A century ago, Kansas farmers called them "The Robber Barons" and Teddy Roosevelt singled them out as "malefactors of great wealth." Steve Brouwer rigorously marshals the devastating evidence and indicts the Bush Gang for encouraging a corporate crime wave (Savings and Loan scandals of the 1980s; Harkin and Halliburton; Enron, WorldCom and Arthur Anderson) and promoting the greatest economic inequality since the 1920s. While Brouwer teases the Bushes for following the "Skull and Bones" flag of their elite Yale club, he also -levels the serious charge that they are "pirates." The richest 1% of Americans grabs 20.3% of our national income. They have overwhelmed democracy with campaign bribery. Brouwer’s book is indispensable to ousting the buccaneers. Steve Brouwer has been writing for two decades.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Brouwer (Sharing the Pie) calls George W. and Jeb Bush "the great-grandchildren of the Robber Barons," and not just for the family's purported personal forays into ethically ambiguous finance. Brouwer carefully documents the Bush administration's support for capital investment at the expense of labor, while observing that the blame can't be narrowly placed. Corporations' lobbyists have set up the terms of the debate and taken advantage of it, Brouer says, and the Democrats have taken their fill from the trough as well. Brouwer traces the effects of Bush's tax cuts and "labor discipline" on the American working class and warns that the administration's eyes have already turned to the rest of the world's riches.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Important reading -- by the end, fully justifies its title.,
By
This review is from: Robbing Us Blind: The Return of the Bush Gang and the Mugging of America (Paperback)
I don't pay much attention to titles (which I consider part of the exaggerated PR to get a book sold), but the frequent references from early in the text to the "Bush Gang" as not only descendants of the "Robber Barons", but in many ways worse than them, at first almost put me off. How biased was this book going to be, exactly? I was looking for hard evidence, not unsubstantiated claims or whining.Well hard evidence I got, in abundance. The author clearly knows his stuff, on a wide range of topics. None if this is really a surprise, much of it I already knew or suspected, and some of it I'd learned years ago and forgotten about until now, but Brouwer puts together probably the most devastating critique of Bush and those that surround him thus far put on paper -- precisely because it primarily lays out facts and history, harshly exposing many of Bush's policies and public statements to the scrutiny of reality in the form of history, the government's own numbers and the public opinions of dozens of experts. It also draws together the motivations behind both domestic and foreign policy in such a way that it all comes into sharp releif, finally all making perverted sense. An American foreign policy that seeks to destabilize democratic governments to be replaced by autocratic regimes (which we have demonstratively done multiple times and are still trying to get away with) makes no sense, until it is viewed through the lens of NOT CARING about long-term destabilization, fairness to the people of that country, or promoting any sort of ideal of democracy or civil rights. It's all about short- and medium-term profits for large companies via control of oil and other resources, and when looked at as a motivation for all government policy, suddenly everything Bush does seems perfectly obvious. It also demonstrates that Bush and his cronies are essentially crooks, with entirely selfish motivations. Many of us already suspected as much, but this book makes it all clear, in no uncertain terms. The language is hard and to the point -- pulling no punches. Brouwer calls a spade a spade -- and a thief a thief and a liar a liar. At first the terms used sound unfair and entirely subjective. But by the end, it's difficult to feel that this is anything other than the truth, finally called by its name. Books like "All the President's Spin" look at how the media is letting Bush get away with continuous almost-lies that deceive just as surely as real-lies would, at how rules of media fairness are being manipulated by Republicans to force essentially favorable coverage without allowing the media to portrary conservative deceptions as untruths. Books like "Robbing Us Blind", unlike the mainstream media, aren't limited by the rules of "journalistic fairness" that dictate equal time to both sides and disallow the reporter from expressing obvious skepticism. "Robbing Us Blind" is freely skeptical, and refreshingly truthful. Terms like "Gang" and "Robber Baron" are useful tools to frame the point of the book, but aren't really necessary -- had they been omitted, most likely the reader would have come to the same conclusion by the end regardless. But the only reason they sound shocking in the first place is because the mainstrem media has been so complicit in playing into Bush's hands, disguising his and his associates' true natures. Here, the truth is told in not only all its unvarnished perversity but also in scrupulously footnoted, factual detail. One of the most important books that every American should read before the election.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A gem of a book,
By
This review is from: Robbing Us Blind: The Return of the Bush Gang and the Mugging of America (Paperback)
This book looks at the myriad of ways that average and lower-income Americans have been systematically robbed of their monetary wealth through deliberate government policy. That wealth has been given to the top 1 percent of the people, in terms of income, by a group of elites and super-rich that the author calls the Bush Gang. The Bush family has been at, or near, the seat of American power for 16 of the last 24 years.To give one example, from 1982 to 2002, the number of Americans without health care jumped from 25 million to 43 million, a rise of more than 50 percent. In that same period, the number of American billionaires rose from 13 to 229. The Bush Gang's plan looks something like this: Give tax relief to corporations and the very rich. Build up the military with big increases in defense spending. Be very aggressive in international relations. Deregulate business as much as possible. Overlook the criminal actions of those businessmen who support this agenda. Ignore the real possibility of large deficits. Also, attack labor and working Americans as much as possible. This book covers a number of topics. The Bush remedy for a sick economy is CEOs who will drive up a company's stock price by laying off thousands of workers. There has been a systematic plan to keep wages low for most Americans in order to transfer wealth to the richest. The famous Skull and Bones club at Yale was originally endowed in the 1830s by the Russell Trust. It was connected to a company that, at the time, was the premier American smuggler of opium. The media, especially Rupert Murdoch and Fox News, can be counted on to keep up the fear level. One of the justifications for tax cuts is that the money will be used for new investment. Has that happened over the last 25 years? What is to be done? The Democratic Party needs to get a backbone. It should not blame Ralph Nader for the results of the 2000 election, but itself. It needs to push its vision for America: higher minimum wage, federally funded health care for all, full employment, public works spending that fixes America's infrastructure, good public schools, etc. This is a gem of a book. Can't get ahead financially? This book gives part of the reason. It's highly recommended.
12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Essential Reading!,
By
This review is from: Robbing Us Blind: The Return of the Bush Gang and the Mugging of America (Paperback)
Surely you have often wondered what the deal is with Bush's rather repulsive smirk. Read this book and that expression ("yah, you think I'm stupid, but you don't know the half of it...") may begin to make more sense to you. "Robbing Us Blind" makes a compelling case for the immediate impeachment of the Bush Gang. (How did we let things get this bad, anyway?) Brouwer writes clearly and elegantly. Matt Wuerker's illustrations are a great addition to the text. Read this book and pass it on. Then get out there and do something!
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