Using statistics from the Department of Commerce and other sources, and beginning with the Great Depression, John Hively traces how recessions begin, how corporations and financial markets are interconnected, and describes the consequences of current distribution of wealth and income practices. By clarifying how the economy actually functions (which is radically different than what we have been led to believe), and through the subject of financial markets, globalization, CEO billionaires, and big corporations, with the scandals and the in-trading, he is able to show that if these trends continue to unfold, the growing income gap will prove to be a destabilizing factor in society. John Hively studied economics at the University of Tennessee and has been a freelance writer for Business Journal .