Power and Domination. Pynchon first. Pynchon still

[Mark Kohut]

Remember in the intro to SLOW LEARNER where Pynchon smoothly moves to
suggesting
injustice might be a class matter? As well as the major novels and a
book about him with this title.



ANTHONY ATKINSON'S NEW BOOK, Inequality: What Can Be Done?, is both
emblem and evidence of this shift in mainstream economic thinking.
Atkinson, of the London School of Economics and Oxford’s Nuffield
College, is the dean of economists who study inequality. After an
exhaustive compilation of data and trends, Atkinson bluntly attributes
rising inequality directly or indirectly to “changes in the balance of
power.” Thus, he adds, “Measures to reduce inequality can be
successful only if countervailing power is brought to bear.”

Though it has not attracted the celebrity attention, in many respects
Atkinson’s work is more important than Thomas Piketty’s pathbreaking
Capital in the Twenty-First Century, and is the perfect sequel. Where
Piketty explained the tendency of wealth and income to concentrate,
Atkinson digs deeper into what drove this shift and why conventional
remedies will not reverse the trends. He has a far surer grasp than
Piketty of the political dynamics that made possible the anomalous
egalitarian era of the 30 glorious years after World War II.


from a long review/ piece in THE AMERICAN PROSPECT by the estimable
Robert Kuttner which I am not linking to since almost no one will read
it and those who will will eagerly go there on their own.

PS countervailing power. an economic concept I first learned from JK
Galbraith.back in the day.
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l