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The Big Ripoff

The Big Ripoff How Big Business and Big Government Steal Your Money

Author: Timothy P. Carney
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 9780471789079
Published In: June 2006
Format: Hardback , 285 pages
Jurisdiction: International or US ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

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Praise for THE BIG RIPOFF

"Politicians like to say that government is on the side of the little guy. But with impressive documentation and persuasive examples, Tim Carney shows how government power and regulation are typically used to assist the powerful."
-Paul A. Gigot Editorial Page Editor, the Wall Street Journal

"Exposes the dirty little secret of American politics: how big businesses work with statist politicians to diminish the prosperity and freedom of consumers, taxpayers, and entrepreneurs. Carney employs top-notch writing ability, passion for liberty, and understanding of economics to demolish the myth that big business is a foe of big government. Everyone who seeks to understand who really benefits from big government should read this book, as should anyone who still believes that the interventionist state benefits the average person."
-Congressman Ron Paul U.S. House of Representatives, 14th District of Texas

"Small entrepreneurial businesses are the backbone success of our great economy. They are the biggest job and wealth creators. Is that why big corpocratic behemoth firms collude with big government for a liberal agenda of higher taxes and overregulation that will punish the small risk-takers? Tim Carney's new book describes how anti-business big business can be."
-Lawrence Kudlow Host of CNBC's Kudlow & Company

"Tim Carney explodes the myth that big business and big government are natural opponents. All too often, as he points out, they're both engaged in a common enterprise: picking your pocket."
-Ramesh Ponnuru Senior Editor, National Review

"A romping tour de force of the love affair between big business and big government from Teddy Roosevelt and the Robber Barons to Enron and the Kyoto Treaty. Indispensable for understanding how government regulation really works."

-Donald Devine Grewcock Professor of Political Science, Bellevue University

"Every CEO in America should read this book today, issue new directives to their bureaucrat-appeasing Washington lobbyist tomorrow, and join in the fight for economic liberalization."
-Fred L. Smith, Jr. Founder and President, Competitive Enterprise Institute

Reviews

1^st place book winner of the 2008 Templeton Enterprise Award

"...so good that you might even consider putting it under the tree of the liberals on your Christmas list....they will likely find it fascinating how big business uses government to its advantage. Furthermore, they will likely find The Big Ripoff hard to put down due to Carney's compelling style of writing.... Carney smashes the conventional wisdom that big business is inherently pro-free market and anti-government."—from "Santa Government" by David Hogberg (American Spectator, December 15, 2006)

"This book should be read by every Northern Virginia taxpayer for a chapter aptly titled "You Get Taxed, They Get Rich" in which Carney illustrates this dynamic by examining how former Gov. Mark Warner pushed through the largest tax increase in the commonwealth’s history. Warner, now a presidential hopeful, was helped by the state’s top business leaders, who themselves spent more than $7 million lobbying for higher taxes, instead of the other way around." (The Washington DC Examiner)

"Bashing big business is traditionally a left-wing indulgence, but it need not be. Political reporter Timothy Carney, a small-government conservative, takes up the task with relish in the "The Big Ripoff." Along the way, he produces a spirited and eminently readable indictment of the unsavory alliance between corporate and congressional America." (The Wall Street Journal, July 29, 2006)

"...makes a good case that the American people might be better served with less taxpayer subsidization and governmental protection of big business." (The Boston Globe)

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.

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.