Out-of-control debt. Populism. Political vitriol and corruption. Where did America go wrong? Or rather, when did America go wrong? 1913. The Seventeenth Amendment is ratified, allowing the people of America to vote directly for their senators in the US senate. The same year, the Federal Reserve Act is passed, establishing a central bank to oversee monetary policy. In The Illusory Bargain , Ralph H. Lehman demonstrates that these seemingly empowering and people-serving pieces of legislature were just that-an illusion. Tracing the vision of the Founding Fathers as outlined in The Federalist Papers , Lehman reveals how the safety features of the original constitutional framework have eroded since and given way to rampant abuse of power and arbitrary, tyrannical law. Through fresh, historically informed insights and over twenty years of financial expertise, Lehman reexamines the nation's fundamental values and proposes what may be the only course of action left to restore our liberty.