Great Withdrawal

Detroit was to be a workers' paradise, a symbol of Progressive success. Instead, it has become a symbol of Big Government failure, corruption, violence and decay. In 2013, after a great withdrawal of more than a million productive residents, once-great 'Debtroit' became the largest American city ever to declare bankruptcy. The Great Withdrawal explores why Detroit failed, why other liberal cities may soon follow, and how this could drag America into insolvency and prolonged Depression. It explores the bizarre Nanny Statist Progressive movement that took power in America in 1913 and has driven America on a "e;100-Year Detour"e; away from the ideals of our nation's Founders and towards the stagnation of Euro-socialist welfare states. Smith and Ponte, in this their fourth book, look at how Progressivism has used addiction to welfare and easy money, as well as psychological manipulation politics from "e;crisis-ocracy"e; and "e;the herd inside our heads"e; to the sinister brain science techniques known as "e;nudge"e; to win elections, manufacture consent, impose invisible taxes, and control us. Progressives now feel their power slipping away as Americans are withdrawing from a century of hypnotic control. This, argue Smith and Ponte, is why a desperate Left is turning to naked force-"e;financial repression,"e; rule by decree, "e;regulution,"e; crony capitalism, seizures and wealth redistribution, and politicized government agencies including the IRS and NSA to keep their hold on government power. These power grabs will fail, predict monetary expert Smith and former think tank futurist Ponte, because Progressives are obsessed with obsolete centralization and expansion of government power. Progressives are doomed, even if they cling to power, to rule a nation that their policies have put into an economic death spiral towards a new Dark Age. The path back to the Framers' prosperous Constitutional Republic, Smith and Ponte write, will decentralize and return Power to the People via the Internet, 3-D printing, decentralized energy, honest money, small government and individual self-reliance. They offer a road map back to the ideals Americans held before the very alien European ideology of collectivist Progressivism steered our nation off course exactly 100 years ago.