Free lunch

the long version

How does a strong and growing economy lend itself to job uncertainty, debt, bankruptcy, and economic fear for a vast number of Americans? This book answers this great economic question, revealing how today's government policies and spending benefit the wealthy. Johnston shows how, under the guise of deregulation, a whole new set of regulations quietly went into effect--thwarting competition, depressing wages, and rewarding misconduct. Revelations include: how we ended up with the most expensive yet inefficient health-care system in the world; how homeowners' title insurance became a costly, deceitful, yet almost invisible oligopoly; how our government gives hidden subsidies for posh golf courses; how baseball team owners will collect more than $1.3 billion in public funds. In these instances and more, Johnston shows how the lobbyists and lawyers representing the most powerful 0.1 percent of Americans manipulated our government at the expense of the other 99.9 percent.--From publisher description.