. We have government paying for new stadiums for billion dollar sports clubs. We have government finding excuses to take the property away from small stores to give it to chain stores. Chain stores are given taxpayer backed incentives to move into towns by local politicans who get campaign contributions. When corporations are allowed to easily file bankruptcy on 100s of millions of dollars of debt but we crack down on consumer bankruptcy and eliminate it entirely for student loans, it is clearly the disparity in treatment under the law that is the problem. On and on, the law is benefitting the enormous businesses at the expense of competition with the smaller endeavors and private consumer. These things are the antithesis of a free market, yet both parties practice it regularly, eagerly, and unpatriotically.

There is a new conventional wisdom being constructed in the last few decades that we have finally reached the culmination of economic theory and all that's left is to tune the machine. The ultimate realization of western perfection is pure free market Capitalism. The villains of the scenario are unions, intellectuals, environmentalists and government regulators who gum up the wheels of progress. Fueling the market engine is relentless optimism and there are few superlatives too vicious to be cast on those who express doubt. CEO's are hard working heroes moving the engine while blue collar workers are parasites sucking away needed capital. As George Lakoff would say this is the construction of a Frame, attempting to move from concept to common knowledge. Frames are powerful indeed and most people if given a choice between retaining a Frame or accepting new contrary evidence will keep the Frame and throw out the evidence. Leaving no doubt about his opinion on the matter Thomas Frank declares, "the New Economy is a fraud". It's a Vox Populi where billionaires are victimized by `elitist' union workers and the crime de jour is political correctness.

A lot has happened since `One Market, Under God' was published including that little market correction in 2000. Thanks to bad timing Thomas Frank's book sets up the joke but misses out on the punch line when all those hip gen-X investors watched their brand new fortunes go up in smoke. However, the book is timely enough to point out that during the heyday of the bull market real wages went down, jobs became less secure and downsizing became fashionable for CEO's who want a quick stock pop. It also seems clear that a system that can be done in by mere pessimism is built on a very shaky foundation. There is a `New Afterword' chapter that gives Thomas Frank a chance to offer up some post 2000 commentary. In the end it became painfully clear that companies, auditors and analysts were all working against the best interest of the small investor. The market was to be the new means for wealth redistribution as everyone had access to the market money tree but when the chips were cashed in the wealth disparity in America grew beyond anything seen in the last 70 years.

"One Market, Under God" chronicles just about every pro-business, pro-globalization propaganda ad released in the 90's as well as the endless stream of articles in business magazines praising the new paradigm. Mr. Franks takes a critical look at the often silly, bordering on pseudoscientific, marketing theories that were being expounded. Unfortunately the book sometimes degenerates into one long sarcastic sneer aimed at all things business. There are no heroes of the book just manipulators, fools and greedy CEO's. Thomas Frank's later book, `What's the Matter with Kansas' was one of the best social commentaries I've ever read so I felt a bit disappointed with this one. Still, it's a fascinating look at how society can be manipulated and swept up into a frenzy of greed to the point where we give up our own self interests.

While I disagree with Thomas Frank a lot, I am forced to admit that there is more than a grain of truth in his criticism. At times polemic, other times ranting, sometimes he just says something that blows away a lot of the "conventional wisdom" that we are fed and many times accept.

The largest strength of this book is not that it offers any sort of alternative (It really doesn't), it is that he is criticizing things that need to be criticized. Over the last 20 years or so, critical writing and commentary has lapsed, and offered little voice of reform or change. It is nice to see that someone offers dissent to many cultural values that have become solidified and crusty (even if it is at 90+dB).

In an age of blind faith in "The Market" there is a voice of skepticism in Thomas Frank's _One Market Under God_. If you are a God fearing, Capitalist-loving, Market Driven, person, this book may be especially valuable to read -- if for no other reason, to hear from someone who disagrees with you and has no fear in stating it clearly!

I disagree with a lot of his thesis, but I cannot give this book anything less than 5 stars!

Thomas Frank has a PhD in history from the university of Chicago but that august institution has not been able to convince him that God almighty has now assumed the form of the free market. He has been railing against the market religion and its peculiar insanities as the editor of "the Baffler", as well as in several books. His latest offering, "One market under God" was written when the "new economy" bubble was just about ready to burst, but Mr. Frank cannot be accused of waking up to its absurdities after the fact; he can honestly say, "I told you so many years ago".
Public memory being short, the worst excesses of the new economy gasbags are already fading as the NASDAQ sinks to new lows, but while the most extreme nonsense is no longer in fashion, the "market consensus" still holds and Mr. Franks book is still a very useful dissent from the hype of the "end of history".
The phenomenon Thomas frank wants to investigate is the extraordinary cultural reversal in which the richest people in the world are not only envied for their riches but also admired and exalted as egalitarian "common folks", as working class heroes and as US rather than THEM. Rich people have always had a high opinion of themselves, but those who slaved and scrubbed for them at least had the option of regarding them as parasites, as nasty bosses, as enemies of the people. But in the nineties, not only were the rich getting richer and richer, they were also becoming more and more virtuous and loveable. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet were not only the richest people the planet has ever seen; they were also the nicest, the homeliest, and the true voice of "the people". While democratically elected governments were increasingly portrayed as old fashioned elites who were putting up obstacles in the way of "the people" by any attempt to regulate or restrict the "free market". This extraordinary public relations miracle is ripped apart and shown for the snow job it was by Mr. Frank. The hired hacks who pulled off this job (and got richly rewarded for their services) are skewered with great wit and precision. Not that they are such a difficult target; Just quoting them is usually enough, specially now that the "new economy" pyramid scheme has crashed. For example, Charles Handy had this advice for corporations: " corporations need to know what their telos or consuming purpose is, for they too, are hungry spirits at heart, seeking for the meaning in all their striving". Meanwhile, a Japanese robot manufacturer had this to say: "I see the company as an infinitely growing child. I will die, but it continues to live, and my responsibility is to see to that. And I want to continue to build better and better robots". Or witness what Gary Hamel (from London business school and Harvard, no less) had to say: "You can become the author of your own destiny....You can look the future in the eye and say: I am no longer a captive to history. Whatever I can imagine, I can accomplish. I am no longer a vassal in a faceless bureaucracy. I am an activist, not a drone.... I am a Revolutionary"!
This rhetoric of revolution, rebellion and millennial liberation was borrowed wholesale from the left and exaggerated a few times more before being deployed in the service of CEO's (who now made 475 times more than their average employee) and mega-billionaires. This book provides many startling and frequently hilarious examples of this process. Mr. Frank is at his best when he is deflating these claims and lampooning their creators. But while the book is extremely entertaining and informative, it is not well organized and the argument tends to get lost as he jumps around from year to year and example to example. By the time you read about Friedman and tom peters for the 500th time, you being to loose interest. Also, Mr. Frank finds NOTHING positive in the new economy; this seems unfair, after all, we may not all get rich and retire (to do what?) but at least we can thank the market radicals for liberating us from neckties and suits. For a more compact and systematic attack on market populism, read his article in "The Nation" of October 30th 2000. If you are interested in his basic thesis, this may be a better place to start (http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20001030&s=frank) but if you are interested in the details and want to enjoy his caustic wit to the fullest, then this book is for you. The book does not offer any new ideology (or even any great "old ideology") to counter the tyranny of the markets, but it tells us how ridiculous many of the claims of this new religion really are. Mr. Frank shows us very convincingly that the emperor is stark naked. What to do after that is up to us, but at least we will not be taken in by the gasbag rhetoric of "management gurus" and cyber hustlers. For this alone, he deserves to be read.