Books : Arrogant Capital: Washington, Wall Street, and the Frustration of American Politics
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 320
EAN: 9780316706025
ISBN: 0316706027
Label: Back Bay Books
Manufacturer: Back Bay Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: September 01, 1995
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Sales Rank: 303286
Studio: Back Bay Books
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Product Description:
Everyone knows that Washington is completely out of touch with the rest of the country. Now Kevin Phillips, whose bestselling books have prophesied the major watersheds of American party politics, tells us why. Washington - mired in bureaucracy, captured by the money power of Wall Street, and dominated by 90,000 lobbyists, 60,000 lawyers, and the largest concentration of special interests the world has ever seen - has become the albatross that Thomas Jefferson and our other Founding Fathers feared: a swollen capital city feeding off the country it should be governing. Throughout most of our history, the genius of American politics was that ballot revolutions every generation swept out failed establishments and created new ones. Now that can no longer happen. Feared and even hated by a majority of the citizenry, "Permanent Washington" has dug in. Using history as a chilling warning, Kevin Phillips parallels the present atrophy to that of formerly mighty and arrogant capitals like Rome, Madrid, and Amsterdam. Unchecked, Washington will - like other great powers before it - lead the country to its inevitable decline and fall. To work again, Washington must be purged and revitalized. In his unique blueprint for a political upheaval, Kevin Phillips puts Washington on notice by sounding a cry for immediate action, offering us a wide variety of remedies - some quasi-revolutionary, others more moderate, but all sure to be controversial.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
Kevin Phillips provides lessons in history on the decline of the Dutch and British that parallel the decline in Washington D.C. that was evident in the 1990s.
He also explains the Jeffersonian idea that Washington must be periodically "attacked and purged" in a political, electoral sense- a "populist" process of American electoral "realignment and renewal."
He provides some stunning numbers while documenting the explosive growth in the staffing of congressional and senatorial aides. Not only that, but there has been expansive growth of lobbyists, think tanks, and the crossover of former government officials.
On the culture of Washington D.C. Mr Phillips had this to say- "The important thing is that both parties are enmeshed; neither is any longer able to fulfill campaign promises about cleaning house in Washington."
And he's right!
On finance and government he observed that speculation replaced investment and financiers gained more control of government. The philosophy that short term speculation is pursued rather than long term investing.
He also critically assesses derivatives and the related speculating.
A few great quotes on finance and government were in the book.
From Business Week in 1992- "The trouble is, Corporate America is surviving at the expense of Household America."
From Thomas Jefferson- "Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies."
While I don't agree ... Read More
Rating:  -
Phillips's book get closer to identifying what the core problem facing the USA is than he did in his earlier "Boiing Point".The problem has been building ever since President Jimmy Carter embarked on his ill advised decision to deregulate and privatize the financial sector of the economy.This simply let the speculative genie out of the bottle.It will be very difficult to rein him in.Phillips correctly goes to the heart of the matter in his recommendation number 7, presented on pp.201-204. "During the 1980's and early 1990's the Fed emerged as a reliable ally of the banks,the financial markets, and speculative finance at the expense of consumers,farmers,small businesses and homeowners "(p.203;1994).This is the heart of the problem.It directly ties in to Phillip's recommendations 4 and 8,respectively, concerning the curbing of Washington lobbies and globalization.Both of these latter problems can only be fixed if the Fed is truly independent from government,Wall Sreeet,and the big commercial banks.Only then can it carry out its task .
I have deducted 1/2 of a star because Phillips is unaware of the fact that Adam Smith had already discussed this problem in great detail in 1776 in his path breaking The Wealth of Nations.Smith's Requirement number 1 is that all loans must be cut off from speculators.Otherwise,the savings the loans represent will be " ...wasted and destroyed...", instead of being transformed intertemporally into the needed plant and equipment required ... Read More
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The author Kevin Phillips is an exemplary example of a frequent Washington type: the former insider turned angry, prophetic outsider. Trained as an attorney, experienced as a a Republican Congressional aide at the modern lowpoint of Republican strength in Washington, acclaimed as a key strategist in Richard Nixon's 1968 Presidential comeback, the author has long been given to gathering masses of data and reaching bold new conclusions with a stunning certainty that is only partially vindicated by subsequent events.
The author's top six suggested governmental reforms are "(1) dispersing the capital and having Congress meet in another city for part of the year; (2) allowing congressmen and senators to vote from their home states and districts; (3) establishing a mechanism for national referendums; (4)concentrating a major attack on the hired-gun culture in Washington; (5) reining in abusive finance and its political influence by regulating electronic speculation, curtailing the nonaccountability of the Federal Reserve Board and establishing a federal financial transactions tax; and (6) fudning deficit-reduction largely by taxing its obvious beneficiaries."
The author's top ten broad proposals are "(1) Decentralizing or dispersing power away from Washington; (2) Modifying the U.S. Constitution's excessive separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches; (3) Shifting U.S. representative government more toward direct democracy and opening up the ... Read More
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This has to be one of the best books on contemporary politics. Kevin Phillips did extensive research into the historical pattern of rise and subsequent decline of great powers and found uncanny similarity to where America is today. However, he did suggest 10 solutions that hopefully would arrest the decline of this nation and hoped those would be carried out in the 90s (this book was written in 94). Guess what ? None of his 10 solutions was implemented even to the slightest degree. If anything the problems he mentioned in the book have become even more serious in the past decade.
The decline of this nation is now inevitable. There is no need to shed tears over it, though. It happened to Rome, Greece, Spain, and most recently Britain. To think we can somehow escape was probably wishful thinking to begin with but the failure to take positive action to even to try to slow the decline just makes the ultimate fate that much more certain !
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This book came out in 1994 and its eminently readable today, especially today. Phillips is one of those tireless workers today in America much like the other crusaders like Nader and Michael Moore who keep the truth front and center of what is being done to this country by our so called representatives in Washington. There is one problem with the Phillips prognostication in this book. In 2003 with 20/20 hindsight it becomes clear that Phillips was far too optimistic in his expectation that the body politic here will make a move for change and reform. Alas! he seems to have under estimated or should I say, mis-underestimated the power of the cancer that is now raging rampant in Washington. He prophesies that in the twentyfirst century the two party system will be over. Not only is it ever more full of life blood but a conservative wave is sweeping the nation with the Christian Coalition in full cry. The wolf in sheep's garb leading the faithful on the heels of wherever society may go in the hands of the GOP. Considering this, in my opinion, America is finito. Its over. The ... we send to Washington every election cycle, they will never stop a-... and the people who benefit from this..., viz K-Street and all the corporations will see to it that reform will not even be a whisper a 100 miles from Pennsylvania Avenue. 95% of the seats in Congress are non-competitive, this means that third party candidates are forever shut out. Try running a Green candidate in Orange County. You might ... Read More
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