Books For the 99 Percent

Apparently Paul Krugman is going to be published in a reader called The Occupy Handbook, which made me think of a couple books that are perfect for a rebirth of the Occupy movement.

1. The Great Divergence, by Tim Noah. This isn't too polemical, it's just a good overview of inequality that digs deep into the details of just what is happening and how.

2. Why Nations Fail, by Acemoglu and Robinson. This is nominally a big-picture history book, but it gives a good, hard look a just why some governments suck and others don't. Suffice to say it's not hard to apply their thesis to the US.

3. Twilight of the Elites, by Chris Hayes. This is the best of the lot. It's nominally about how our meritocracy has become just another self-perpetuating elite concerned solely with their own power and money, but really it's a beautiful, fiery testament to what he calls the "fail decade." Nothing else I've read grasps our crumbling institutions half so well. It goes surprisingly well with the previous work.

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