Excellent explanation of how American got "hoodwinked".
350729
Excellent explanation of how the bank crisis developed. Frightening to see the effects of greed. Very good, simple explanations of such things as "credit default swaps" and other technical and obfuscatory terms. Watch it.
1449141
Unless you have been living under a rock, you know that the income gap between the rich and the middle class/lower class is rising at an alarming rate.  This is a dangerous thing for our country.  Unfortunately, many, many Americans don't seem to know it's dangerous, or they don't understand why it's such a bad thing.  Formisano has written a most compelling and detailed explanation of how this came to be a problem, why it's growing so fast, what exactly makes it a big deal, and how we need to look at it, understand it, and work together as a country to make the needed changes.

The long held dreams and hopes of the American middle class are fast eroding.  Some of us don't notice because we are too wrapped up in the day to day survival that this situation has placed us in.  The top 1% of the wealth scale get richer on the backs and pocketbooks of the rest of, and none of them are paying their fair share on the income they do make.  Those of us in the middle class have seen our purchasing power and savings dwindle down rapidly, while corporate executives make more and more money, are not held responsible for the immoral and dangerous decisions they make as heads of the corporations, and gleefully invest in a market most of us can no longer afford to invest in.

It's important to understand these problems now, as we enter the cusp of a new election period, and educate ourselves on the changes we, the voters need to make.  The only control we ever can take a hold of as middle class citizens is the ballot box.  The author helps clearly explain what we need to know, why we need to know it, and implores us to insure that Americans understand it as well.  If we all tell just a few other voters about what we learn here, Formisano will have done a great public service for the education of the greater American Public.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR ALL AMERICANS
3420123
If you want to cut through the hype or the B.S that is constantly fed to you via the main stream media,this is the book for you. Consicely put together and written so even those who have no real clue as to what the situation of the economy in the US is can understand the reality of it. Educational and frightening at the same time. I think every American needs to read this.
743631
A really good explanation of a messy series of incidents. Makes what seems confusing in the news understandable, good writing. More of an analysis of chaos, that a tell all.
2472516
Savage Continent by Keith Lowe served as a genuine eye opener.  Although I had heard of mass deportations and atrocities, never before had I seen them described in full.  Other reviewers gave full descriptions of the book, which I won't repeat.  Americans have suffered from a blind (and sometimes willful) ignorence of all this chaos, and this folly has led to repeated misunderstandings and blunders.
2519791
I just finished this outstanding book. It answered nagging questions I've had for the last 25 years regarding why Americans are so divided between conservatives and liberals. The Russian disinformation machinery has been at work in America many decades and  has succeeded in brain washing the average citizen, and gullible public school teachers and college history professors who pass on deliberately erroneous revisionist history in their lectures to turn Americans against our country.

Since I was born in 1955, I've watched the transition of a mostly unified USA to a splintered USA which really accelerated during the Vietnam War protests and on into the permissive 1970's and beyond. The Kremlin was providing the required disinformation to make America the bad guy in the world's eyes and here at home. And since it is so hard to tell what is genuine information and what is disinformation, millions of American's have swallowed the Kremlin's bait.

Stalin coined the phrase "American Exceptionalism" and identified that America has outpaced every other country on earth because of our strong Judeo-Christian faith, strong nuclear families, strong work ethic, strong military, our innovation and entreprenuerial spirit and strong commitment to our constitutional republic form of government. Soviets knew they could never conquer us militarily so they had to focus on bringing us down from within our own borders. And one-by-one the Kremlin has undermined all of these foundational American values with their disinformation aimed to relentlessly chip away and destroy until our country buckles from within.

Honestly, I see too many similarities between the Obama administration and the ruling elite of the Democratic Party and their
copying many of the tactics of the Kremlin's political schemes. If more citizens read this book they'll see exactly what the author
means who has come to the same conclusion.

My only criticism of the book is that the middle gets rather bogged down a bit going into minute detail about how Pope Pius was
maligned and slandered by the Kremlin's efforts to mislead the world to think Pius was in league with the Nazi's. It would be o.k. to skip through the middle chapters on Pope Pius (if you are a non-catholic) and read the last chapters, then go back and read the middle section to get the details. I can understand why Catholics would really want to get this detailed information, but I found it just a little tedious and I wanted to focus on the cold war and beyond to the present day. Otherwise this book is a fabulous read!
2452412
this is a fine narrative account of what happened in Laos. I lived in the country for several years in the 1990's and my wife is Lao. This book tells the story of the American involvement, and it is pretty clear from the author's account that it was a huge historic misstep by the US. Bill Lair was clearly haunted by what his creation became. very good book
2410711
I am about half way through this book and am very impressed.  It is a clear well written account of the history of the United States from the start of the Depression through the end of WWII.  It provides accounts of the attitude of people with different views.  It is not biased.  There are numerous parallels to our world today and sadly shows that mistakes are frequently repeated even though the book was written in the 1990's.
508603
This book was awesome! Forgetting about the rift, this is one of the most informative books I've found that is specifically about American religion and the SGI-USA (NSA). It made me deepen my reflection of, "What if". Great graphics and comparative data. Rate this this book very high for we Americans. At one time, we as an organization were very (almost over the top) patriotic. That period defined my love of country and the desperate need for Kosen Rufu in America. America (us) should get back to being the trail blazer for the world. Just saying.
1893600
This book is excellent insight into how the European elite media and academics are spinning the reality from the consequences of Islamic, shariah law, ways of life. This is a perfect time, with the inside ATTACK on Fort Hood and how American media is moving toward Europe's failed political correctness and "diversity." It's sad what Europe is allowing to happen to their continent, but they are well aware of what's going on and where their desire of being "liked" is leading them, and all European societies. It's absolutely disgusting, the anti-American attitude of a great majority of Europeans, considering throughout history America has saved their freedom and continues to provide their safety from Russia and tyranny. It's as Bawer stated, you would think that America was invading Europe and trying to take over the world in the 1940's and Germany and Russia saved the continent. European society embraces our culture, as far as movies, music, and lifestyle is concerned but hates every concept of American freedom and personal ambition that allows anyone to achieve whatever they desire. They're obsessed with everything America does and criticize our every move, but provide no answers or solutions, other than dialogue and concessions to dissenters, to solve international/domestic problems. I've never cared much about what Europe does, as long as it doesn't pose a grave threat to my freedom and this book further justifies my attitude towards them. The ideas they are pushing of never criticizing anyone for anything they do (in their own countries) is leading them towards Islamic tyranny and complete loss of country and freedom, and I don't feel sorry for them. I just pray it doesn't happen to America. Great book! Everyone should read it and join the movement of preventing America's elites from taking us down the same road.
2393812
A careful, even handed, well written dissertation of not only the facts of the disaster, but an explanation of how and why. Easily understood that it wasn't some evil stupidity, but a function of competitiveness and not necessarily greed, but the drive for success, coupled with mistakes and blindness of the size of the risk. The inability or willful ignorance to see that the future held financial collapse was contributed greatly by government watchdogs blindness.
4627211
A concise yet fact-dense explanation of the macroeconomic reasons why America is the Weimar Republic and psychological reasons why candidate Trump is America's lower middle class hero. Every American struggling to understand how on earth things got this sideways should read this.
3019138
Roubini presents and excellent explanation and dissection of the roots and causes of the 2008 to present economic crises.  Easily understandable, yet complex enough to include a detailed analysis of the disaster.

Unfortunately, the second half of the book on remedies and solutions follows the Keynesian school, i.e. bigger government spending and government micromanagement of banking and similar institutions.  Clues of his school of thinking are contained throughout the book, although they key ones can be found in the "Acknowledgements" section of the book, which few people read. Aside from thanking and acknowleding the usual people --friends, colleagues, publisher, etc.,he specifically thanks architects of the Obama "recovery" plan, including Larry Summers and(Obama'sTreasury Secretary) Tim Geithner.  Also, being an economist at New York University closes the argument that he is clearly a leftist economist.  Also highly revealing is his statement: "George Soros kindly hosted me in his summer home while I wrote parts of the book and has always been for me a model of a 'Renaissance man."  George Soros, for those who do not know, is an uber-leftist billionaire activist whose goals include a "new world order," redistribution of wealth from rich countries and individuals and countries to poorer ones, and a one world government.

Despite this leftist orientation, Nouriel Roubini's book is well worth reading, as long as you know where is is coming from, and that his prescriptions for more government power, regulation and spending could very well spell disaster.  Nevertheless, there is some merit in some of his arguments, mainly for the problem of "moral hazard," i.e., bankers and other financial managers taking risks with other people's money (mainly the taxpayers), without assuming any of the associated risks of these foolish investments.  But ironically, he seems be firmly in the Obama camp, which has advocated and executed these government bailouts and massive intervention by the Fed.

I recommend this only to people sophisticated enough to understand the above.
4218910
If you want to know how we got into the mess we are, read this book!  Armed with the facts I am amazed at how the American Public, and especially the conservative Christian public has been feed a pack of lies and we ate it ALL!
2761869
Kevin Robert Ryan did a great job and terrific research to show you who really pulled this off and hoodwinked the American people.
Time to get these people and put them in jail.
2830818
I purchased a copy of "The Education Enigma: What Happened To American Education"(Paperback) by Bruce Price on March 29th. I have found the book to be most interesting and informative. As a retired engineer, I have always been baffled at the consistently poor education being provided by the public schools. Now I understand why. I recommend this book to anyone who also has had questions. It is well written, entertaining, and short enough to be read casually on a business trip, or before retiring for the night. My youngest son who is currently a sophomore in college also read through the book and really liked it. I hope Mr. Price writes more books on American education in the future. GWK
4084661
If you had asked me how I felt about House of Cards after I had read the first fifty pages I would have told you that the book is terrific.  Cohan's very clear explaination of the beginnings of the Bear Stearns debacle are excellent.  Few news sources recount precisely what caused the meltdown over mortgage-backed securities. The newspapers have been next to worthless.  You hear about balloon mortgages, loose lending standards and a lot of confusing jargon and "trust" and "lack of faith," but never an explanation of how the loss of value escalated so far beyond the default rate and how Bear Stearns fell apart so incredibly fast.  Cohan tells you how it all happened in a straightforward fashion that makes you wonder how much our politicians and commentators understand about the meltdown.

Unfortunately, once these questions are cleared up, House of Cards becomes a data dump of the memories of Bear Stearns people.  What is missing, for many people who worked on Wall Street,  is the 800 pound gurilla in the room.

Beyond the money, a lot of people detested Bear Stearns.  This is NOT why Bear Stearns fell apart, but it did affect how Bear Stearns fell apart. There's an old saying that its wise to be nice to people when you are on your way up, because those are the ones you are going to see on your way down. In the opinions of the ranks of those kicked when Bear was in the chips, House of Cards may well have been subtitled "A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess at Bear Stearns."  I'm not sure that's completely fair.  There was certainly plenty of excess and hubris to go around--but there you have it.

To put it in the simplist way possible, Bear Stearns folks often did not "play well with others," unless those others were clients. The Liars Poker culture was long gone in most firms but not at Bear Stearns.  Employees there could be extremely abraisive,to everyone outside of their clients and other Bear Stearns employees. Some people worked for Bear Stearns for their entire careers, and loved it.  But Wall Street is full of people who went to Bear Stearns and found themselves terribly upset by the culture.  They left and they never stopped hating Bear Stearns, and talking about hating Bear Stearns.

JP Morgan Chase is bank built of many other banks.  Those banks had different cultures but almost everyone at a large bank knows that you can fire someone but you don't curse at them. They can be ruthless but they usually make the effort to look like a class act.

Had Cohan explained the simple fact, that many people had it in personally, for Bear Stearns--and that Bear Stearns trusted no one--ever, it  would have clarified why people behaved as they did in many of the conversations that Cohan recounts.  It would have explained why Bear Stearns people didn't trust JP Morgan even beyond the issue of low stock price.  It would have explained why Bear turned down some of the acquisitions it could have had, in the early 2000s.  It would have explained the otherwise bizarre management decisions that Bear Stearns sometimes made to put someone in charge of something, who was clearly not competitent, just because he was a Bear Stearns guy.

I'm not a Bear Stearns expert, but that is exactly why I am so disappointed in this book.  The transactions and the money are one thing, but its the people who make for a good story, and explain how people make decisions. Too often Cohan recounts the Bear Stearns side of a disagreement without explaining why that point of view was bound to drive JP Morgan right up the wall.  By the time I was two thirds of the way through this book I had had enough.  I had a lot of facts, but I wanted more insight.  Too bad.

Those first fifty to one hundred pages really were good though!