Jonathan Chait talked about his book The Big Con: The True Story of How Washington Got Hoodwinked and Hijacked by Crackpot Economics, published by Houghton Mifflin. In his book he argues that regardless of what political party is in power the United States economic policy stands to the far right. He contends that economic policy for the past three decades has been ill-conceived and points to supply-side economics as an example of a what he deems a flawed policy that is championed by few. The guest interviewer was Grover Norquist.


Jonathan Chait is a senior editor at the New Republic. He is also a contributing editor to the Los Angeles Times and has contributed articles to numberous publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times, and the Washington Post.

Grover Norquist is the president of Americans for Tax Reform, an organization that is against higher taxes at all levels of government. Mr. Norquist is a contributing editor to the American Spectator magazine and is writing a book titled Leave Us Alone: Getting the Goverment’s Hands off Our Money, Our Guns, Our Lives to be published in early 2008.