The middle out: the rise of progressive economics an a return to shared prosperity

Political commentator Tomasky argues that most Americans find the economic arguments of conservatives compelling and that "the right owns the word 'freedom'" but that their ideas must be jettisoned if the country is to return to shared prosperity. He attacks "neoliberal" economists, especially Milton Friedman, and offers a rhetorical roadmap for Democratic politicians and policy makers. He lauds Democrats who are willing to "talk smack on the rich and on corporate America," showing great sympathy for hard-left Democrats who see Presidents Clinton and Obama as closet conservatives. The book examines recent political and economic history, important changes in the economics profession, and the rise of progressive activist donors. Although it is full of energy, The Middle Way is also full of hyperbole, unrelenting partisanship ("if Republicans retake power, of course, all progress will cease"), and skewed statistics. For example, Tomasky urges readers to Google "percent of Americans who don't like their jobs": "You'll see … it's between 60 and 85 percent." This reviewer did so and found the opposite: the third link was to a reputable Pew survey that found 49 percent of employed adults are "very satisfied" with their jobs, and Gallup reports that only 12 percent are dissatisfied. Staunch partisanship overwhelms the scholarship of this volume. Summing Up: Not recommended. --Robert M. Whaples, Wake Forest University

It's time to repudiate free-market dogma and return to tax-and-spend liberalism, according to this feisty manifesto. New Republic editor Tomasky (If We Can Keep It) criticizes the neoliberal economic consensus of recent decades that emphasized tax cuts, reduced government social spending, privatization, deregulation, and pitiless self-interest; that recipe, he argues, yielded rising inequality, insecurity, and sluggish growth. His proposed antidote is massive government investment in healthcare, childcare, and education. Tomasky is light on policy specifics aside from a broad endorsement of the Biden administration's stimulus and infrastructure spending, which he absolves of responsibility for inflation and salutes for "commendable progress in changing the economic circumstances of Americans." He focuses instead on revamped messaging that associates progressive economics with emotionally resonant themes of freedom, democracy, opportunity, and humane values. ("My Republican friends believe that all we need to do is selfishly pursue our own interests," reads one of his suggested talking points for Democrats. "We think people are more generous than that.") Tomasky's critique of free-market orthodoxy is cogent and often stinging, but he takes little account of the tensions now wracking the economy, and many of his messaging prescriptions are already being followed by Democrats including Pete Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren. This rallying cry falls short. Agent: Chris Calhoun, Chris Calhoun Agency. (Sept.)

Tomasky (If We Can Keep It) convincingly argues that by embracing the essential role of the government in addressing the common good, the policies of the Biden Administration constitute a frontal assault on neoliberalism, the dominant paradigm influencing federal economic policy since the early 1980s. Neoliberalism deifies the "free" market, defames government, and is obsessed with economic growth. The result has been rising inequality, the reemergence of monopolies, hobbled public education, weakened freedoms, and the marginalization of shared humanity. Over the last few decades, however, a small number of economists have challenged the neoliberal orthodoxy by rejecting the myth of economic rationality, attending to race and gender, and substituting evidence-based analysis for economic theory and mathematical models. Their efforts have been amplified by grassroots activism, liberal foundations, the election of progressive politicians, and Biden's response to the pandemic. Deftly weaving together policy history and political analysis, Tomasky makes a strong case urging the Democratic Party to embed economic policy in the core American values of freedom and democracy. VERDICT A thoughtful reflection on rebalancing democracy with capitalism to bring about a more compassionate United States; deserving of wide readership.--Robert Beauregard

Political journalist and Democracy editor-in-chief Tomasky delivers a strong argument for Democrats to take the lead in articulating middle-class--boosting economics. Democracy, freedom, and economic justice are the hallmarks of America's conception of itself. "They are inseparable," writes the author. "It is up to the Democrats to defend all three. And they must see this as not three fights but one. It's Republican doctrine that the market must be free and unregulated, which works supremely well "for those with the means to eat at high-end locavore restaurants or purchase the right to skip the lines at Disney World." For the rest of society, the market goes hand in hand with Republican resistance to social spending programs such as the American Rescue Plan, which, though carrying a staggering $1.9 trillion price tag, came in at a lower percentage of GDP than Franklin Roosevelt's "broadly popular" New Deal programs. Tomasky notes that public investment grows the economy, and it addresses both aspects of ordinary economic thought, which has both a fiscal and a moral dimension. Chalk the Republican program up to the likes of Milton Friedman, whose influence over economics Tomasky calls "deeply unfortunate" and who had strange ideas that continue to hold sway over a certain element of the political class (including the fact that "he was against national parks"). Whereas some level of inequality is inevitable in a noncommand economy, the current fiscal structure rewards the rich at the expense of the rest. The author urges that a Democratic brand of economics requires a good name, one that doesn't include the prefix post- ("if you're still using 'post,' you don't have a movement") and that advances the idea that "prosperity is built from the middle out"--i.e., founded on a strong middle and working class, repudiating the false notions that taxes are bad and greed is good. A provocative, welcome platform for wresting economic conversations away from the moneyed class. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

While the Keynesian economics that dominated through the early 1970s proclaimed government spending as essential to economic growth, the conservative counterthrust that then emerged saw a minimally regulated free market as the real economy booster. Top editor at the New Republic , longtime political journalist Tomasky argues that this counterthrust has not been successful, with today's concentrated wealth built on wringing workers dry. Instead, he proposes "middle out economics" that focuses on (re)building a thriving middle class.

Tomasky (If We Can Keep It) convincingly argues that by embracing the essential role of the government in addressing the common good, the policies of the Biden Administration constitute a frontal assault on neoliberalism, the dominant paradigm influencing federal economic policy since the early 1980s. Neoliberalism deifies the "free" market, defames government, and is obsessed with economic growth. The result has been rising inequality, the reemergence of monopolies, hobbled public education, weakened freedoms, and the marginalization of shared humanity. Over the last few decades, however, a small number of economists have challenged the neoliberal orthodoxy by rejecting the myth of economic rationality, attending to race and gender, and substituting evidence-based analysis for economic theory and mathematical models. Their efforts have been amplified by grassroots activism, liberal foundations, the election of progressive politicians, and Biden's response to the pandemic. Deftly weaving together policy history and political analysis, Tomasky makes a strong case urging the Democratic Party to embed economic policy in the core American values of freedom and democracy. VERDICT A thoughtful reflection on rebalancing democracy with capitalism to bring about a more compassionate United States; deserving of wide readership.—Robert Beauregard

It's time to repudiate free-market dogma and return to tax-and-spend liberalism, according to this feisty manifesto. New Republic editor Tomasky (If We Can Keep It) criticizes the neoliberal economic consensus of recent decades that emphasized tax cuts, reduced government social spending, privatization, deregulation, and pitiless self-interest; that recipe, he argues, yielded rising inequality, insecurity, and sluggish growth. His proposed antidote is massive government investment in healthcare, childcare, and education. Tomasky is light on policy specifics aside from a broad endorsement of the Biden administration's stimulus and infrastructure spending, which he absolves of responsibility for inflation and salutes for "commendable progress in changing the economic circumstances of Americans." He focuses instead on revamped messaging that associates progressive economics with emotionally resonant themes of freedom, democracy, opportunity, and humane values. ("My Republican friends believe that all we need to do is selfishly pursue our own interests," reads one of his suggested talking points for Democrats. "We think people are more generous than that.") Tomasky's critique of free-market orthodoxy is cogent and often stinging, but he takes little account of the tensions now wracking the economy, and many of his messaging prescriptions are already being followed by Democrats including Pete Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren. This rallying cry falls short. Agent: Chris Calhoun, Chris Calhoun Agency. (Sept.)