It Could Happen Here

The severe economic downturn has been blamed on many things: deregulation, derivatives, greedy borrowers, negligent lenders. But could there be a deeper problem that is so severe, so long-lasting, and so dangerous that it makes these problems look like minor swerves in the road? Could we be facing an existential challenge to the promise of America, and to our system of government? Inequality in America has reached historical highs. Throughout human history, this level of disparity has proven intolerable, almost always leading to political upheaval. Though many believe that America will never face a second revolution, that our politics are stable, in It Could Happen Here, Yale School of Management senior faculty fellow Bruce Judson makes the case that revolution is a real possibility here, driven by a thirty-year, unprecedented rise of inequality through six presidencies, three Fed chairmen, three recessions, and many years of expansion. The last time inequality rivaled current levels was in 1928, just before the Crash and the Great Depression. Today we are in worse shape, divided into a tiny plutocracy of super-rich, on the one hand, and a fragile, indebted, unprotected ",former middle class", on the other. As Judson shows, revolutions can occur suddenly, as happened with the Soviet Union's 1991 dissolution, and America today exhibits the central precursors to a collapseextreme economic inequality and an increasingly impoverished middle class. He makes the most disturbing case yet for why our economics are leading us inevitably toward a devastating crisis.When Franklin Roosevelt faced a similar situa-tion, he was saved by World War II. This time, the conflict may be at home, not abroad.

Auteur

Bruce Judson is a senior faculty fellow at the Yale School of Management. An entrepreneur and lawyer, Judson holds advanced degrees from Yale Law School and the Yale School of Management. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College. He is the author of Go It Alone! and Netmarketing, and the coauthor of Hyperwars. In 2008 he both predicted and hedged against the market crash, beating the investment results of virtually every mutual fund and hedge fund.

Texte du rabat

In It Could Happen Here, Bruce Judson, author of Go It Alone!, explains why revolution is possible in the United States—and makes the most disturbing case yet for why our economics are leading us inevitably toward a just such a crisis. Underscoring the historically dangerous levels of inequality in our country today, It Could Happen Here "will cause you to think about the risks for a nation divided between haves and have nots.” (Walter Isaacson)

Résumé
In It Could Happen Here, Bruce Judson, author of Go It Alone!, explains why revolution is possible in the United Statesand makes the most disturbing case yet for why our economics are leading us inevitably toward a just such a crisis. Underscoring the historically dangerous levels of inequality in our country today, It Could Happen Here will cause you to think about the risks for a nation divided between haves and have nots. (Walter Isaacson)