Money Talks

Geoff Klinger (1966-2021) was Professor of Rhetoric and Director of Forensics at DePauw University. His research and teaching interests included the connection between rhetoric and social theory; political communication; presidential, civil rights, and business rhetoric; and Supreme Court decisions.

• 1 Introduction: Painting by Numbers—Decoding the Discourse of Economics.- 2 American Dream: Manufacturing Monetary Miasma.- 3 Bread and Circuses, or Poppies to Make You Sleep.- 4 Children of the Revolution: Reaganomics as Free Market Redux.- 5 Spirits in the Material World: Alan Greenspan and the Newspeak Economy.- 6 (Misery at the) Funplex: From Ideology to Imagology.- 7 Public Image Limited, or He Blind(er)ed Me with Silence.- 8 (Tell Me Why) I Don’t Like Mondays: The Crash of 1987.- 9 Vision Thing: The Savings and Loan Debacle.- 10 Who You Fighting For? Desert Storm and the Recession of 1990.- 11 Telling Stories: Interrogating “Irrational Exuberance”.- 12 The Disappointed: The “Great Recession” of 2008.- 13 Tired of Sleeping: Trumped Up Trickle Down.- 14 Epilogue: We Can’t Make It Here—Moving Beyond the Free Market.