Alyssa Katz's Blog, page 4
June 14, 2015
‘Turning left, holding the center’
In today’s NY Daily News I size up Hillary Clinton’s supposed left turn and conclude that she’s in fact tapping into (even while building up) an emerging new American political center, fed up with the warping force of secret money in American politics led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other outsize influencers.
One clue: a recent New York Times/CBS poll showing large margins of Americans, including independents, want campaign finance reform and believe the wealthy have disproportionate influence. Three in four support disclosure of political donors. And, in line with Clinton’s call for a constitutional amendment countering the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, a majority of voters of all stripes told pollsters that they do not see political spending as a free speech matter.
As I suggest in the piece, I’m plenty prepared for disappointment in Hillary Clinton, but also hopeful at this moment that her campaign can channel a decisive shift in the national conversation toward realism about why working Americans aren’t getting ahead and generate momentum to act constructively on that mood.
I do not, by the way, put Democratic rejectionism of President Obama’s trade negotiations in the “act constructively” bucket — all the more reason to appreciate Clinton’s balancing act on the center-left political spectrum.
June 3, 2015
It’s here
Tada! For your very own copy, circa June 23: http://t.co/LOczueT66H pic.twitter.com/nlsOqGGCtV
— Alyssa Katz (@alykatzz) June 3, 2015
May 21, 2015
‘With clarity and verve...’
Publishers Weekly weighs in on The Influence Machine: “With clarity and verve, but without polemic, investigative journalist Katz (Our Lot) describes the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s evolution into a many-armed behemoth…. Some readers will feel disheartened, others awed, by Katz’s account of how, acting on its pledge to curb government growth, the Chamber of Commerce has tirelessly obstructed consumer protections, environmental regulation, financial reform, and health care legislation.”
May 5, 2015
“An eye-opening, maddening read”
Kirkus Reviews on The Influence Machine:
“Of graft, fictional math, and the American way: an urgent look at the “political assault weapon” that is transforming the country—for the better if you’re rich, for the worse if you’re not….
“Katz (Our Lot: How Real Estate Came to Own Us, 2009), an investigative journalist and member of the editorial board of the New York Daily News, does invaluable work in tracing how the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been a relentless engine for pressing a “business of enterprise unfettered by government.”
March 31, 2015
The Influence Machine — coming June 2015
Ladies and gentlemen, meet my upcoming book: The Influence Machine: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Corporate Capture of American Life, to be published in June by Spiegel & Grau. 
Why not preorder? I’ll be posting more, much more, in the coming weeks and months.
