The new economy is a fraud

Thomas Frank, a Midwesterner with a Ph.D. in American history from the University of Chicago, was one of the first social critics to tell consumers to wake up: anti-corporate culture is commodified, marketed and sold by businesses just like everything else. In 1988, Frank founded The Baffler, a magazine of cultural criticism, and is the author of "The Conquest of Cool" and co-editor of "Commodify Your Dissent: Salvos from The Baffler." He regularly writes for publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Harper's and the Nation.

Salon called "One Market Under God," Frank's latest book about the tyranny of the almighty market, "a persuasive attack on new economy rhetoric and a history of what Frank calls 'market populism.'" In his typically entertaining and witty writing style, Frank criticizes how business and advertising have abused the language of democracy.

Hear Damien Cave and social critic Thomas Frank discuss the concentration of wealth in America, recorded inside an Old Navy store.