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political systems. Chapter 10 concludes the book with a
discussion of the alternative futures facing the US and Europe, the large-scale policy changes required to reverse Americandecline, and finally the potential avenues for
achieving these ends through social and political action.
    This last task will not be easy. The conduct of the Obama administration provides a painfully clear example. For reasons described in the final chapters of this book, a political duopoly is now
highly entrenched in the US and it is resistant to change. Despite their populist pretensions, both American parties depend on the money that flows to them because they, and only they, control
electoral politics, and both parties would fiercely resist any challenge to this arrangement.
    And there is a final problem. To some extent, it must sadly be admitted, this decline has been tolerated by the American people. Over the last thirty years Americans have become less educated,
less inclined to save and invest for the future, and, understandably, far more cynical about participating in politics and other institutions. Consequently, it has proven disturbingly easy for the
new oligarchy to manipulate large segments of the population into tolerating, even supporting, policies that worsen the world’s economy. And, of course, many young people have simply given up
on politics, particularly after numerous betrayals, including by the Obama administration; many are now profoundly disturbed that Obama turned out to be more of the same.
    To reverse this decline, it will first be necessary to reverse the consolidation of economic power now wielded by highly concentrated industries, the financial sector, and the extremely wealthy.
In addition, it will be necessary to shift economic priorities towards education, saving, and long-term investment, and away from excessive reliance on cheap energy and, in the case of the US,
military power. And finally, it will be necessary to profoundly change the role of money in politics—in campaign contributions, political advertising, revolving-door hiring, lobbying, and the
enormous disparities between public and private sector salaries that have taken over the American system and threaten to take hold elsewhere.
    There are three alternative routes for achieving deep systemic reform, both in the US and farther afield: a successful insurgency in one of the existing political parties; a true third-party
effort; and a nonpartisansocial movement perhaps analogous to the civil rights or environmental movements of a generation ago. All of these paths are difficult. But we have
done difficult things before, even when they faced powerful opposition. Often the most remarkable achievements come in part because of remarkable leaders who have been committed to remarkable
goals. Let us hope we see such leaders again.

CHAPTER 2
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OPENING PANDORA’S BOX: THE ERA OF DEREGULATION, 1980–2000
    I T WAS IN THE 1970s that the US first encountered many of its current economic problems. But it was in the 1980s
that America began to harm itself in earnest. The Reagan administration provided an eerie sneak preview of the Bush administration, complete with politically popular tax cuts, resultant budget
deficits, widespread unemployment, and a sudden rise in economic inequality.
    It was in the 1980s that declining American industries and their complacent, outdated, but politically clever CEOs first noticed that paying off lobbyists, politicians, boards of directors, and
academic experts was much less expensive, and much easier, than improving their actual performance. And it was also in the 1980s that America’s newly deregulated financial sector got back in
touch with its dark side, starting a thirty-year phase of consolidation, financial instability, large-scale criminality, and political corruption. In the late 1980s, America experienced its first
financial crises since the Great Depression, although by current standards they seem