Hi, I’m Mel Scanlan Stahl and I’ve written a book that will help you to understand your political and economic world. That’s an advantage as you cope with today’s opportunities and issues. Are you tired of political discussions because they don’t get anywhere?Political Catsup with Economy Fries makes political discussions easier by expaining the network of people, events, policies and circumstances that shaped three sucessive economic and political periods in the United States.  Those periods are the classical liberal, modern liberal and neoliberal periods. When you know about these periods and the policies that shaped them, the crazy world of today suddenly begins to make more sense.

How can a book do all that and still make talking about politics easier?

I found a shortcut.  If you look at economic policies instead of political dogma, you can see how politicians determine who gets what.  Policies are how politicians act.  That has more influence on political outcomes than what they say to influence your vote and opinion.

How does the policy shortcut make understanding politics easier?

When you consider economic policies you can differentiate three different political ideologies.  Being able to recognize the differences between American political ideologies helps you to understand political speech better. It provides a clearer context for what you hear a politician say.  And you can decide if the political speech that you are hearing matches a politician’s ideology according to their policies and their promises.  Then elective politics can be more than a personality contest for likeability.  Elective politics can be a policy evaluation instead.

What other ways does Political Catsup with Economy Fries make discussing politics easier?  

It provides readers the missing connections between the economy and politics.  And it provides a historical context for political policies.  It also relates quotes from people who lived during each political period and allows them to explain their political environment and political intentions.  Today’s Americans often feel lost in the flow of contingent historical happenings.  Timelines in the appendices make the context of history easy to consider.

How else does Political Catsup with Economy Fries help people to understand politics better?

It gives readers a good foundation by providing definitions of key terms like “the politic” and “the economy.”  It also provides in the appendices a description of secondary social systems.  A couple of examples are the nation state system and the rule of law that can act as stabilizers to nation states.  Even though Political Catsup with Economy Fries has a lot of information, it is shared out in manageble portions and carefully structured so that it helps you to learn.  It’s an effective tool that makes it easier for you to acquire political insights that will help you to better understand the political environment in the U.S. today.

Washington D.C. has so many policies that it becomes hard for most Americans and others to keep up with them all.  How does Political Catsup with Economy Fries make policy analysis easier?

Because our everyday experiences are still affected by the Great Recession, Political Catsup with Economy Fries looks carefully at political policies that led up to the 2008 financial collapse.  It also pays special attention to monetary and fiscal policies in the current period.  For each historical period, the book looks at policy evolution in finance, war and law because these policy areas impact outcomes in both politics and economics.

All text on this blog is copyrighted to Mel Scanlan Stahl and subject to fair use standards. Pages (listed at the top) describe the book, and Archive Posts (on the right margin) discuss current events.  If you should refer to my blog posts or blog pages please acknowledge me as the source.  Please also let me know what you think about what you read here by leaving a comment.

Political Catsup with Economy Fries at Amazon Kindle, $9.99;

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