TOXIC ASSETS: THE AMERICAN WAY OF FINANCE BETWEEN TWO GILDED AGES

I. A VIEW FROM THE TRAIN1. Nationalization—Standard Time Zones

2. “Modern” management (but save management/labor conflict for Barrett)3. Transforming and contracting worlds4. Finance (banking/insider overlap) & politics(corruption, reminder on subsidization and government role in economic growth, anti-monopoly)

II. EXPLAINING THE RISE OF THE GIANT INDUSTRIAL FIRM

• A. TECHNOLOGY AND ECONOMIES OF SCALE• B. SPECULATING ON FINANCE CAPITAL• C. VERTICAL & HORIZONTAL INTEGRATION D. TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONStelegraph rural free delivery 1896 parcel post 1912• E. URBAN MARKETS• Mass Distribution and Mass Marketing• Consumer Society

• III. THE LIZZIE BORDEN CASE (1892) AND THE PERILS OF THE AMERICAN DREAM— Was Andrew axing for it?

• Abby, Emma Borden Maplecroft

IV. BREAKDOWN OF U.S. STRUCTURES OF STABILITY:

THE U.S. INEQUALITY EXPERIMENT RUNS AGROUND

(1970s-2010)

A. FROM THE “GREAT COMPRESSION” TO A NEW GILDED AGE

B. WHY INEQUALITY MATTERS:

Vanishing middle class

Prisons Health Malls Education Politics

B. TOXIC ASSETS: DEREGULATION, DEFICITS, DERIVATIVES AND TAXPAYING CITIZENSHIP IN PLANET FINANCE

CASE STUDY ON SHARED WAR SACRIFICE AND TAXATION: POST-9/11’s UNPRECEDENTED TEA PARTY MINDSET New Republic, 1916: “When our common safety is involved, certain principles should be axiomatic….equality of financial sacrifice.”House Speaker Sam Rayburn: 10/1951 “Let us measure up to our responsibility….I think the boys in Korea would appreciate it more if we in this country were to pay our own way instead of leaving it for them to pay when they get back.”House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, March 2003: “Nothing is more important in the face of a war than cutting taxes.”

Explanations for shift: seeming attitude shift on deficits/inflation prospectspolitical polarization, Reagan “government is the problem” theme, & business roleno conscription context

C. Calamity as Wake-Up Call: Who’s Included and Who’s Left Behind

• Hurricane Katrina