Myths of Rich and Poor

Popular wisdom holds that the years since 1973 -- the end of the "postwar miracle" -- have been a time of economic decline and stagnation: lackluster productivity, falling real wages, and lost competitiveness. The rich have gotten richer, the poor have gotten poorer, and most of us have barely held on while watching all the best jobs disappear overseas. As Myths of Rich and Poor demonstrates, this picture is not just wrong, it's spectacularly wrong. The hard numbers, simple facts, and iconoclastic arguments of this book will change the way you think about the American economy.

W. Michael Cox is senior vice president and chief economist of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. He has written for The New York Times and was interviewed in Wired magazine; his annual reports for the Federal Reserve Bank are often controversial and receive nationwide publicity.

Richard Alm is a business reporter with the Dallas Morning News.