Introduction. The good fight -- 1. Saving Social Security -- Essay: After the Khaki election. Social security scares. Inventing a crisis. Buying a failure. Social security concerns. Privatization memories. Where government excels -- 2. The road to Obamacare --. Essay: Developing a positive agenda. Ailing health care. Health care confidential. Health care terror. The waiting game. Health care hopes. Fear strikes out. Obamacare fails to fail. Imaginary health care horrors --. -3. The attack on Obamacare --. Essay: The cruelty caucus. Three legs good, no legs bad. Obamacare's very stable genius. Get sick, go bankrupt, and die. How democrats can deliver on health care -- 4. Bubble and bust -- Essay: The sum of all fears. Running out of bubbles. That hissing sound. Innovating our way to financial crisis. The Madoff economy. The ignoramus strategy. Nobody understands debt -- 5. Crisis management -- Essay: The triumph of macroeconomics. Essay: The triumph of macroeconomics. The depression economics return. IS-LMentary. Stimulus arithmetic (Wonkish but important). The Obama gap. The stimulus tragedy -- 6. The crisis in economics --. Essay: The cost of bad ideas. The mythical seventies. That Eighties show. How did economics get it so wrong?. How did economics get it so wrong?. Bad faith, pathos, and G.O.P. economics. What's wrong with functional finance? (Wonkish) -- 7. Austerity --. Essay: Very serious people. Myths of austerity. The excel depression. Jobs and skills and zombies. Structural humbug --. -8. The euro -- Essay: A bridge too far. The Spanish prisoner. Crash of the bumblebee. Europe's impossible dream. What's the matter with Europe? -- 9. Fiscal phonies --. Essay: The gullibility of the deficit scolds. The flimflam man. The hijacked commission. What's in the Ryan plan?. Melting snowballs and the winter of debt. Democrats, debt, and double standards. On paying for a progressive agenda -- 10. Tax cuts --. Essay: The ultimate zombie. The Twinkie manifesto. The biggest tax scam in history. The Trump tax scam, Phase 2. Why was Trump's tax cut a fizzle?. The Trump tax cut: Even worse than you've heard. The economics of soaking the rich. Elizabeth Warren does Teddy Roosevelt -- 11. Trade wars --. Essay: Globaloney and the backlash. Oh, what a Trumpy trade war!. A trade war primer. Making tariffs corrupt again --. -12. Inequality --. Essay: The skewing of America. The rich, the right, and the facts. Graduates versus oligarchs. Money and morals. Don't blame robots for low wages. What's the matter with Trumpland? -- 13. Conservatives -- Essay: Movement conservatism. Same old party. Eric Cantor and the death of a movement. The great center-right delusion. The empty quarters of U.S. politics --14. Eek! Socialism! -- Essay: Red-baiting in the 21st century. Capitalism, Socialism and unfreedom. Something not rotten in Denmark. Trump versus the Socialist menace -- 15. Climate --. Essay: The most important thing. Donald and the deadly deniers. The depravity of climate-change denial. Climate denial was the crucible for Trumpism. Hope for a green new year -- 16. Trump -- Essay: Why not the worst?. The paranoid style in G.O.P. politics. Trump and the aristocracy of fraud. Stop calling Trump a populist. Partisanship, parasites, and polarization. Why it can happen here. Who's afraid of Nancy Pelosi?. Truth and virtue in the Age of Trump. Conservatism's monstrous endgame. Manhood, Moola, McConnell, and Trumpism -- 17. On the media - Essay: Beyond fake news. Bait-and-switch. Triumph of the trivial. Is there any point to economic analysis?. The year of living stupidly. Hillary Clinton gets Gored -- 18. Economic thoughts -- Essay: The dismal science. How I work. The instability of moderation. Transaction costs and tethers: Why I'm a crypto skeptic.