David Cay Johnston is a muckraker extraordinaire. You've likely seen him on MSNBC on "The Ed Show" or "Rachel Maddow," or perhaps on the PBS News Hour. He's always genial, always smiling; but behind that smile he's a relentless, tenacious fighter for economic fairness. His new book, The Fine Print: How Big Companies Use 'Plain English' to Rob You Blind, is just the latest example, and it's sure to make your blood boil.
Did you know that what shows up on your pay stub as state income taxes might not be going to the state at all, but directly into the pocket of some corporation, as a payoff for moving a facility to that state? Did you know that internet speed in America (which after all invented the internet, so we started out at No. 1) now ranks 29th in the world, mainly because our cable companies can make more money by keeping it that way?
For these and other maddening facts, get hold of The Fine Print. Look into Johnston's previous books, Free Lunch and Perfectly Legal, as well. It's not for nothing he's a Pulitzer Prize winner, a columnist for Reuters, and a professor at Syracuse University (also, as it happens, a resident of Rochester, NY, where I was born long long ago).