Power, Inc.: The Epic Rivalry between Big Business and Government—and the Reckoning That Lies Ahead Audiobook

Quotes

• “As David Rothkopf points out in his incisive and timely new book, Power, Inc., the pendulum has swung sharply from public to corporate in the last generation. That has changed the character of the US economy.”

  — Financial Times

• “Author and consultant Rothkopf, after a historical perspective, examines today’s challenges in balancing public and private power…Rothkopf concludes that in the future, states will play a crucial role as institutional power centers that serve the public interest…An enlightening account.” 

  — Booklist

• “At a time when our political debate lacks clarity and our economic model is floundering, David Rothkopf brings a compelling vision to the table, both about the challenges that we face and about what the future might look like. It is based on his own experience in business and in government and on a remarkably detailed sense of history. He describes how the complex relationship between private and public interest has evolved since the time of the Sweden’s first king, and how that relationship at least in part explains our current malaise. Rothkopf employs a brilliant use of history to identify the channels that could, in the end, lead to a better way forward.”

  — Carol Graham, senior fellow and Charles Robinson Chair, The Brookings Institution, and author of The Pursuit of Happiness: An Economy of Well-Being

• “David Rothkopf is a deep thinker and a fine writer. We now know he is also an astute and creative historian. Power, Inc. tells an important story: how once-weak corporations evolved into the muscular institutions that are now stronger than many countries—and have been grotesquely enabled in the US by Citizens United. It’s also chock full of fascinating historical tidbits. Who knew that the copper industry may have begun with a goat? Read it to be informed and delighted.”

  — Alan S. Blinder, former vice chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Gordon S. Rentschler Memorial Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, Princeton University

• “It would be hard to find a timelier book than Power, Inc. Where we draw the line between public and private power will shape the twenty-first century as the divide between communism and capitalism shaped the twentieth. The full dimensions of that struggle are just beginning to emerge, but David Rothkopf, as usual, is ahead of the curve with a provocative, insightful book that is easy to read and hard to put down.”

  — Anne-Marie Slaughter, Bert G. Kerstetter University professor of politics and international affairs, Princeton University

• “The frontier between governments and markets is constantly shifting. Focusing on this contested border, David Rothkopf vividly describes the parallel rise of the modern nation-state and the modern corporation. In an age of globalization, Rothkopf argues that this frontier urgently needs to be redrawn. Readers, whatever their views on this important debate, will be compelled to rethink today’s economic travails and reassess expectations for tomorrow.” 

  — Daniel Yergin, author of The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World

• “Rothkopf delivers a lively, accessible treatment of a multifaceted, complex subject.”

  — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)