Shadow Elite by Janine R. Wedel

Dear Commons Community,

I just finished Shadow Elite:  How the World’s New Power Brokers Undermine Democracy, Government, and the Free Market by Janine E. Wedel (Basic Books – 2009).  It was recommended to me by my colleague, Joel Spring (Queens College).  For anyone interested in how our government works or why it doesn’t work, this book is a good read.  It exposes the Harvard economists as well as the neoconservatives who play the system for their own personal gain and ideological convictions.  Arianna Huffington on the back cover describes it as providing insights into “why Washington no longer seems capable of addressing the problems our nation faces.”

In perhaps the most provocative chapter, Wedel writes about Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz Douglas Feith, and the neocon network that shaped many of our national policies especially during the Clinton and George W. Bush presidencies by “out bureau-cratting the bureaucracy.” Although not in favor with the Obama Whitehouse, their influence still reverberates.

I highly recommend it.

Tony