Book Reviews

<br>This second of two posts on Michael Sandel's new book, <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=06-54FCTQ9AC&quot; target="”_blank”"><i>What Money
Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets</i></a> (Farrar Straus, 2012),
includes a few fascinating takes on different aspects of government ethics, including
preferential treatment, municipal marketing, skyboxes, and the sensitive topic of inappropriate
incentives.<br>

Harvard professor Michael Sandel's new book <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=06-54FCTQ9AC&quot; target="”_blank”"><i>What Money
Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets</i></a> (Farrar Straus, 2012) has a
lot to say about the effect of commercial, market values on American
culture, including on American government. Sandel's book focuses on
"the expansion of markets, and of market values, into spheres of

<br>This post looks at the final three essays in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Corruption-American-Politics-Michael-Genovese/dp/…; target="”_blank”"><i>Corruption and American Politics</i></a>, an essay collection edited by Michael
A. Genovese and Victoria A. Farrar-Meyers (Cambria, 2011). <br>
<br>
<b>Pay to Play in the Municipal Bond Market</b><br>

<br>The fourth essay in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Corruption-American-Politics-Michael-Genovese/dp/…; target="”_blank”"><i>Corruption and American Politics</i></a>, an essay collection edited by Michael
A. Genovese and Victoria A. Farrar-Meyers (Cambria, 2011), is by
Wayne S. Le Cheminant. The title of the essay – "Bending
the Frame to Corrupt the Lenses" – provides a good

The third essay in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Corruption-American-Politics-Michael-Genovese/dp/…; target="”_blank”"><i>Corruption and American Politics</i></a>, a collection edited by Michael
A. Genovese and Victoria A. Farrar-Meyers (Cambria, 2011), is by John M. Parrish, a professor at Loyola Marymount University. The essay, which has the intriguing title

<br>The second essay in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Corruption-American-Politics-Michael-Genovese/dp/…; target="”_blank”"><i>Corruption and American Politics</i></a>, a collection edited by Michael
A. Genovese and Victoria A. Farrar-Meyers (Cambria, 2011), is by
Mark E. Warren, a professor at the University of British Columbia.
It asks the question, Is low trust in democratic institutions a

<br><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Corruption-American-Politics-Michael-Genovese/dp/…; target="”_blank”"><i>Corruption and American Politics</i></a>, an essay collection edited by Michael
A. Genovese and Victoria A. Farrar-Myers (Cambria, 2011), has some
excellent essays, especially those that deal with institutional
corruption. The only serious criticism I have of the book is its

<br>Anyone who has seen the movie <i>Chinatown</i> has some idea how much
ethical misconduct went into the ongoing battles over water in
California. Those who want to get down to the nitty gritty of it
will enjoy Robert Gottlieb and Margaret Fitzsimmon's <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=led17FVPnr0C&q&quot; target="”_blank”"><i>Thirst
for Growth: Water Agencies as Hidden Government in California</i></a>

<br><b>Moral Capital</b><br>
In his book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Righteous-Mind-Divided-Politics-Religion/dp/03073…; target="”_blank”"><i>The Righteous Mind</a></i>: <i>Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and
Religion</i> (Pantheon, 2012), Jonathan Haidt discusses what he calls "moral capital," that is, "the

Government ethics is naturally focused on the selfish aspects of
people's conduct, the aspects that make them provide special benefits to themselves, those
who help them, and those to whom they feel special obligations. But as Jonathan Haidt argues in his book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Righteous-Mind-Divided-Politics-Religion/dp/03073…; target="”_blank”"><i>The