I've been compiling a list of "popular" (as if economic disaster titles can be considered this) books since 2007 that analyze the unfolding economic disaster. This is the ensuing selected 2010 list, of course it will be complete on Dec 31 but.. just thought I could share it. It's probably too long for this blog but maybe it will be ok this time because it's a special list.
Money and Economics 2010
13 Bankers : the Wall Street Takeover and the Next financial Meltdown by Simon Johnson c2010 332.1 JOH
In a stinging indictment of the reckless "new American oligarchy" that led the nation to an economic precipice—and which, because of the government bailout, the authors say, threaten to put U.S. taxpayers on the hook again.
The authors trace suspicion of concentrated banking systems to the beginning of the republic. Jefferson suggested that supporting a federally chartered bank was tantamount to treason. Subsequent tectonic shocks—especially the Panic of 1907 and the Great Depression—led to the financial apparatus of the mid-century—the Federal Reserve, designed to backstop Wall Street in a crisis, and the New Deal, which, by separating commercial and investment banking, protected the ordinary investor from the perils of the system.
All the Devils Are Here: the Hidden History of the Financial Crisis by Bethany McLean c2010 330.973 MCL
The origins of the meltdown and the subsequent Great Recession largely lie in the speculator's dream called the mortgage-backed security, which "allowed Wall Street to scoop up loans made to people who were buying homes, bundle them together by the thousands, and then resell the bundle, in bits and pieces, to investors." This innovation netted fortunes for the players at the top, undoing the former bond between buyer and seller and leading directly to the rise of the subprime industry and its toxic holdings. Ironically, write the authors, the securitizing of mortgages was not an invention of Wall Street but of government, with the federal agencies Ginnie Mae and then Freddie Mac selling securities 40 years ago. -Kirkus
Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future by Robert Reich 332.64524 DIA
Former Secretary of Labor Reich argues that America will not have a sustained economic recovery until the middle class has more buying power. In this call for reform, the author writes that the increasing concentration of wealth among a small percentage of Americans was the main culprit in the destabilization of the U.S. economy in 2008. For three decades, the wealthy reaped inordinate benefits from a growing economy while middle-class wages stopped climbing. As the rich spent only a fraction of their fortunes ("The sheer magnitude of the task of spending obscene amounts of money can be surprisingly challenging"), they deprived the economy of the multiplier effect of many millions of dollars. Instead of trying to rebalance the distribution of income, the federal government deregulated, privatized and celebrated the idea of free markets. -Kirkus
The Battle: How the Fight Between Free enterprise and big government will shape America's future by Arthur C Brooks c2010 322.3 BRO
America faces a new culture war. It is not a war about guns, abortions, or gays--rather it is a war against the creeping changes to our entrepreneurial culture, the true bedrock of who we are as a people. The new culture war is a battle between free enterprise and social democracy. Many Americans have forgotten the evils of socialism and the predations of the American Great Society's welfare state programs. But, as American Enterprise Institute's president Arthur C. Brooks reveals in "The Battle," the forces for social democracy have returned with a vengeance, expanding the power of the state to a breathtaking degree. "The Battle" offers a plan of action for the defense of free enterprise.
Crash of the Titans: Greed, Hubris, the Fall of Merrill Lynch, and the Near-Collapse of Bank of America by Greg Farrell
c2010 332.1 FAR In this authoritative account, "Financial Times" reporter Farrell delivers the riveting story of how the decline and fall of Merrill Lynch crippled Bank of America and nearly destroyed America's financial system. Crash of the Titans" is a financial thriller that puts you in the theater as the historic events of the financial crisis unfold and people responsible for billions of dollars of other people's money gamble recklessly to enhance their power and their paychecks or to save their own skins. Its wealth of never-before-revealed information and focus on two icons of corporate America make it the book that puts together all the pieces of the Wall Street disaster.
Crisis Economics: A Crash Course by Nouriel Roubini c2010 338.542 ROU
Two professors explain how we got into the current economic mess and offer a prescription for the way out.
From the writers of A Nation of Counterfeiters: Capitalists, Con Men, and the Making of the United States. 2007. They define crisis economics as the study of how and why markets fail. The origins of the current upheaval, they contend, are deeply structural—far more severe than simply a housing bubble and the securitization of bad loans—and the storms will persist. They preface their proposed remedies with a whirlwind tour of past crises, a survey of economic thinkers who offer insights into why markets collapse, an analysis of how today’s unstable moment compares with past market traumas and a look at the special dangers posed by our integrated global economy. Critiquing the unprecedented emergency measures taken recently to right the economic ship, they warn of the unintended consequences likely to flow from hasty decisions made under extreme pressure. We should use this moment of relative calm, they argue, to institute necessary changes. -Kirkus
Diary of a Very Bad Year (not at Beaverton but at Tigard) c2010
The HFM (hedge fund manager) offers a brilliant financial professionals view of the economic situation in real time, from September 2007, when problems in financial markets began to surface, until late summer 2009, when the financial meltdown generally subsided and the financial community went back, in HFMs view, to business as usual. With definitions of financial terms and products, and explanations of domestic and global issues as they occur, HFM draws from his decade of nonstop work as a hedge-fund manager to educate the interviewer and us as the financial crisis unfolds. This is a great read.
End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War by Ian Bremmer 330.122 BRE c2010
The power of the state is back, announces Bremmer ("The Fat Tail"), president of the Eurasia Group, in this sobering examination of the threat the emerging powers of China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia pose to the free market. The book presents a whirlwind history of capitalism from mercantilism through the end of the cold war to the ascendancy of state capitalism, a political and economic arrangement in which states exert their influence over markets and big business to serve their own interests. Bremmer provides informative case studies of economies with varying degrees of state control. He weighs how free market economies can compete and concludes on a hopeful note, laying out a powerful case for the superiority of regulated free markets above state capitalism and a clear prescription for how the U.S. can defend its competitive advantage in the future.
Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America by Matt Taibbi c2010 973.932 TAI
Taibbi eviscerates Wall Street for what he considers frauds perpetrated on the American people over the last ten years. Deftly delving deeply into complicated financial history and lingo, Taibbi deftly lays the subject bare, rendering heretofore-dense subject matter simple without being simplistic. Blame for the recent mortgage collapse, commodities bubble, and tech bubble are laid at the feet of a relatively small number of bankers and traders who, in the author's opinion, act without fear of reciprocity from a U.S. government no longer representative of the American people.
King of Capital: The Remarkable Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of Steve Schwarzman and Blackstone by David Carey c2010 338.83 CAR
Carey and Morris reveal the untold story of Steve Schwarzman and Blackstone, the financier and his financial powerhouse that avoided the self-destructive tendencies of Wall Street. Analyzes the controversies surrounding Blackstone and whether it and other private equity firms suck the lifeblood out of companies to enrich themselves--or whether they are a force that helps make the companies they own stronger and thereby better competitors. The story by two insiders with access: Insightful and hard-hitting, filled with never-before-revealed details about the workings of a heretofore secretive company that was the personal fiefdom of Schwarzman and Peter Peterson.
The monster : how a gang of predatory lenders and Wall Street bankers fleeced America--and spawned a global crisis c2010 by Michael W Hudson 332.6324 HUD
In this stunning narrative, award-winning reporter Michael W. Hudson reveals the story of the rise and fall of the subprime mortgage business by chronicling the rise and fall of two corporate empires: Ameriquest and Lehman Brothers. As the biggest subprime lender and Wall Street's biggest patron of subprime, Ameriquest and Lehman did more than any other institutions to create the feeding frenzy that emboldened mortgage pros to flood the nation with high-risk, high-profit home loans.
Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines by Richard Heinberg c2010 304.2 HEI
The twentieth century saw unprecedented growth in population, energy consumption, and food production. As the population shifted from rural to urban, human impacts on the environment increased dramatically. The twenty-first century ushered in an era of declines, including: Oil, natural gas, and coal extraction. Yearly grain harvests Climate stability Economic growth Fresh water Minerals and ores such as copper and platinum. To adapt to this profoundly different world, we must begin now to make radical changes to our attitudes, behaviors, and expectations.
The Trillion-Dollar Conspiracy: How the New World Order, Man-Made Diseases, and Zombie Banks Are Destroying America by Jim Marrs c2010 330.973 MAR
A mix of both right-wing conspiracy theories, such as New World Order domination by the Illuminati, and left-wing conspiracy theories, like the planned failure of deregulation, along with charges we can all agree on, such as the bank bailout as a financial coup d'tat for the privileged ultrawealthy. From Reagan to Obama to Congress, he leaves no president or party out of the conspiracy blame game, outlining a plan for world domination that goes back to 1913.
The Zeroes: My Misadventures in the Decade Wall Street Went Insane by Randall Lane
c2010 330.973 LAN
What "Liar's Poker" was to the 1980s, "The Zeroes" is to the first decade of the new century: an insider's memoir of a gilded era when Wall Street went insane-and took the rest of us down with it.
Randall Lane never set out to become a Wall Street power broker. But during the decade he calls the Zeroes, he started a small magazine company that put him near the white-hot center of the biggest boom in history. Almost by accident, a man who drove a beat-up Subaru and lived in a rented walk-up became the go-to guy for big shots with nine-figure incomes. Lane's saga began with a simple idea: a glossy magazine exclusively for and about traders, which would treat them like rock stars and entice them to splurge on luxury goods. "Trader Monthly" was an instant hit around the world.
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