A Fabulous Failure
The Clinton Presidency and the Transformation of American Capitalism
Nelson Lichtenstein, Judith Stein
- 504 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
A Fabulous Failure
The Clinton Presidency and the Transformation of American Capitalism
Nelson Lichtenstein, Judith Stein
About This Book
How the Clinton administration betrayed its progressive principles and capitulated to the right When Bill Clinton was elected president in 1992, he ended twelve years of Republican rule and seemed poised to enact a progressive transformation of the US economy, touching everything from health care to trade to labor relations. Yet by the time he left office, the nation's economic and social policies had instead lurched dramatically rightward, exacerbating the inequalities so troubling in our own time. This book reveals why Clinton's expansive agenda was a fabulous failure, and why its demise still haunts us today.Nelson Lichtenstein and Judith Stein show how the administration's progressive reformersâpeople like Robert Reich, Ira Magaziner, Laura Tyson, and Joseph Stiglitzâwere stymied by a new world of global capitalism that heightened Wall Street influence, undermined domestic manufacturing, and eviscerated the labor movement. Robert Rubin, Larry Summers, and Al Gore proved champions of this financialized world. Meanwhile, Clinton divided his own party when he relied on Republican votes to overhaul welfare, liberalize trade, and deregulate the banking and telecommunications industries. Even the economic boom Clinton ushered inâwhich tamed unemployment and sent the stock market soaring in what Alan Blinder and Janet Yellen termed a "fabulous decade"âended with a series of exploding asset bubbles that his neoliberal economic advisors neither foresaw nor prevented. A Fabulous Failure is a study of ideas in action, some powerfully persuasive, others illusionary and self-defeating. It explains why and how the Clinton presidency's progressive statecraft floundered in a world where the labor movement was weak, civil rights forces quiescent, and corporate America ever more powerful.