The Quiet Coup: Neoliberalism and the Looting of America

by Mehrsa Baradaran

A powerful and disturbing account of how free-market ideologues rigged American law to benefit the rich

Many Americans believe something fundamental has gone wrong in their country. Why does full-time work no longer guarantee financial stability? Why does college tuition leave so many with a lifetime of debt? Why have decades of free-market promises yielded not more freedom and liberty but more debt and constraints?

In The Quiet Coup, Mehrsa Baradaran, one of America's premier public intellectuals, argues that these problems stem from the market-centered doctrine of neoliberalism. Far more than a mere economic theory, neoliberalism and its adherents transformed American law—yielding not fewer laws, but more complex laws and regulations that benefit the wealthy. From neoliberalism’s role as a tool of ideological warfare against racial justice movements in the 1960s to its institutional takeover in the 1980s to the crypto meltdowns of the 2020s, Baradaran’s essential chronicle shows that the neoliberal era—and legalized mass looting—is only accelerating.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Economics, History, American History, United States, American

464 pages, Hardcover

Published May 7, 2024

About the author

Mehrsa Baradaran is Professor of Law at UC Irvine Law and a celebrated authority on banking law. In addition to the prizewinning The Color of Money, she is author of How the Other Half Banks: Exclusion, Exploitation, and the Threat to Democracy. She has advised US senators and representatives on policy and spoken at national and international forums including the World Bank.

Reviews

[Mehrsa · Rating 5 out of 5]

To quote DJ Khaled: Another One!

[Thomas Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Quiet Coup: Neoliberalism and the Looting of America, Mehrsa Baradaran, 2024, 420 pages, Dewey 420.510973, ISBN 9781324091165

Neoliberalism is the successful worldwide effort, 1960s-present, to use the power of government to further enrich and empower concentrated wealth.

Money now has more rights than voters, and corporations more rights than governments. p. 359.

Baradaran tracks the neoliberal project from its beginnings in 1947 with Friedrich Hayek's Mont Pelerin Society through its takeover of governments with Thatcher and Reagan, to 2024.

A financial system that produces only zero-sum thinking can lead only to scarcity for most and obscene abundance for some--this is the road to serfdom. p. 342.

Unless democratic institutions intervene, it will soon be a lords-and-serfs world. p. 275.

It's never been more difficult for a child born to a poor family to change her fate. p. 349.

Neoliberalism is a cancer of corruption. p. xxxv.

Neoliberalism was always a naked power play, whose goal was and is to keep the rich rich, at the expense of the rest. The urgency in 1947 was the breakup of colonial empires. Neoliberalism restored the empires using finance and corporations to extract the world's wealth to enrich a small elite. pp. 361-362.

This is a stunning book. Baradaran connects rarely-identified dots to show where we're going and why we're in this handbasket. As a law professor who has worked as a corporate finance lawyer, she brings the perspective of law, courts, government, banking and finance, as well as economics.

She makes clear that the problem is not any particular person or group of people, but the system, the ideas, attitudes, mores, expectations. The laws. p. 289.

Neoliberalism has destroyed many of the fairness gains of the 1933-1980 period, has kept the global South destitute, and is hollowing out the middle class of the global North. pp. 272, 347. The ruin of Germany's middle class in the 1920s sowed the ground for fascism. pp. 352, 354-359. The fascists are coming. They win when the sense of injustice is pervasive. p. 358. Chaos delivers power to the most violent. p. 359.

There was never such a thing as a free market. It was a decoy meant to persuade the rest of us to give up our power. pp. 240, 273.

The top 1%'s wealth increased $21 trillion, 2014-2024, while the bottom 50% lost $900 billion. pp. xxiii, 329, 349-350. Not counting tens of trillions in offshore tax havens. p. 350.

Money doesn't trickle down. It has to be pulled down. p. 349.

To reach Jeff Bezos's $172 billion wealth, an average worker would have needed to begin working 4.5 million years ago. p. 275.

The billionaire donors who funded the right-wing think tanks were heirs and scions of capitalist forebears: rich parasites. p. 89. All these think tanks agree that money is good for rich people and bad for poor people. p. 93.

LAW

Laws were designed to delegitimize democracy and the law. To protect the privileged few against society's demands. To weaken federal power so that those who had amassed the most wealth could protect it from the claims of those on whose backs it was made. p. 231. The right's think tanks helped enfeeble and corrupt our government. p. 236. To enable worldwide dominion by the powerful, to the cost of everyone and everything else. p. 245, 352.

Regulatory capture became real only when the people warning against it came to power. p. 238. Deregulation engenders monopoly. p. 241.

In the Lochner era, 1897-1937, the U.S. Supreme Court mandated absolute contractual liberty and property rights--nullifying laws that balanced other rights and freedoms. Contracts were presumed as if between small merchants with equal bargaining power. In the real world, wealth and power inequality can be extreme. Laws forbid the worker from taking food and shelter to survive or factory equipment to produce their own goods: it is the law of property that coerces people to work for factory owners. Such contracts can be deemed coercive, FDR through LBJ appointees said (1937-1971). pp. 102-103.

Nixon's appointment of Lewis Powell tilted the Supreme Court to serve the interests of wealth (1972 to present). It struck down campaign-spending limits: we now have the best congressional representatives and presidents money can buy. pp. 108-114.

Nixon's four horsemen--Warren Burger, Harry Blackmun, William Rehnquist, and Lewis Powell--quietly re-enabled racial discrimination. Nixon's "strict constructionists" blinded the Court to the difference between rich and poor, corporation and human, justice and law. The Court amplified inequalities. p. 127. [See /Justice on the Brink/ by Linda Greenhouse for the 2005-2021 Court's imposition of Catholic plutocracy. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ]


Baradaran would be a terrific Supreme Court justice.


More on neoliberalism:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...



[Remember though that the use of government to take from the many and give to the rich few is old. John Jay (1745-1829), first Supreme Court chief justice of the U.S., opined, "Those who own the country ought to govern it."

Monarchy was always about plundering the peasantry.

We had a brief, shining 40 years, 1942-1981, when the top 0.01% averaged "only" 165 times average U.S. income. It's hundreds of times now, as it was in the early 1900s. https://wid.world , https://inequality.org/facts/wealth-i... ]

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

While a bit uneven, Baradaran's tome provides an excellent history of the rise of neoliberalism and its impacts globally. Neoliberalism exists as one of those terms that means lots of things to different people and Baradaran decided to embrace its ambiguity. Presented essentially as an ideology, she traces it origins (correctly I believe) to the Mont Pelerian Society (MPS) which emerged post WWII and which also coined the term in the first place. While founded by Hayek, most early members were economists associated with the Chicago school (e.g., Friedman, Stigler) and a variety of political philosophers and pundits. Baradaran presents them as basically reactionaries fundamentally opposed to the direction the world was moving. Not just the expansion of welfare states or 'mixed' economies post WWII, but the decolonization movement in Asia, Africa and beyond.

The rise of the MPS and the generous funding by conservative backers Baradaran details nicely, but the real punch of the book surrounds how this fringe group managed to promote its ideas (e.g., its ideology) into the realm of governance and law, particularly in the USA. I found the best part of the book (perhaps not surprisingly given Baradaran's background in law) to be the critical examination of the 'Law and Economics' movement in the legal realm to the point where it basically displaced other conceptions of justice legally. Baradaran utilizes detailed court rulings to illustrate the shift; did you know that most of the USA supreme court embraces the law and economics philosophy? Where the 'greater good' is defined in terms of cost-benefit analyses?

Neoliberalism, at least as championed by Friedman, adheres to the core idea that Markets are Magic, and any social ill can be combated by 'free markets'. This, coupled with Fama's idea of Efficient Markets (e.g., the Efficient Market Hypothesis) eventually lead to Reagan, than Clinton, shifting the goal posts for the federal government. The end result: raw capitalism for the poor and handouts to the rich and corporations. This is a gross simplification of course, but the results are clear. Tireless lobbying and such, along with neoliberal ideology, transformed our rather sedate banking system circa 1970s into the TBTF giant rent seeking institutions of today, backed up with bailouts; privatized profits and socialized risks.

Baradaran names some names of course, but really provides a structural analysis here, encompassing the legal system, politics and of course economics. I had a few quibbles with her presentation of economics. For example, she argues the basic 'free markets yield optimal outcomes' is dead and discredited, but pick up any intro microeconomics book and you still find the mantra. The profession of economics is still dominated by neoclassical theory, even if some cracks are starting to show. Economic pundits like Larry Summers still possess influence (how? beats me for sure) and they still postulate a free market utopia. I was also a bit let down by the end of the text. After brilliantly charting the long and sordid rise of neoliberal ideology and its disasterous impacts upon the American population, the book ends with just a few bromamides on how we need to invest in the marginalized in society. Still, if you have an interest in how both political parties and our legal system became dominated by neoliberal ideology, this is a great place to start. 4 disheartening stars.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mehrsa Baradaran is a generational talent

[Brandon Westlake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mehrsa Baradaran does not hold back on the impact that neoliberalism has had on American citizens. "Looting" seemed a strong word when I read the title for the first time, but that is exactly her argument. This neoliberal philosophy was not something that elite policymakers and influential people developed on a whim, nor was it grounded in deep philosophical underpinnings. Instead, it was a way in which they were able to grab more of the economic/financial pie and leave others in their wake. It was deliberate, but also sold to the masses in the biggest con in American political history.

She provides what I think is the best description of neoliberalism that I have read lately; furthermore, it is accessible to readers who may not have as great of background in all of the political philosophy that others assume. She does a great job of writing for a larger audience.

Her book takes us from its conception in the Nixon era (with Alan Greenspan having a key role) through the 2008 financial crisis and Trump's presidency. She disagrees that Trump should be seen as the anti-neoliberal; instead, he is another form of it. He represents its pure and unvarnished form in all of its racial antagonisms and economic goals. She admits at the end that it will require innovation and risk-taking to break out of the neoliberal chokehold we have put ourselves in, but that it will be worth it. She seems to have some ideas up her sleeves for the future.

I wasn't quite sure who she was writing for, initially. It seemed that she was keeping her ideas in her own ideological bubble. Maybe there'd be some conservatives who don't understand who pick it up who think it's another Biden basher, but they'd put it down rather quickly when they realize it's not. Other people might begin reading and think "interesting, but tell me something I ultimately don't know." It became clear that this book was to set up something bigger, an alternative, and I am interested to see where she takes all of this next. If a few people can have a big enough impact to begin this idea and help it become ingrained into America, maybe it only needs to take a small amount to start its dismantling.

[Sanjida · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book finally and exhaustively explained to me exactly what is, or rather should be meant, by "neoliberalism". Both illuminating and depressing, like taking the red pill in the Matrix. Neoliberalism is pervasive - it haunts our cultural preoccupation with "efficiency" and "cost benefit" in so many areas of our life (what the book describes as financialization).

3 1/2 stars because the text itself is quite dry and repetitive and would have benefited from more aggressive editing.

[JRT · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The neoliberals were no Machiavellian architects of the future; the truth was far less inspiring, their ferocity and diligence in plotting a long-term and ultimately successful defense against democratic power was most likely fueled by the urgency of certain loss.”

The “Quiet Coup” is a striking historical and sociological account of the rise and entrenchment of the “neoliberal” sociopolitical and economic order. Author, historian, and legal academic Mehrsa Baradaran expertly details how free market fundamentalists leveraged America’s white supremacist, anti-Black foundation to hijack and nosedive the country’s New Deal social democracy in favor of hyper privatization and extreme “free market”-driven economics. As Baradaran describes, Neoliberalism is a sociopolitical and economic ideology, more than it is an economic discipline. It was borne not out of the scientific method, but out of the need to justify and facilitate the maintenance of racial hierarchy and white preeminence in an era of new threats to that social order. In short, neoliberalism is counterrevolutionary. As the book details, it was the creation of a conglomeration of conservative forces—beginning with Nixon’s economic advisors seeking to co-opt “Black Power” and the Civil Rights into a shallow “Black capitalism” framework.

“Quiet Coup” does a great job detailing the many angles from which neoliberalism sprang, not just domestically but globally. The global neoliberal order arose out of the same counterrevolutionary impulses as the domestic one. It came about as the debate raged on how government should respond to the demands from formerly colonized peoples and their allies to allocate resources to address their systemic plight. The white capitalist order—with its obvious interest in maintaining its standing—developed and found in neoliberalism an ideology that allowed them to obscure their grotesque and explicit bigotry behind convoluted (and fallacious) economic and legal theories, ultimately allowing them to maintain the constructed global racial and colonial hierarchy.

The Quiet Coup truly excels in its descriptions of how neoliberalism has evolved over time, changing law, policy, and social mores to such an extent that society itself has been remade in its image. To be frank, this book and topic is a must read for anyone who wants to understand how our world works and who the real power players are.

[counter-hegemonicon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very rigorous and exhaustive but loses the narrative arc a bit. The prescriptions seem a bit too social-democratic/reform the system for my liking but it's a thorough explanation of how we got to this point. I needed some Graeberesque illumination of "and here's what it's done to life--PE bought XYZ and now Simon Schuster spends half it's money on celebrity slop." Something cathartic like that to give the reader some life and oxygen

[Arion Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve read Mehrsa’s other books and knew this wouldn’t disappoint. In most intellectual debates, resorting to name calling usually invalidates or reduces the opposing view as not a part of the “meritocracy of intelligence” or “not understanding how things work.” But I think she captured the essence of her work succinctly by summarizing her chosen umbrella descriptor of neoliberalism as a bullshit term that means nothing but can explain everything. There’s a great deal of scholarship here that left me wondering, where was/is Louis Powell’s contemporary eloquently advocating for the long game of the opposing view. The path to neoliberalism’s supremacy felt very conspiratorial in its execution, surgical even. Hard to imagine that for the better part of 50-60 years, even with the evidence of the savings and loan crisis, LTCM implosion, and the great financial crisis, no one is willing to admit that maybe markets aren’t really free to select winners and losers like we all believe. The “freeness” of markets skew towards the powerful.

It’s also an interesting time to be alive during the 2024 Presidential race. I highly recommend this book to understand a perspective of what being great again can mean vs a path that espouses individual liberties. The concluding chapter of this book felt like a cannon call.

[Brady Moore]

“Neoliberals believed in capitalism as the one and only truth. . . For neoliberals, capitalism was not just a means of shoring up morality, society, and democracy; it was an end unto itself, superseding, if need be, morality, society, and democracy. And the site of this revolution was, again, the law. Allied with the religious right, neoliberals stripped the law of its pursuit of justice and equity, subjugating it to the needs of the market. Neoliberal theory, in short, has resulted in the triumph of market ethics over social ethics.”

[Reading · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 - Wide ranging, authoritative, and packed with salient details that provide relevant context and explanations of key factors in why/how we arrived at... Trump. Essentially, for me the theme is, "Even based on its own terms, neoliberalism has been an utter failure."

This book was challenging at times, but in a good way, though I wonder if the manner in which it was structured/edited could have been changed to timeline vs thematic to alleviate this issue for me; perhaps it would have been more engaging and cohesive. Of course I could be wrong, and based on the notes in the acknowledgements section I'm guessing this was tried.

The thing is, despite it being a dense and scholarly read at times, I ultimately am very glad that I read and upon completion wanted to read it again to better appreciate and retain all of the information. it's the sort of book that will be handy to have on my bookshelf and reference whenever any of the myriad topics come up in conversation, on the media, etc. I'll never remember all of the salient Supreme Court decisions though after completing this I have a far superior handle on the progression and erosion on the rights of the individual vs corporations.

The section on changes facilitated through the legal system was especially fascinating though the most challenging for me. I wanted to keep all of the cases straight and was trying to find a way to memorize/retain the names and history but alas... it's a lot. I also especially appreciated the 'Conclusion' section in which the author calls out the ridiculous and tragic connection between all too many Americans personal investments, and the very entities that are destroying their world.

This sentiment is beautifully summarized when the author writes "a perfect example of the self-cannibalizing machine that neoliberalism has built. The opacity of the financially market has made us interrupting accomplishes to the looting of our own society." I tend to not be as forgiving and think most people understand the connection, or easily could, and choose to turn a blind eye and reap the financial rewards while conveniently not dealing with externalities. Aren't cognitive dissonance and rationalization wonderful?!

I think that despite this being a dense read at times it's still accessible, and especially relevant to individuals who may not be familiar with this history. Additionally, given the present repercussions of the policies detailed in this book on our fragile democracy, this is a MUST read.

PS. The podcast The Master Plan does a fantastic job of covering much of the subject matter.
https://pca.st/podcast/4ad0e370-87da-...

Favorite quotes:
"Americans are beholden to a dead Constitution, one that is continually being mobilized against its own intended aims."

"If tyranny overtakes us, it will likely triumph under a flag proclaiming freedom."

"In fact, it is more accurate to say on the question of policy that neoliberal dogma, hiding behind a mask of market freedom, forced the law to surrender its policy-making power."

"...first, discredit democratic governance as rife with corruption and inefficiency; and second, secure the powerful levers of policy inside agencies impervious to public input and porous only to the revolving door of special interests. Democratic power wasn't lost in a smoke-filled room, but rather under the auspices of technical expertise."

"The neoliberals promised freedom through free markets but delivered neither. There was never such a thing as the free market-it was a decoy meant to persuade the rest of us to give up our power."

"The premise and promise of liberal free markets were increased market competition, more opportunity for all, fewer taxes going to wasteful gov- ernment spending, and more liberty to pursue our own dreams. In fact, the government is larger, small businesses have been decimated, and it's never been more difficult for a child born to a poor family to change her fate. A few companies write the rules in each market, our politics is a maze of complexity, big firms offshored jobs and taxes, generations of college graduates are buried in debt while a college degree became a necessary but not sufficient requirement for a middle-class salary. The generational asset divide grows with boomers dominating the politi- cal branches and the housing market, while millennials can't afford to buy homes in the cities and towns where they work. As the population of homeless grows, luxury condos and office buildings sit empty in big cities. What kind of market can't build houses for everyone who wants to buy one?"

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unfathomably good. Words can't do it justice enough, so I'll go with that.

In The Quiet Coup, Mehrsa Baradaran details how neoliberalism evolved riding twin horses of both revisionist economic doctrine and legal theory. Whereas in The Shock Doctrine, in which Naomi Klein unveiled a pairing of economics and statecraft, this book focuses largely within the United States. More specifically, it focuses on the pairing of economics and law. She details how neoliberalism started in the U.S. and follows the trail of its wealthy proponents and fringe economists capturing the entirety of our system for their own ends. This is a fundamental book if you want to understand how we've gotten in this situation today; this situation where the ultra-wealthy have forced us to live in an inferior possibility of a world solely so we can fund their extravagance.

I'm not sure if there's anyone out there better than Baradaran at discussing the intersection of economics, law, and history. Her research is impeccable. This book is easily in the same tier of research with authors like Klein, Jane Mayer, and Naomi Oreskes. Baradaran writes with a sense of urgency, justice, and clarity. Her telling of this history in particular is nothing short of extraordinary and is profoundly eye-opening. I read one of her previous books - The Color of Money, which was fantastic. This book is even better and I can't recommend it enough.

[Katya Danziger · Rating 4 out of 5]

The markets are not separate from politics and peace has as much to do with interest rates as with government! My thanks to the author for her innovative and truthful take on the looting of the American economy.

[Eileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, challenging read. Lots to think about.

The end game for democracy and capitalism, in my mind, are becoming more and more incompatible. This is a feeling I have had for the last few years. This book gives the background, reasons and a possible (somewhat idealistic) solution for this situation. Neoliberalism is a confusing concept.
From the book:
“The dilemma for Western nations after the age of formal empire was ideological and material. They could not maintain economic dominance if former colonies became sovereign democratic nations, and they couldn’t use brute force to maintain that dominance without abandoning their democratic principles, It was this challenge, not Keynesianism or communism, whose ideal solution was neoliberalism.”

Recently, I listened to a report about a loan program for wrongfully convicted people who were exonerated of their crime, spent decades in prison and come out with no financial resources. They are entitled to a settlement from the state, but there is often a time lapse before they receive the money. Solution? The private market will give them an advance on their settlement funds, often at very high interest rates. There is no-one else willing to take the risk. This is the neoliberal way. As a society, we should be horrified by this and do better, but in the neoliberal world, the "free market" rules. That is until it doesn't - remember 2008?

Great take-down of the tech industry. WeWork's Adam Neumann tried to trademark the word "we" and said he was a community building expert since he was raised on a kibbutz. Of course, the company failed. "What accounts for the gap between office space and community? Surely not just good marketing. Nothing in the business changed, but the market stopped believing in community and saw the company for what it was: nice office rentals"

Twitter discussion over "population collapse". Elon Musk's term for lower birth rates. One tech guy's solution was synthetic wombs. There was agreement and the sharing of articles about this possibility. As the author states instead of thinking of ideas to close the pay gap for women (motherhood penalty), the idea is more technology and "aspire to create a world of efficient baby making without women." Not sure whether to laugh or cry over this one. Yes, I am crying.

[Ben Riley · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Quiet Coup: Neoliberalism and the Looting of America by Mehrsa Baradaran is a comprehensive and compelling examination of how wealth has been transferred from the middle class to the upper class through decades of neoliberal policies. Baradaran masterfully unpacks complex economic and legal issues, illustrating how policies designed to benefit the elite have widened the gap between the rich and the rest of society.

While the book is packed with information and can get bogged down at times, it’s an essential read for anyone wanting to understand the economic forces at play in the USA today. Baradaran emphasizes the importance of understanding these forces, and how Americans, through democratic channels, can refine or change the system to create wealth for the many rather than the few. Highly recommended!

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

By changing laws, financial entities gave cornered the “free” market. While the wealthy market this concept of less rules, there are actually more laws than ever, designed to allow free reign for hedge funds, venture capitalists, and banks to use essentially whatever weird instrument to magically make them money. Meanwhile, if you are an outsider, good luck trying to gather wealth! You will be hit with all the laws of “gotcha ” capitalism.

The author ends with optimism, and writes if we all just pull together and use our common humanity, things will get better. I really doubt this.

[Aimee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remain a huge Mehrsa fan. I was worried at first this would be just another book on neoliberalism, but it felt fresh and I learned a lot about about the legal context/culture around policy decisions. Those guys are absolute freaks.

The conclusion felt like a sharp turn though? It felt like it was the beginning of an entirely different book. I needed more time to be brought up to speed on her vision for curing the ills of the economy through the market or whatever. Don't get me wrong, I am completely ready to give her my 401k, I just can't articulate why yet...

[Paul Womack · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much new information and concepts to grasp. But, an important volume in my library now, raising both practical questions about economic practice and the ethical/moral values they express or do not as the case is.

[Drew McBride · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic. Professor Baradaran does such a great job detailing how the problems of neoliberalism have compounded. Probably 4.5 in my eyes — I felt it lagged just a bit before going into the 2008 crash — but rounding up because I found her writing style so clear and enjoyable.

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a somber (and even depressing) account of the changes from the legal perspective of the last several decades. I used to observe from the angle of economics and this book is an eye opener.

I was never a fan of Larry Summers, and he looks even worse in my mind after I read the book.

[Mark Rimelspach · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much great information packed into this book. My most important take away is how divided the wealth distribution is here in the United States and the explanations on why this continues to happen. The historical connections from Colonialism to the battle for racial equality to the adoption of Neoliberalism and all the complexities of how people have fought to retain their wealth and not share it was so well explained. By the title and subject matter you would not guess that this was a book I could not put down until I finished it.

[Zachary]

I can't be the only one who wants to see Mehrsa Baradaran run for higher office (or to actually become the nation's top bank regulator).
Pretty good. I especially appreciated the chapters on empire and legal movements — some of the rest did feel like a lit review of a bunch of books I've already read, though, and other portions did suffer from a lack of detail e.g. listing neoliberal policy, rather than diving into the bills and describing what made them neoliberal. Still good! Learned a bit about law!
Keep it coming, greatest Goodreads reviewer of all time!

[Julianne W · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely helpful reading to understand why we are where are we are, both in the US, but also globally. Incredible piece of writing and level of research, but still highly readable. Absolutely recommend.

[Henry B. Hunter III · Rating 1 out of 5]

Interesting premise but the rambling, repetitive and boring narrative was more like a personal rant than an academic analysis. Save yourself a lot of aggravation by skipping this book.

[Nick Draeger]

A bit of a mixed bag for me - certainly there's plenty packed in here that I found myself agreeing with: (e.g. the selective use of "originalism" to arrive at predetermined results in deciding cases, the ultimate failure of the Obama administration to seize the 2008 financial crash as a moment to reorient the economic system). But overall, I found this book tried to do a little too much, as it set out to piece together essentially a "one grand theory" narrative to explain the current state of U.S. (and at times, global) politics and socioeconomics. The argument, as I read it, is essentially that "neoliberalism" was an overarching framework (taking several different shapes) that was designed and implemented (except, at the same time, not really? More below on that...) to reorient the political and legal systems away from pursuing aims like fairness, justice, and equality, and toward the entrenchment of the status quo and enrichment of the selective few.

Yet, according to the author, there was also "no conspiracy or coordinated group of bad guys", which strikes me as a strange assertion given the detail paid to the fact that there very much were organized groups and networks of well-funded organizations very deliberately trying to reshape the political system and the courts (for instance, the portions of the book linking Law and Economics movements and the Federalist Society to wealthy, reactionary donors). At the same time, the argument also seems to overlook the roots of neoliberalism located within the (dare I say better intentioned?) left/liberal leaning bureaucrats who saw neoliberal solutions as a more "efficient" form of government action (thinking here of books like The Economist's Hour by Binyamin Appelbaum and "Thinking Like an Economist" by Elizabeth Popp Berman). Perhaps this stems from the vague nature of the term "neoliberalism" itself, as Baradaran notes in the very beginning of the book, but certainly these neoliberals, who advocated for market-oriented solutions rather than direct government spending programs and cost-benefit analysis laid much of the groundwork for the dismantling of government spending and social safety net programs.

I sympathize strongly with the author's note about doing far too much research and having to cut much from the book, but it did feel as though often times the book set out to cover too much territory and made many assertions that could have been explored further (for instance, the statement that theory of the tragedy of the commons had been debunked - perhaps? But how so?).

Particularly, I found the ending of the book to be a letdown - though probably because I just disagree with the prescriptions. I did not expect to read a conclusion offering a grand, simple solution to the many issues Baradaran highlights, but I found the assertion that "we do not need to create new programs and policies or laws and regulations", disheartening despite the fact that "historically, the federal government was best suited to dedicate the resources required to make long-term investments in people and technologies". Instead, the author proposes "investment vehicles that could invest in people and communities using simple structures and complete transparency". In essence, the argument seems to be that the political system is too far gone at this point (though given the history of the gilded age to the roaring twenties to the New Deal, I'm not as convinced, but maybe I just haven't reached total despondency yet), so our best hope is just taking our dollars out of current investments and redirecting them toward more noble aims (notwithstanding the fact, as the book acknowledges, that the vast majority of wealth is held by the very few, so unclear how this proposed solution would have a meaningful impact), which has shades of the proposals for "green capitalism" as a solution for climate change, rather than public action through governing.

Minor editing note: on Pg 132: the Dred Scott decision was in 1857, not 1957.

[Arash Farzaneh · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you find economics and legal theories confusing and are even more confused with the current political climate, I recommend Mehrsa’s excellent and insightful book to make a bit of sense of it! By looking at the historical, economic, and political dimensions and considerations, it becomes easier to understand what is and has been going on behind the scenes.

First off, as Mehrsa points out, neoliberalism is not what it makes itself out to be and does not follow upon its own rules and promises; instead of less government intervention, we get more as well as more laws and regulations that benefit only a select few; instead of less government subsidies, they are rather directed towards a few at the top instead of the people as a whole.

Finally, although it touts itself as capitalistic in nature and ideology, it is not exactly following upon the principles set out by Adam Smith’s groundbreaking work. Issues get more complex and complicated regarding the interpretation of the law and constitution and growing instances of corruption and lobbying. Changes to the banking system and a wider and more expansive array of commodification for financial gain and benefits has been an equally alarming and troubling trend in today’s social and political world.

There is a lot to unpack and process here (and I will try to go into more detail in an upcoming blogpost at "Arash's World";) as it is filled with information, details, and insights, but despite the complexity of the issues and situations, the writing is crisp and clear, to the point, and easy to follow. In fact, you will gain not only more knowledge but will also increase your understanding of what has been going on as well as what is currently at stake beyond cultural wars and left-versus-right divisions and polarizations.

[Marion · Rating 5 out of 5]

The “freedom” of markets skews towards the powerful. We've known this for a long time. Oxfam has told us so. But how did we get here? And what can we do to change the trajectory of our civilization? The Quiet Coup: Neoliberalism and the Looting of America focuses on the US but touches on the wider world. Baradaran describes the many decades long push of flimsy economic theories, custom-made laws and regulations that have locked us into our present situation: Unfathomable disparity, lack of trust and a democracy in peril.

A great many economists and judges have had a hand in in our societal descent; some unwittingly, many not, while even very well-meaning politicians were caught in this web of economic "blue mist", (a Swedish expression, "blå dunster", that I cannot think of a proper English equivalent of right now). If we want to implement democracy, something that we have not - really - done fully, we need to see what has gone wrong.

Towards the end of the book Mehrsa Baradaran mentions how she struggled mightily not to turn the writing into a "me-search". I would love to read the book she edited out of the Quiet Coup.

I cannot recommend the The Quiet Coup highly enough, - along with Baradarans previous books. The author is a clear-eyed, deeply studied, serious scholar that we ignore at our peril.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author clearly describes what went wrong with our country. How deregulation has led to the, eliminate of usury laws, class action suits, and political donation caps for corporations (to name a few) This has created an uneven playing field where the ultra rich are essentially buying the laws that favor their fortunes at the cost of the middle and lower classes. Corporate lawyers systematically use legal loopholes and fight to prevent laws that have a negative effect on their ultra rich clients. These concepts are clearly presented in numerous, heart breaking, examples in the book where the middle class is gutted, pensions have disappeared and there are several monopolies that have a strangle hold on the country. The author writes, a handful of private tech companies control our culture. a few banks control our money and a few large donors control our politics. This book serves as a wake-up call for reform. We are currently marching toward fascism but it is not too late to stop it. It is time to make the playing field level. Many people have tried to stop this progression, hopefully this book will inspire many more. As Bob Dylan sang "Money doesn't talk it swears" Thank you Ms. Baradaran for writing a book that truly needs to be read by everyone.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was drawn to The Quiet Coup because I’ve enjoyed reading Mehrsa Baradaran’s Goodreads reviews, and she didn’t disappoint in terms of bringing her voice to this topic. In the book, Baradaran dives into how neoliberalism has seeped into American law and politics, creating a system that increasingly serves corporate interests over the public. Her historical breakdown of neoliberal thought and how it became embedded in policies is well done—she really illustrates how this ideology has reshaped everything from regulation to taxation in ways that sideline democracy.

Where the book is more opaque, though, is in its economic arguments. At times, it feels like she’s pinning all the issues with modern capitalism on “neoliberalism” without fully distinguishing whether the problem is the ideology itself or the corrupted version that’s evolved over time. This lack of clarity makes the economic critique feel a bit broad, and ultimately, the book’s prescription is limited, almost more of a hope for a renewed focus on justice than a concrete plan. Still, The Quiet Coup raises essential questions about the future of our economy and democracy and was a timely read a couple of days before the 2024 election.

[Conrad · Rating 5 out of 5]

“There is no conspiracy or coordinated group of bad guys. The blame lies, rather, at the heart of the neoliberal project: that we are better off trusting the market than one another. Law and Economics convinced judges and regulators that the rational market was a better allocator of rights than the unpredictable judgments of human beings. Meanwhile, neoliberal financialization turned the market into a yield-extracting algorithm - the big dumb machine.”

I’m reflexively skeptical of any book that is written blaming the ilks of society on the ill-defined bogeyman of “neoliberalism”. But Baradaran immediately establishes credibility by defining the contours of neoliberalism she seeks to critique and then systematically outlining the ways in which our legal and political system have been coopted by the perverse logic of the supremacy of the market. If political and economic systems are supposed to reflect a moral logic about what we “value” as a society, what does it even mean when we subjugate all moral judgments to market efficiency? The best book I’ve read on the abject failures of the neoliberal project.