Good review. The reviewer sees the same weakness in the book that I saw.
“Lynn, libertarian by inclination, offers little remedy outside renewed anti-trust enforcement and a serious attention to checks and balances. For a better appreciation of how the tax, subsidy and regulatory systems favor the top one percent, read David Cay Johnston’s Perfectly Legal and Free Lunch. Lynn also misses how monopoly depends on control of natural resources including prime locations—like bank corners and auto strips. What is Wal-Mart, after all, but great swaths of real estate at major highway intersections? But let’s hope Lynn’s alarm summons up a new generation of trust-busters.”
Trust busting is good, essential in fact, but it is not enough. And, the David Kay Johnston book, “Perfectly Legal”, which she recommends is one of my favorites. He was the tax reporter for the NY Times and now is an independent writer. Absolutely brilliant on tax issues and how the tax code has been manipulated to favor the wealthiest 1/2% or so. If you combine Lynn with Judt you get a fuller picture because Judt’s main point is we need to present an alternative vision and develop new language to do so in order to get around some of the ignorant nonsense that passes for political discourse
