Acknowledgments xv
Introduction: The Good Fight 1
1. Saving Social Security
Essay: After the Khaki Election 13
Social Security Scares 16
Inventing a Crisis 19
Buying into Failure 22
Social Security Lessons 25
Privatization Memories 28
Where Government Excels 30
2. The Road To Obamacare
Essay: Developing a Positive Agenda 35
Ailing Health Care 38
Health Care Confidential 41
Health Care Terror 44
The Waiting Game 47
Health Care Hopes 50
Fear Strikes Out 53
Obamacare Fails to Fail 56
Imaginary Health Care Horrors 59
3. The Attack On Obamacare
Essay: The Cruelty Caucus 65
Three Legs Good, No Legs Bad 67
Obamacare's Very Stable Genius 70
Get Sick, Go Bankrupt, and Die 73
How Democrats Can Deliver on Health Care 76
4. Bubble And Bust
Essay: The Sum of All Fears 81
Running Out of Bubbles 83
That Hissing Sound 86
Innovating Our Way to Financial Crisis 89
The Madoff Economy 92
The Ignoramus Strategy 95
Nobody Understands Debt 97
5. Crisis Management
Essay: The Triumph of Macroeconomics 103
Depression Economics Returns 106
IS-LMentary 109
Stimulus Arithmetic (Wonkish but Important) 113
The Obama Gap 115
The Stimulus Tragedy 118
6. The Crisis In Economics
Essay: The Cost of Bad Ideas 123
The Mythical Seventies 126
That Eighties Show 128
How Did Economists Get It So Wrong? 130
Bad Faith, Pathos, and G.O.P. Economics 149
What's Wrong with Functional Finance? (Wonkish) 152
7. Austerity
Essay: Very Serious People 157
Myths of Austerity 160
The Excel Depression 163
Jobs and Skills and Zombies 166
Structural Humbug 169
8. The Euro
Essay: A Bridge Too Far 175
The Spanish Prisoner 178
Crash of the Bumblebee 181
Europe's Impossible Dream 184
What's the Matter with Europe? 187
9. Fiscal Phonies
Essay: The Gullibility of the Deficit Scolds 193
The Flimflam Mon 195
The Hijacked Commission 198
What's in the Ryan Plan? 201
Melting Snowballs and the Winter of Debt 203
Democrats, Debt, and Double Standards 207
On Paying for a Progressive Agenda 210
10. Tax Cuts
Essay: The Ultimate Zombie 215
The Twinkie Manifesto 218
The Biggest Tax Scam in History 221
The Trump Tax Scam, Phase 2 224
Why Was Trump's Tax Cut a Fizzle? 227
The Trump Tax Cut: Even Worse Than You've Heard 230
The Economics of Soaking the Rich 234
Elizabeth Warren Does Teddy Roosevelt 238
11. Trade Wars
Essay: Globaloney and the Backlash 243
Oh, What a Trumpy Trade War! 246
A Trade War Primer 249
Making Tariffs Corrupt Again 254
12. Inequality
Essay: The Skewing of America 259
The Rich, the Right, and the Facts 261
Graduates versus Oligarchs 282
Money and Morals 285
Don't Blame Robots for Low Wages 288
What's the Matter with Trumpland? 291
13. Conservatives
Essay: Movement Conservatism 297
Same Old Party 299
Eric Cantor and the Death of a Movement 302
The Great Center-Right Delusion 305
The Empty Quarters of U.S. Politics 308
14. EEK! Socialism!
Essay: Red-Baiting in the 27st Century 313
Capitalism, Socialism, and Unfreedom 315
Something Not Rotten in Denmark 319
Trump versus the Socialist Menace 322
15. Climate
Essay: The Most Important Thing 327
Donald and the Deadly Deniers 329
The Depravity of Climate-Change Denial 332
Climate Denial Was the Crucible for Trumpism 335
Hope for a Green New Year 338
16. Trump
Essay: Why Not the Worst? 343
The Paranoid Style in G.O.P. Politics 345
Trump and the Aristocracy of Fraud 348
Stop Calling Trump a Populist 351
Partisanship, Parasites, and Polarization 354
Why It Can Happen Here 358
Who's Afraid of Nancy Pelosi? 361
Truth and Virtue in the Age of Trump 364
Conservatism's Monstrous Endgame 367
Manhood, Moola, McConnell, and Trumpism 370
17. On The Media
Essay: Beyond Fake News 375
Bait-and-Switch 377
Triumph of the Trivial 380
Is There Any Point to Economic Analysis? 383
The Year of Living Stupidly 385
Hillary Clinton Gets Gored 387
18. Economic Thoughts
Essay: The Dismal Science 393
How I Work 395
The Instability of Moderation 407
Transaction Costs and Tethers: Why I'm a Crypto Skeptic 411
Credits 415
Index 417