Prologue: The Challenge

PART 1: POWER SHIFT

Chapter 1 – The Business Rebellion
The Power Shift that Changed American History

Chapter 2 – The Pivotal Congress
Jimmy Carter and 1977-78 Democrats

Chapter 3- Middle Class Power
How Citizen Action Worked Before the Power Shift

Chapter 4 – Middle Class Prosperity
How The ‘Virtuous Circle’ Worked Before the New Economy

PART 2: DISMANTLING THE DREAM

Chapter 5 – The New Economy of the 1990s
The Wedge Economics That Split America

Chapter 6  – The Stolen Dream
From Middle Class to the New Poor

Chapter 7 – The Great Burden Shift
Funding Your Own Safety Net and Credit Card Debt

Chapter 8 –The Wealth Gap
The Economics of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%

PART 3: UNEQUAL DEMOCRACY

Chapter 9 – The New 2000s Power Game
Why Congress Often Ignores Public Opinion

Chapter 10 – The Washington-Wall Street Symbiosis
The Inside Track of the ‘Money Monopoly’

PART 4: MIDDLE CLASS SQUEEZE 

Chapter 11– Broken Promises
Bankrupting Middle Class Pensions

Chapter 12 – 401(k) s: DO-IT-YOURSELF
Can You Afford to Retire?

Chapter 13 – Housing Heists
Prime Target – The Middle Class 

Chapter 14 – The Great Wealth Shift
How the Banks Eroded Middle Class Savings

Chapter 15- Offshoring The Dream
The Wal-Mart Trail to China 

Chapter 16 – Hollowing Out High End Jobs
IBM – Shifting the Knowledge Economy to India

Chapter 17 – The Skills Gap Myth
Imported IT Workers Take U.S. Jobs

PART 5 – OBSTACLES TO A FIX

Chapter 18 – The Missing Middle
How Gridlock Adds to the Wealth Gap

Chapter 19- The Rise Of The Radical Right, 1964-2010
The Middle Class Safety Net Under Assault

Chapter 20 – The Cost of Imperial Overstretch
America’s Global Footprint vs. Middle Class Needs

PART 6 –  CHALLENGE AND RESPONSE

Chapter 21 –Reclaiming the Dream
A Domestic Marshall Plan – A Ten-Step Strategy

Chapter 22 – Politics – Grass Roots Response
Reviving the Moderate Center and Middle Class Power

Copyright © 2012 by Hedrick Smith. All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced without permission.