A Reality Check for Today's Economy.
352867
Excellent review of current economic situation--where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
1017989
This book made me look at life in a slightly new, out-of-the-box, manner--and provided ample reasons why doing so is both rational and necessary.  Given the severity of today's world-wide banking and economic problems, I consider the information contained in this book TIMELY and RELEVANT to your own & your family's ongoing prosperity.
3958661
Our economy does not have to be dysfunctional. Money and the economy were created long ago by naive people lacking in modern concepts that would allow them to see how their creation could serve mankind in positive ways instead of tearing people and nations apart with income inequality, class warfare, poverty and suffering. Modern Money Theory is the clear, realistic look at economics that can resolve so many of the world's problems that are at bottom about wealth distribution. These MMT concepts are being absorbed slowly by the world's economic and financial leaders and once they are widely adopted we will see clearly positive changes in the welfare of populations.

Dr. Firestone's book&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Fixing-the-Debt-without-Breaking-America-Austerity-the-Trillion-Dollar-Coin-and-Ending-Debt-Ceiling-Sequester-and-Budgetary-Crises/dp/B00BNWB5HQ/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Fixing the Debt without Breaking America: Austerity, the Trillion Dollar Coin, and Ending Debt Ceiling, Sequester, and Budgetary Crises</a>&nbsp;will be a reference for future historians seeking to understand either how we succeeded or failed at unraveling our knotted economic binds. It should be read now to help us influence those who have the power to do the unraveling before it's too late.
2077272
This book should be read to give one a perspective - along with probably a dozen others. Most people are clueless as to how an economy works. As predictions you have to take everything at face value and see that it's an opinion derived from an authors experience. None the less - a book worth reading
1564716
Extremely well written.  Clear and concise makes what has happened to our economy understandable.
3827317
I read this in it's entirety and it resonated with me on so many levels. I'm getting close to retirement age and i know I don't have enough saved up and this was a good wake up call. I am going to be sure and pass this book on to my daughters so they don't find themselves repeating my missteps. A must read in today's economy!!
360195
This book describes global socioeconomic up-trends that most people are unaware of. This is important stuff to understandwe need to know what has gone right, not just focus on disasters. A lot has gone right since the Scientific Revolution of the 1500s and the Enlightenment of the 1700s: increases in income, literacy, democracy, and womens rights, and, even remarkably large decreases in crime and violence.

The book gives a lot of the credit for the up-trends to free market capitalism, which, in many cases is quite accurate. But the book, published in 2017, ignores the Great Recession and growing income inequality and even growing poverty in countries like the U.S. It implies that at this time more free market capitalism is just what the doctor ordered. A more objective analysis would point out that given the cracks that are developing in the U.S. economic system, its time to re-evaluate our next steps.

The author, Johan Norberg, is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a Libertarian think tank. His transparent agenda to reduce governmental regulation reduces the books objectivity. How can the author imply that free market capitalism has somehow IMPROVED the natural environment? He fails to mention or give credit to the dedicated environmental organizations which battled the corporations to increase regulations and ameliorate some of the worst corporate pollution problems. The book has the taint of propaganda. This is unfortunate, because the important and accurate statistical data presented on the many global up-trends should be better known.
725822
A terrific book for the current times. Mr. Dickie has put together some great ideas and actual resources that anyone can use today. Easy to read and lots of stuff that you can start working on right now to help you obtain Financial Independence.

I highly recommend this book, Loved Chapter 3 on avoiding Anchors that we all have.
1929760
This should be a must read for anyone who wants to really understand why our economy works as it does.  That is a huge understatement.  It is sooo much more.
4727460
This is a book that really helps ordinary Americans understand what is  happening to the economy. Though somewhat dated by being written before our  so-called period of prosperity, the trends emphasized in the book not only  continue,  but  in some instances have accelerated. In that important  sense, B's & S's work remains as topical today as it was yesterday.  It's also an excellent companion  to Kevin Phillip's more recent *Politics  of the Rich and Poor*, though the former aims at a more popular audience.  Many of the statistical comparisons of Phillip's book were originated here:  the junk bond plunder of healthy companies, the massive export of  high-wage jobs, the decline of pension funds and health care, et.al. And a  sorry, sorry tale it is.
Several pressing topics not included in  Phillip's book are discussed here. "Net operating loss" is perhaps the most  egregious method of transferring wealth upward. This highly biased tax  allowance allows struggling companies to write off last year's net  operating loss on this year's tax bill, forcing taxpayers to pay for  operating losses incurred by private sector firms. Similarly, Chapter 11  bankruptcies allow indigent firms to continue operating with present  management but immune from creditors. The net effect of both measures is to  lessen risk and encourage reckless speculation, thereby undermining  long-term market health. Included in the book are other degenerate measures  deriving largely from the 1980's: Deduction of interest from corporate  borrowing, Tax-free government bonds (deriving from early 1900's), Untaxed  stock transactions, et.al. The overall result is to transfer the tax burden  from wealthy categories to middle-cass brackets. For more far-sighted  conservatives, this amounts to an alarming social and political  development.
Though much the same ground has now been trod in other  books, the story can stand multiple retellings, since middle-class decline  is perhaps the most important  domestic trend of our time. What  distinguishes this book's original telling are the vivid personal profiles  amidst the welter of relevant statistics. These cameos have the crucial  effect of reminding the reader that behind the abstractions are real people  whose lives are shaped by tax legislation, wealth transfers, and job  export. The result is a little like Studs Turkel meets the tax  collector.
Recommended for those interested in the social contours of the  future.
3494418
Mr. Koestrich does an excellent job looking at the current US fiscal environment and gives you websites to monitor coming economic changes to allow you to adapt to change.  His time frame is the next 10 years and he is helping us get through it.
1062236
The joy of Money Mania is in its restating of history in modern economic terms. Going back to ancient Greece, Rome and Japan, Swarup reviews their rises and falls using current economic concepts, complete with pump priming, inflation and defaults. Its an alternative view of history that says weve been here before, and we haven't seemed to have absorbed (m)any of the lessons.

It starts with the simple premises that financial crises are endemic and efficient markets are a lie. Then its downhill as he takes us on a tour of errors, mistakes, fumbles and malign stupidity throughout history, such as the Smoot Hawley Act of the USA, in which Congress hobbled 20,000 categories of goods with tariffs. Retaliation from the rest of the world meant that world trade plunged by nearly two thirds. Just when we needed it to rescue us from the Great Depression.

The book smacks of reductionism, though Swarup keeps (at least) reminding us of the complexity of it all. He quotes Schumpeter several times, declaring the very nature of capitalism as creative destruction. He says constant change is necessary, innate and inevitable, and leads to the boom/bust cycle were so tired of. The ways booms can turn to bubbles and busts is that every boom builds around some good, like tulips, spices or Florida real estate, and that financialization inevitably follows (Futures contracts can be traced at least to ancient Greece). This allows credit to build, democratizing the field of investors, and expanding well beyond the goods true value. Ecce bust.

The alternative histories are the high points, as Swarup shows how ancient civilizations have fallen into the same traps, and tried, succeeded and failed with what amount to some of the same economic tools we use today.  And which are promptly forgotten by the next go round.

The recommendations at the end are of necessity, dreaming in Technicolor, as the very basis of the book is that we never change. This doesnt detract from the book itself, which adds hugely to understanding  past empires and manias, well beyond the mere dates and players in them. As some wise men once said, its accountancy that makes the world go round.

David Wineberg
1769723
A good guide to survive our current economic changes and why our government is failing to change fast enough to really solve problems. It shows where The Third Wave is taking us (the world) and how our leaders are failing to adapt. A must read if you want to know why the world is spinning out of control and how you can ride the wave rather than be washed away by it.
427978
From his comfortable tenure at Yale, Jacob Hacker offers us an analysis of where things have gone wrong with the American economic system. He identifies three traditional pillars of economic security:

1. The family

2. The workplace

3. Public and private benefits

The first two are under siege. The third one is at risk. Hacker argues that the erosion of that third one - public and private benefits - is not inevitable.

Fair enough. But let's start with the family. The decrease in the stability of the family unit over the years didn't just happen. Victims of the Jerry Springerization of the family - as a mainstream example of how far things have gone askew - have no one to blame but themselves. The freedom to treat family relationships as a disposable commodity is bound to come with some trade-offs. Economic security is one of them. While the erosion of family bonds has been widespread, it is not inevitable either.

As for the other two pillars, they revolve around the ability of commerce to fund them. More corporate profits means more tax revenues - and at least the possibility of more jobs. Without corporate profits, we have no corporations to bash, no corporate profits to tax, and no jobs or benefits, public or private.

Yes, traditional jobs are under siege and traditional benefit programs are morphing. Hacker says we have choices. Yes, we do.

We could, as a society, opt to have more stable jobs, even in an era of increasingly worldwide competition. This is a valid choice. Many parts of Europe have opted for lower overall standards of living in exchange for greater job security and more leisure. Many EU citizens appear willing to tolerate double-digit long-term unemployment rates and higher tax rates in exchange for generous social safety nets.

Of course, we in America have always been looking for the free lunch. Look at U.S. savings rates, which are negative. A critical examination across all socioeconomic classes suggests that the personal saving deficit may have more to do with an insatiable appetite for big-screen televisions, $90 a month cable services, frequent restaurant dining, coiffed hair and acrylic nails, rather than for prudent expenditures on basics like food and shelter.

But by all means, we should welcome Mr. Hacker's debate. It will be useful to make explicit the trade-offs that come to light in the process.
3260764
Dr. Otto Bettmann assorted this collection of anecdotes, statistics, graphics and illustrations to remind us of just how hard life was for the every day guy in 19th century. This is a much-needed reality check in these days when everyone has this misconception that our times are the most difficult ever. Remember, today will be the good old days in a not-too-distant future. While other history books have tried to make this very point, I think Dr. Bettmann's achievement, and what makes this book more effective in a way, is that he presents his thesis in a style that is enjoyable and humorous. It's a great little book for everyone's history shelves.
Note:
Dr. Bettmann wrote about America in American English for Americans: he knows which side his bread is buttered on. Would anyone buy a book about how terrible living conditions were in 19th Century Turkistan? Let's not take ourselves too seriously, people. This book is NOT America-bashing.
3659780
A better future is right around the corner.  The more people who know about this, the better.  It makes sense.
2948557
This is a book that more people need to read.  It allows us to gain a glimpse at our spending habits.  You can and will have more money from what you already make if you follow the ideas in this book.