I thank my mother, Claire Palley, and my wife, Margarita Cereijido, for encouraging me to write this book and keeping me at it. I also thank Ron Blackwell, who has been a friend, mentor, and colleague from whom I have long benefited intellectually and who has always generously shared his insights and understandings; Sherle Schwenninger of the New America Foundation for supporting (intellectually and financially) prior work that has been included in this book as Chapter 4; Robert Pollin and Stephanie Seguino, who read the manuscript and offered many valuable suggestions; and Scott Parris of Cambridge University Press for his willingness to publish a book that so openly challenges the conventional wisdom. Lastly, I thank the production team at Newgen and the copyediting team at PETT Fox, Inc., for their help in typesetting and editing the manuscript.