大盗：美国大企业与大政府窃财THE BIG RIPOFF: HOW BIG BUSINESS AND BIG GOVERNMENT STEAL YOUR MONEY

作者： Timothy P. Carney著

出 版 社： 吉林长白山

出版时间： 2006-12-1字数：版次： 1页数： 285印刷时间： 2006/12/01开本：印次：纸张： 胶版纸I S B N ： 9780471789079包装： 精装内容简介

Free enterprise in America may be heading the way of the drive-in movie theater or the corner soda fountain—soon to be a quaint relic of the past. The threat to American capitalism? The "capitalists" themselves.

From General Motors to General Electric, Boeing to Philip Morris, today's largest corporations have mastered the art of working with government officials at every level to stifle competition. They reap billions through a complex web of higher taxes, stricter regulations, and shameless government handouts. And who foots the bill for the increasingly cozy relationship between big business and big government?

Consumers. Taxpayers. Entrepreneurs. You.

The Big Ripoff pulls back the curtain to show who is strangling America's tradition of free enterprise, how and why they are doing it, and what you can do to help restore free enterprise along with your long-trampled rights as both a consumer and taxpayer. Hard-charging investigative reporter and commentator Timothy Carney will both fascinate and infuriate you with insider tales that include:

A decade after reforming the welfare system for individuals, Congress is making the web of welfare for corporations even more impregnable than ever

How government land grabs—"eminent domain for corporate gain"—are unfairly driving small mom and pop operations out of business

Why cigarette behemoth Philip Morris is stridently leading the war against its own products, and strengthening its tobacco stranglehold in the process

How the controversial "death tax" actually benefits Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and other billionaires—who are, not coincidentally, its most ardent supporters

How the federal government drives up your gas prices with ethanol mandates and "clean fuel" rules that mostly enrich the biggest refiners and agribusinesses

How Americans pay twice as much for sugar as the rest of world—and the difference lands in the pockets of one very rich, very well-connected family

How the rich vote Republican, but how the very rich consistently back Democratic candidates—and why

Citizens and taxpayers are losing power over their government, and consumers and entrepreneurs are losing control over the economy, thanks to a deadly combination of power-hungry politicians and obliging CEOs. The Big Ripoff takes you deep inside the insidious, incestuous relationship of big business and even bigger government, and reveals how these purported rivals—huge corpora-tions and ambitious government officials?—work together to the detriment of consumers, taxpayers, and entrepreneurs.

作者简介：TIMOTHY P. CARNEY is a freelance investigative reporter, in Washington, D.C. He has worked under veteran political reporter Bob Novak, has served fellowships with the Phillips Foundation and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and has worked as a reporter at Human Events. Carney has written for the Wall Street Journal, New York Sun, Washington Times, National Review Online, American Spectator, American Conservative, D.C. Examiner, and a handful of other magazines, newspapers, and Web sites.

目录

Foreword by Robert D Novak

Acknowledgments

1 The Big Ripoff:The Greatest Trick the Devil Ever Pulled

PART I FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES

2 The Parties of Big Business: Corporate America Loves Republicans and Democrats—Republicans and Democrats Love Big Business

3 The History of Big Business: Is the History of Big Government

PART II CORPORATE WELFARE

4 Robin Hood in Reverse: Corporate Welfare in America

5 Boeing’s Bank:The Export-Import Bank of the United States

6 Eminent Domain for Corporate Gain:The “Public Purpose” of Big Business

PART III REGULATE ME!

7 Regulators and Robber Barons:How Government Regulation Protects the Big Guys and Rips Off the Little Guys

8 The War against Tobacco:Why Phillip Morris is Leading It

9 You Get Taxed,They Get Rich:Why Big Business Loves High Taxes

PART IV GREEN:THE COLOR OF MONEY

10 Environmentalism for Profit: How Bad Environmentalist Laws Give Your Money to Big Business

11 Enron:A Big-Government Scandal

12 Ethanol and Archer Daniels Midland: Corporate Moonshiners on the Dole

Notes

Index