Michael J. Graetz

“[An] eye-opener for anyone interested in tracing the origins of economic insecurity in the U.S.”—Arthur Zaczkiewicz, Women’s Wear Daily

“Graetz and Shapiro wrestle with a fundamental question of our day: How do we address a system that makes too many Americans anxious that economic security is slipping out of reach? Their cogent call for sensible and achievable policies offers a pathway back to functional governance and should be read by progressives and conservatives alike.”—Jacob J. Lew, 76th U.S. Secretary of the Treasury

“In The Wolf at the Door, Michael Graetz and Ian Shapiro trace masterfully the sources of insecurity increasingly haunting millions of Americans. Not content to tell the tale or just focus on politicians’ desire to exploit that insecurity, they consider important policy ideas to reward work and bolster individuals’ ability to cope with economic shifts beyond their control. The thesis of the book and its recommendations are a must-read for any serious observer of what is happening to the American economy and body politic today.”—Glenn Hubbard, Columbia Business School, former chairman of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers

“A powerful corrective to the standard narrative of the Burger court . . . should change the way that period is perceived. . . . As this important book makes clear, courts, given time, can accomplish—or demolish—a great deal by degrees, leaving their successors to finish the job.”– Jeff Shesol, The New York Times Book Review

"Ambitious and engaging. . . . Graetz and Greenhouse's work serves as an important corrective, demonstrating that the Burger court demands far more sustained scrutiny and analysis than legal scholarship has generally afforded it. Readers interested in the Supreme Court’s role in American society during the second half of the 20th century will gather significant insight from this book’s elegant, illuminating arguments."– Justin Driver, The Washington Post

“When the Supreme Court unanimously ruled against President Nixon in the famous 1974 Watergate Tapes Case that doomed his presidency, Nixon cursed the justices he had appointed. The myth grew that Nixon had failed to significantly move the Court to right. In their compelling, elegantly written analysis, two brilliant legal scholars (and clear-eyed explainers) convincingly demolish that myth.” – Evan Thomas, author of Being Nixon

“The tangled history of energy policy is admirably described in the new book by legal scholar Michael Graetz, The End of Energy...As will be clear, I largely agree with Graetz’s conclusion...Graetz’s book is a sobering reminder of the shortcomings of our political system. He shows that the ability of the federal government to respond to long-term challenges is very limited when a good policy will impose short-term costs.”—William D. Nordhaus, The New York Review of Books

“This book is a must read for all people interested in energy policies and our biosphere. This book should be read, studied and comprehended by as many people as possible.”—J. T. Trevors, Environmentalist

“...a compelling case for a radical shift in our approach to energy production that Washington policy makers would do well to study closely.”—Booklist

“Michael Graetz has done the near-impossible. He has come up with a sweeping tax reform plan that would simplify the system and retain the progressivity that is the linchpin of the American tax system. The book ought to appeal to liberals and conservatives and ought to be read by every presidential candidate out there.”—Norman Ornstein, Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute and co-author of The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track

“This is must reading for presidential candidates, members of the tax writing committees of Congress and all Americans who are interested in a growing economy. It should inspire us to summon the political will to scrap our broken tax system and replace it with one that is simpler, fair and better able to serve the economic needs of America.”—Jack Danforth, former United States Senator

“There are few people on earth who understand the economics, the law, and the politics of the tax system as well as Michael Graetz. When the nation finally gets serious about reforming the tax code, this important book will be one of the reasons.”—Alan S. Blinder, Professor of Economics, Princeton University, former member of President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers, and former Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve

"The most interesting [tax] plan I've seen."—David Ignatius, The Washington Post

"This is one of the most interesting books about politics, and power, and the way the world is going, that you are ever likely to read. What makes it so fascinating is that it is a mystery story. The mystery is this: how did the repeal of a tax that applies only to the richest 2 percent of American families become a cause so popular and so powerful that it steamrollered all the opposition placed in its way. . . . This is not simply a story about the United States. . . . [T]he moral of the tale is far wider than that. . . . Instead this is a tale about the power of narrative in politics, and the increasing ease with which individual stories can be made the be-all and end-all of political debate."--David Runciman, London Review of Books

"[Michael] Graetz . . . And [Ian] Shapiro . . . Set out to unravel what on the surface appears a mystery . . . Fueled a grassroots campaign that ended up throwing Democrats on the defensive. . . . Graetz and Shapiro make a convincing case that propaganda was not the chief reason the campaign to repeal the estate tax gathered steam. A far more important factor was that throughout the 1990s, the only people in Washington making impassioned moral arguments about it were antitax conservatives."--Eyal Press, The Nation

"Public-policy reporting at its finest. But Death by a Thousand Cuts is much more. It is also an important manual on moral arguments in contemporary politics."--David Cay Johnston, The American Prospect

"[A] lively legislative chronicle."--Amith Shlaes, Financial Times