From NYRB, we’re more unequal than you think: A review essay by Andrew Hacker (and more from TNR). Many researchers have reached a conclusion that turns conventional wisdom on its head: Americans enjoy less economic mobility than their peers in Canada and much of Western Europe. Is expertise about poverty possible in a country where the phenomenon itself is deemed morally perverse? A review of La fin de la pauvrete? Les experts sociaux en guerre contre la pauvrete aux Etats-Unis by Romain Huret. The myth of American productivity: Politicians say we have the most productive workers in the world — they don't know what they're talking about. Making it in America: The story of Standard Motor Products, a family-run manufacturer in Queens, illuminates what it takes to survive in today’s economy — and why the jobs crisis will be so hard to solve. An excerpt from Blue Collar Intellectuals: When the Enlightened and Everyman Elevated America by Daniel J. Flynn. A look at how large U.S. corporations have been the biggest winners of the recession. Lessons for Obama: Gerard Colby on how FDR fended off the 1%’s attacks against his New Deal reforms. A review of Borrow: The American Way of Debt by Louis Hyman.
