Aftershock: The next economy and America's Future by Robert Reich

You've heard or read much of this theory before - how the recession was partly caused by the middle class running out of buying power, going too far into debt, and then having little resource when the tipping point of bad debts and too much leveraging hit. Reich puts his analysis into that context, and compares current conditions to past periods in America's history. He goes one step further to forecast more pending political upheaval as people become more outraged by their declining standard of living, but expresses hope we would be able to address the income disparities at the heart of the problem before that happens. This book was published in April, before the debt ceiling circus, but after the Republican takeover over of the House. Reich also proposes some interesting solutions to evening out the wealth disparity in the country, to get it back to where the economy can grow. A quick read, but definitely with a Democratic, populist viewpoint. 192 p.