If You're Curious About These Questions...
You should listen to this audiobook
- Did you know that the radical shift in American capitalism over the last fifty years wasn't an accident, but a meticulously planned "heist" by a small group of intellectuals and billionaires?
- Have you ever wondered why the American dream feels increasingly out of reach, and how a specific set of policy changes in the 1970s fundamentally broke the middle class?
- Are you curious about how a small circle of "evil geniuses" managed to rewrite the rules of the US economy and permanently change the way Americans live and work?
Listen to Evil Geniuses — Free Audiobook
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Key Takeaways from Evil Geniuses
- Understand how America transitioned from a forward-looking beacon of opportunity into an unequal society dominated by a powerful, wealthy aristocracy.
- Discover why a cultural shift toward nostalgia in the late twentieth century caused American society to stagnate both politically and economically.
- Explore how the progressive, center-left protections of the New Deal era were intentionally targeted by right-wing elites terrified of losing their privileges.
- Learn how politicians like Ronald Reagan successfully used warm, fuzzy nostalgia to win over voters and mask their unpopular, pro-corporate economic policies.
- Find out how economist Milton Friedman sparked a corporate counter-revolution by convincing executives that their only social responsibility was to maximize profits.
Evil Geniuses — Full Chapter Overview
Chapter 1: Recommendation
Chapter 2: Since the late twentieth century, America has become more nostalgic and increasingly stagnant overall.
Chapter 3: Nostalgia unlocked the gateway for the economic right.
Chapter 4: Two men, Milton Friedman and Lewis Powell, proved crucial to the economic right’s resurgence in the 1970s across America.
Chapter 5: The right borrowed strategies from political opponents to consolidate and gain power.
Chapter 6: The American right’s success owes much to widespread liberal complacency overall.
Chapter 7: Political shifts launched by the economic right in the 1980s still continue to shape the United States today.
Chapter 8: One consequence of the right’s 1980s victories was the emergence of financialization across the American economy.
Chapter 9: America must reform dramatically or confront a dystopian future.
Evil Geniuses Summary & Overview
Evil Geniuses (2020) describes the rise of the economic right after the 1960s and the consequences of their policies today. From Milton Friedman to Ronald Reagan, it looks at the significance of some of the right’s central figures while also sketching a broader narrative that explains how the US has ended up as it has today.
Who Should Listen to Evil Geniuses?
- Anyone interested in American history
- Americans looking for a way to explain their present situation
- Fans of political history and economics
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