The Big Lie: How Our Government Hoodwinked the Public, Emptied the S.S. Trust Fund, and Caused the Great Economic Collapse - Tapa dura

The collapse was not a natural disaster. It was manmade, and it should never have been allowed to happen. Reckless deficit spending by the federal government caused the national debt to skyrocket from only $1 trillion in 1981 to more than $11 trillion in 2009. During that same period, the government has "borrowed," "embezzled," or "stolen" every dollar of the approximately $2.4 trillion of Social Security surplus revenue that was supposed to have been saved and invested to fund the retirement of the baby-boomer generation. Another factor that contributed to the collapse was the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, a primary pillar of FDR's New Deal legislation that was designed to prevent a repeat of the 1930s financial collapse. When President Clinton signed into law the bill that repealed the Glass-Steagall Act, on November 12, 1999, he opened the floodgates for mass mergers of companies in the financial industries. This action contributed to the massive mismanagement on Wall Street that ultimately led to the meltdown. Smith chronicles the events during the past 28 years that collectively made the collapse almost inevitable.

Allen W. Smith has devoted much of his adult life to battling economic illiteracy and promoting economic education. He taught economics to college students for 30 years before retiring as Professor of Economics at Eastern Illinois University in 1998 to become a full-time writer. Over the years, Smith has written numerous books in his effort to help readers understand economics and government economic policy. "Understanding Inflation and Unemployment," Smith's first book, became an alternate selection of Fortune Book Club when it was published in 1976. "Understanding Economics," published by Random House in 1986, was used in more than 600 schools in 48 states. For more than a decade, Smith has been trying to alert the public to the fact that government economic malpractice would almost certainly lead us to a major crisis, if we didn't change course. His book, "The Alleged Budget Surplus, Social security, and Voodoo Economics," was published in September 2000, during the heated presidential election campaign. The message of that book was that the proposed economic policies of either George W. Bush or Al Gore would lead to economic disaster if implemented. Dr. Smith, Professor of Economics Emeritus, Eastern Illinois University, has appeared on CNN, CNNfn, CNBC, and more than 170 radio talk shows. He holds a B.S. in Education degree from Ball State University and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in economcs from Indiana University