Kevin Phillips went from designing the infamous Nixon "Southern Strategy" to becoming one of the foremost analysts and critics of capitalism run amuck. It is one of the most fascinating transformations of a political appartchik in recent decades. And his writing is well-researched, cogent and sweeping in its overview.

In his latest book, Phillips pulls the fire alarm on an American economy that both political parties have turned over to the finanical industry -- including hedge funds -- and sacrificed to globalized trade and debt.

In short, Kevin Phillips debunks the notion of American economic dominance and reveals that we're living a charade, being sold siren songs of super power prowess that's built on trillions of dollars in debt.

The truth is that the American economy is now mortgaged to foreign nations.

And the Wall Street financial industry has no patriotic interest in America. They just go where the money is.

BuzzFlash has interviewed Phillips on a couple of occasions and we admire him because he became a transformed man by following the facts where they led him.

From the Publisher, Penguin Books:

The bestselling author reveals how the U.S. financial sector has hijacked our economy and put America's global future at risk

In American Theocracy, Kevin Phillips warned us of the perilous interaction of debt, financial recklessness, and the increasing cost of scarce oil. The current housing and mortgage debacle is proof once more of Phillips's prescience, and only the first harbinger of a national crisis. In Bad Money, Phillips describes the consequences of our misguided economic policies, our mounting debt, our collapsing housing market, our threatened oil, and the end of American domination of world markets. America's current challenges (and failures) run striking parallels to the decline of previous leading world economic powers-especially the Dutch and British. Global overreach, worn-out politics, excessive debt, and exhausted energy regimes are all chilling signals that the United States is crumbling as the world superpower.

"Bad money" refers to a new phenomenon in wayward megafinance-the emergence of a U.S. economy that is globally dependent and dominated by hubris-driven financial services. Also "bad" are the risk miscalculations and strategic abuses of new multitrillion-dollar products such as asset-backed securities and the lure of buccaneering vehicles like hedge funds. Finally, the U.S. dollar has been turned into bad money as it has weakened and become vulnerable to the world's other currencies. In all these ways, "bad" finance has failed the American people and pointed U.S. capitalism toward a global crisis. Bad Money is the perfect follow- up to Phillips's last book, whose dire warnings are now proving frighteningly accurate.

About the author:

Kevin Phillips has been a political and economic commentator for more than three decades. A former White House strategist, he has been a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times and National Public Radio, and has written for Harper's Magazine and Time. He is the author of ten books, including The New York Times bestsellers American Theocracy and American Dynasty.