Fat and Mean: The Corporate Squeeze of Working Americans and the

Since the early 1980s, economic experts have recommended "downsizing" as the best way for U.S. corporations to remain competitive. Reducing unnecessary staff would lower costs, increase profits, and transform these companies into lean, mean production machines. As many American businesses pursued this strategy—often in the wake of mergers and acquisitions that left them with an unwieldy layer of middle management—and raised their bottom line, it seemed the experts were right. Yet as David M...