The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America

Broken headlines and quotations tell of the $2 billion price of the presidential election and the $5 million donation Newt Gingrich received for his own presidential race. A tweet from Obama makes same-sex marriage legal, while a headline asks why billionaires feel victimized by him. A story notes how Trayvon Martin made his final walk, another that the hit book series “The Hunger Games” is about a savage broken nation. A quotation from Mitt Romney about 47 percent of voters being dependent on government is quoted, and a story tells of the Kelleys who are known for their lavish parties near MacDill Air Force Base. Final stories reveal that Obama wins reelection and that a changing electorate worries the GOP.

After the global recession, Thiel developed a theory about history and the future. He thought that 1973 was the last year of the 1950s because it was the year of the oil crisis as well as the year median wages in the US began to stagnate. That started the descent. The 1980s were full of optimism, and the 90s had the miracle of the internet. But then came wars in the early 2000s and the global financial crisis. The decades had gone down, up, up, down.