So often, books (and articles) about lobbying focus on the poor behaviour of financial institutions, natural resources companies, or polluting manufacturers. Garofalo, however, looks at how the entertainment industry is just as bad (maybe worse) than many other industry "bad actors". The author examines how various entertainment industry actors have changed regulations, rules, and laws to favour their interests; how they encourage and convince politicians and other officials to spend public money.

A very interesting, engaging, and accessible book. Recommended.

Written by Pat Garofalo, THE BILLIONAIRE BOONDOGGLE was published earlier this spring. Garofalo is a managing editor at the Center for American Progress who takes a fairly liberal view, subtitling this work, "How Our Politicians Let Corporations and Bigwigs Steal Our Money and Jobs." His focus is primarily the interplay between the entertainment and sporting industries and local government and politicians. For example, Garofalo writes about the movie/television industry and explains the tax breaks and subsidies they receive. He also touches on a number of "celebrity-type" events such as the Olympics and World Cup, arguing that the cost to taxpayers of playing host is rarely if ever, justified, and often “a waste of money that could be used for the greater good." Although clearly opinionated and sometimes quite informal, Garofalo's writing style is very accessible and his choice of topics will appeal to students. In fact, there is an entire chapter which discusses "why lotteries and casinos are a bad bet" which is a frequently chosen topic for student research (roughly ten percent of THE BILLIONAIRE BOONDOGGLE is devoted to notes and an index).