The Great American Deception: What Politicans Won't Tell You about Our Economy and Your Future

by Ravi Batra

This text examines popular economic ideas, espoused by people such as Newt Gingrich, Dick Armery, Jack Kemp, Steve Forbes, Bob Dole, and Bill Clinton. Caught up in election year rhetoric, this group offered the American public a wide range of ideas meant to address the economic concerns of the day.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471165565
• ISBN13: 9780471165569
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Length: 278 Pages
• Weight: 1.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

truth

In Great American Deception you will find pages and pages of Truth. Like Newton, Martin Luther, Plato, and Aristotle, so is this work of Ravi Batra's something western society should understand to be important from an early age. Unfortunately a title like "Great American Deception" isn't so endearing to Patriots. Yet the information and reasoning inside the book are some of the most important things Patriots can know. The primary fallacy Batra points out is the gospel of free trade. The economic theory behind free trade rests on the assumptions that winners compensate the losers. Most early 20th century advocates of lowering tariffs were advocates of progressive income taxes. Modern proponents are into lowering tariffs, lowering progressive income taxes, and borrowing a lot of money from our trade surplus partners. The real kicker is that Republican Candidates who spend the most time calling on Patriotism and "sacrifice" have so far done the most to avoid Patriotism, Sacrifice, and Service. What are Patriotism, Sacrifice, and Service? They are moderate protectionism, higher tiered income taxes in times of War or economic distress, and enforcement of anti-monopoly principles.

this may be batra's best book -- and they're all good!

Batra explains why free trade and regressive taxation have not led us to the nirvana of universal prosperity promised by establishment democrat and republican politicos. He presents an overwhelming mass of evidence to bolster his conclusions. Dr. Batra is a brilliant and incisive thinker who really is concerned with the welfare of the little person. To read this man is to know that the elites in the media, financial, and political spheres are lying, self-serving tyrants. Read this book -- and learn the reality of modern American economic history, a reality that is intentionally obscured from our view by the powers-that-be.

The Little Man's Economist

The author tackles the big economic thinkers and ideas, one by one. He has done amazing historical research in order to debunk all the popular myths about the economy, myths he feels are perpetrated by economists beholden to rich clients. He takes no prisoners in his attack on regressive taxes and free trade (you know, the money goes out but it doesn't come back). Better than a boxing match.

Incisive analysis of what ails America

Dr. Ravi Batra has, since the late 1970s, been offering some of the most thought provoking analysis of economic developments in the US and the world at large. In 1984, he suggested that increasing concentration of wealth was behind the speculative bubble in asset markets (The Great Depression of 1990). In 1990, the Federal Reserve proved successful in infusing the economy with money (and low interest rates), thereby saving the banking system from collapse, while ensuring a repeat run-up in stock prices. While this action by the Fed helped stave off Batra's prediction of an economic collapse -- he may very well still turn out to be right -- just witness the unfolding crisis in Asian stock and currency markets. In the 1990s, he has also warned about the effect that free trade in goods (and a free flow of investment) are having on manufacturing employment as laid-off manufacturing workers are re-employed in the services sector at, typically, a much lower wage, thus explaining the drop in real household incomes of American families since the early 1970s (The Myth of Free Trade). In The Great American Deception he warns us about the unfair shift of the tax burden from corporations to individuals in recent decades and its likely effect on the economy. One could say that he confirms Oswald Spengler's insight that when big money calls the shots the sole purpose of commercial laws and regulations is to accommodate the desire of the large moneyed interests to accumulate more wealth, no matter its effect on society at large. Dr. Batra is a great thinker with vision and the courage to state necessary truths, no matter how controversial. Indeed, if it weren't for thinkers like him we would be at the mercy of CNN and Business Week to understand what's really going on in the world. This is a book that shines the light on complex problems, but with simplicity of exposition and plenty of factual substantiation. A must read for concerned citizens.