RE-THINKING THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT IN REGULATING BUSINESS, BOOK REVIEW

I would strongly recommend that everyone, esp. those who need to read something that they might not agree with it, e.g. anarcho-capitalists, libertarians and tea-partiers, read J.S. Hacker and P. Pierson's, American Amnesia.  According the the NYT review by M. Bishop:
"How America came to forget about the merits of good government, and the price now being paid, is the meat of “American Amnesia,” the third book by Jacob S. Hacker (Yale) and Paul Pierson (Berkeley), whom Bill Moyers calls the “Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson of political science.” According to these academic detectives, America’s amnesia is no accident. The country has been brainwashed by a powerful alliance of forces hostile to government: big business, especially Wall Street, spending unparalleled lobbying dollars to advance its narrow self-­interest; a new wealthy elite propagating wrongheaded Ayn Randian notions that free markets are always good and government always bad; and a Republican Party using a strategy of attacking and weakening government as a way to win more power for itself."

Although their subtitle and some of their assertions are a little over-the-top they make a lot of good points and back them up with citations and data.

Rather than re-invent the wheel, here's another review.