Supercapitalism

Supercapitalism by Robert Reich

Even though Reich wrote this book five years ago, it seems to be even more relevant today.  Supercapitalism, according to Reich, refers to a totally deregulated economy, no holds barred approach where corporations pretty much control our government.  Reich shows how widening inequality of income and wealth, greater job insecurity, and corporate corruption are merely the logical results of a system in which politicians are more beholden to the influence of business lobbyists than to the voters who elected them. 

Reich contends deregulation, weakening of worker's rights, globalization and greater competition has brought on this era of "supercapitalism".   In this era of social darwinism, those who seize their opportunities in highly competitive environments tend to survive and prosper. 

Even though this book was written three years before the U.S. Supreme Court decision "Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission," (2010) which basically declared corporations as people, Reich seems to have anticipated such a decision.  In the final chapters he frequently claims corporations are not people and cannot behave as people.  They can not determine between right and wrong or make moral decisions.  The corporation is only concerned with profit and if they can provide a return for their shareholders. 

Reich argues a clear separation of politics and capitalism is necessary in order to foster an enviroment in which both business and government thrive.  He states capitalism should be in the service of democracy, and not the other way around.  We are fast becoming a plutocracy under the current situation.  Money has too much influence on politics, resulting in politicians being more beholding to their donors than to their constituents.

The List

The List by Martin Fletcher

What was it like to have been one of the few Jews that managed to get out of Germany, Austria or Poland before the Nazis rolled in and took control?  This story, written as a novel by journalist and foreign correspondent Martin Fletcher, is basically a story about Fletcher's parents.  Fletcher incorporates his family's story into his narrative of a young Jewish family, Holocaust survivors, struggling to stay afloat in their adopted country of London, England.  This poignant and heart wrenching story opens in London with the celebration of Germany's surrender.  But the war does not end with VE Day for Georg and Edith, a newly married couple, anxiously hoping to start a family and a new life, while at the same time awaiting word on the fate of their loved ones.  They each keep a List of the names of their family members. 

As they struggle to start over, each day brings the anguish of no news about their family or confirmation of another family member or friend who was murdered in the Holocaust.  They tearfully cross off another name from their list.  Edith eventually gets word her beautiful cousin Anna has survived and will be coming to London.  But Anna's stay in Auschwitz has changed her beyond recognition.  Fletcher not only successfully recreates this world where the survivors are caught in limbo, but he also reopens a painful chapter in London history. 

While Edith and Georg struggle to rebuild their lives, they face the threat of a growing anti-semitism movement in London.  Englishmen are starting to resent the Jewish refugees taking homes and jobs, as their soldiers return home to unemployment and shortage of housing.  They want to expel the Jewish refugees and send them back to their home countries.  After Edith makes a speech at a meeting about repatriation petitions, Georg becomes a target for retribution. Their mysterious neighbor, Ismael, an Egyptian Arab living at the boarding house, steps in to protect Georg.  This introduces a whole new subplot with possibly deadly consequences for Georg, Edith and Anna.

This deeply touching novel explores the themes of hope, prejudice, loss and love. It is both a breathless thriller of postwar sabotage and a heartrending and historically accurate portrait of an almost forgotten era.  This is what is meant when they say a good book transports you to another time and place.