An Orgy of Thieves

In An Orgy of Thieves, veteran investigative journalists Jeffrey St. Clair and Alexander Cockburn chart the rise of neoliberalism in the United States. The book details how the Democratic Party reinvented itself in the 1980s and 1990s as a more corporate-friendly party, jettisoning many of the economic and social policies the party had advanced since the days of FDR. From the passage of free trade pacts like NAFTA to the gutting welfare for poor mothers, Cockburn and St. Clair provide an unsparing how the New Democrats betrayed the aspirations of the party’s base of minority voters, organized labor and environmentalists in order to appease the interest of Wall Street tycoons and K Street lobbyists. The authors emphasize that neoliberalism is more than just an economic theory but represents an entire theory of government defined by relaxed regulations, harsher crime laws and a more interventionist foreign policy abroad. An Orgy of Thieves captures the structural transformation of the country, as the billionaire class exploded and much of the rest of the country got left behind. Here are not rigorously researched accounts of the new policies but vivid profiles of the politicians who put them into practice: Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Stephen Breyer, Barack Obama and Joe Biden. An Orgy of Thieves sheds a dramatic new light on an era of profound change in America.