Are you a market populist? Author Thomas Frank says the 90’s were the final stage of a creeping consensus that capitalism and free trade are the ultimate expression of democracy and the people’s will. In other words, what’s good for the market is good for America. The mores and methods of the marketplace have escaped the business section into society at large, and, according to Frank, we’re all the poorer for it.
From 24-hour stock tickers on cable TV to the Pollyanna press in magazines like Fast Company and Wired, credible dissent has virtually disappeared and we’re left with paeans to prosperity. You could blame Clinton’s abandonment of traditional Democratic social policy, or the ascendancy of the boomers’ Bohemian Bourgeoisie. But lost in rhetoric of the New Economy’s nattering nabobs are the stubborn facts of economic disparity and social crises galore. We’re puncturing market populism this hour on the Connection.
(Hosted by Christopher Lydon)
Guests:
Thomas Frank, author of “One Market Under God: Extreme Capitalism, Market Populism, and the End of Economic Democracy”