America's gulf between the rich and poor has grown wider than ever. The disparity between the income of men and women, white and black is still evident, while the number of self-made millionaires has grown along with the number of individuals who take home $100,000 a year. Indeed, there are more millionaires, but there are also more neglected children, more single mothers, and more citizens in prison. The founding fathers of the United States Constitution outlined how the nation would grow with an economy that would acknowledge "diversity in the faculties of men" and such has occurred in the years that followed the statements of James Madison and Alexander Hamilton. Here are the facts about who has the money in the world's most powerful nation.

The relative economic superiority and power of the United States is quickly slipping away. This is mainly brought about by the rise of new superpowers, particularly China and India, which are ushering a third wave of globalization, one that is characterized not by corporations but by highly educated and skilled individuals - the three billion new capitalists. The continuous rise to power of countries such as China and India threatens to undermine the six-hundred year old dominance of the west, particularly that of the United States. 

This book serves as a shocking wake-up call for Americans and the rest of the world as it projects the world's economic future if the current trends continue. These trends include increasingly unsustainable trade deficits, the equally unsustainable and dangerous buildup of massive dollar reserves in some countries, the end of the U.S. position as the leader in science in technology, the outsourcing of jobs and the demographic meltdown in major parts of the world.

Towards the end of the book, the author offers practical suggestions on how the U.S. can avert a totally disastrous scenario.  

The golden years of the American motion picture industry - from 1930 to the 1950s, was when the studio system held sway.  All the money, prestige and power of the industry were derived from just one activity: selling tickets at the box office. Nowadays it is very different; the movie business is just a small component of an immense synergistic moneymaking industry. The media universe’s reach extends from the silver screen to home television, recorded media and the Internet, and even to such arenas as theme parks. Unlike in the old system, film studios nowadays make enormous profits from this vast assortment of disparate, albeit related, industries, such as video-game spin-offs and soundtracks.  Ticket sales count for a tiny slice of the pie, if at all.

Regardless of how profit-oriented it may be, Hollywood, however, is of course not just about making money. While profit is undoubtedly the driving force behind the movie industry, its social and political milieus - the behind-the-scene dynamics that make Hollywood tick, and which are defined by their major players’ search for power and prestige - can neither be ignored nor neglected if one wants to arrive at a true understanding of Hollywood.

This book, then, is an attempt to make sense of Hollywood - to provide a ‘big picture’ understanding of it, so to speak - making use of the perspective explained above.