American politics has been hijacked. Over the past three decades, a fringe group
of economic hucksters has corrupted and perverted our nation's policies. With
dark, engaging wit, Jonathan Chait reveals how these canny zealots first took
over the Republican Party and then gamed the political system and the media so
that once unthinkable policies -- without a shred of academic, expert, or even
popular support -- now drive the political agenda, regardless of which party is
in power.
Why have these ideas succeeded in Washington? How did a clique of extremists
gain control of American economic policy and sell short the country's future?
And why do their outlandish