book review posted by John Denker
The New New Deal is a recent book by Michael Grunwald. It is
very interesting, important, informative, readable, thorough, and
persuasive. It revolves around the so-called Stimulus Act of 2009.
There are three parts to the story: (1) The economic collapse and the
election in the autumn of 2008; (2) the drafting and passage of the
Stimulus Act in the winter of 2008–2009; and (3) the implementation
and the consequences from 2009 to 2012.
I wish everybody would read this book, in order to know what was done
and how well it worked. This is important, because
many of the same policy issues are still with us, in connection with
today’s fiscal negotiations and in the longer term, forever. We need
public support for making the right decisions.
Steve Benen called this “the best book on the Obama presidency to
date.” It injects some desperately needed reality into the
discussion.