Transaction Man: The Rise of the Deal and the Decline of the American Dream

"Nicholas Lemann is one of the most brilliant people writing on American politics and journalism. He explains the historical context for the atomization we’ve experienced—how from the Depression a school of thought emerged that to achieve a balance of interests for society’s benefit, big business needed to be countered by big government and big labor. “Silicon Valley companies have become behemoths that dominate their markets—often at the expense of consumers and ordinary workers” He shows that in recent decades, that balance has been thrown off. America has become a more transaction-oriented society, in search of higher returns and more profit. He tells that story through the travails of an auto dealer in Chicago, whose dealership gets shut down as part of the auto industry bailout that followed the 2008 financial crisis. Lemann, like Chris Arnade, is looking for ways to help the casualties of our economy. He looks at how Reid Hoffman, a LinkedIn executive, exemplifies the desire in Silicon Valley to have virtual networks replace communal institutions, and how those same Silicon Valley companies have become behemoths that dominate their markets—often at the expense of consumers and ordinary workers. Lemann is looking for ways to reconstruct connections among Americans to produce a fairer society. I enjoyed learning about how Adolf Berle changed the world through force of argument. Berle, a corporate governance expert who became a member of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s brain trust, persuaded the President that government was necessary to temper the forces of unfettered competition. FDR, in turn, persuaded America. Berle helped forge the New Deal’s new bargain between government and business, which America once embraced and no longer does."