Bad Money
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Review
"A harrowing picture of national danger that no American reader will welcome, but that none should ignore. . . . Frighteningly persuasive."
-Alan Brinkley, "The New York Times"
"An indispensable presentation of the case against things as they are."
-"Time"
"Sobering . . . positively alarming."
-"Los Angeles Times"
-Alan Brinkley, "The New York Times"
"An indispensable presentation of the case against things as they are."
-"Time"
"Sobering . . . positively alarming."
-"Los Angeles Times"
Product Description
In his acclaimed book American Theocracy, Kevin Phillips warned of the perilous interaction of debt, financial recklessness, and the spiking cost (and growing scarcity) of oil - warnings that are proving to be frighteningly accurate. Now, in his most significant and timely book yet, Phillips takes the full measure of this crisis. They are part of what he calls "bad money" - not just the depreciated dollar, but also the dangerous attitudes and the flawed products of wayward mega-finance. His devastating conclusion: In its hubris, the financial sector has hijacked the American economy and put our very global future at risk - and it may be too late to stop it.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book is disturbing in many ways. Judging from its footnotes, it was completed in early November 2007, but everything it predicted at the time has come true one year later: mayhem in global finance. I hope that since its publication in late March 2008 it has become been a bedtable book for policy makers, economics professors and other financial pundits, because it is a passionate account of all that has gone wrong of late. It has historical depth, and is well informed regarding the US political landscape that facilitated the outrageous reliance on the uncontrolled churning around of cash and derivatives as the basis of the US economy, and much else.
A major tenet of Mr. Philips' book is that bad money chases away good money, and bad capitalism chases away good capitalism. Financial services elbowing out industry, agriculture, transport, telecoms, etc. is, according to Mr. Phillips bad, and proven by history.
Another reviewer of this book blamed Mr. Phillips for not providing solutions. However, the book provides plenty of such, but they have a horizon far beyond the current, inept efforts to stop a downward spiral, such as trying to use taxpayers money to buy toxic products from irresponsible banks without giving taxpayers a stake in the stricken companies.
What is most shocking to this European reviewer, is the lack of warning to European savers and investors of the deluge predicted so well by Mr Phillips. Our press media have failed. Weeks ago a Dutch economics professor confessed on TV that he sold all his stock in September 2007. Kevin Phillips was only halfway into writing his excellent book then.
How come? Who else knew, institutions, persons? Kevin Phillips' book reads as if it was written yesterday, but it is a year old. If all this was known a year ago, why now such tremendous losses and future hardship?
A major tenet of Mr. Philips' book is that bad money chases away good money, and bad capitalism chases away good capitalism. Financial services elbowing out industry, agriculture, transport, telecoms, etc. is, according to Mr. Phillips bad, and proven by history.
Another reviewer of this book blamed Mr. Phillips for not providing solutions. However, the book provides plenty of such, but they have a horizon far beyond the current, inept efforts to stop a downward spiral, such as trying to use taxpayers money to buy toxic products from irresponsible banks without giving taxpayers a stake in the stricken companies.
What is most shocking to this European reviewer, is the lack of warning to European savers and investors of the deluge predicted so well by Mr Phillips. Our press media have failed. Weeks ago a Dutch economics professor confessed on TV that he sold all his stock in September 2007. Kevin Phillips was only halfway into writing his excellent book then.
How come? Who else knew, institutions, persons? Kevin Phillips' book reads as if it was written yesterday, but it is a year old. If all this was known a year ago, why now such tremendous losses and future hardship?
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a very accessible account of the stranglehold finance has on the world economy. People shifting money around and not really creating anything and yet they amass unheard of fortunes. The focus is the US economy and Phillips is convinced that like Spain in the 16th century, Holland in the 17th and England soon after the sun is setting on US imperialism. Can the rot be stopped? How can the US confront the rise of the BRIC countries and of OPEC and a militant Islamic region? This book puts the fear of the axis of evil in one though I think most of the world is fed up with American hegemony and hubris anyway. My view is that those about to take America's mantle are no better behaved, maybe even worse. This book is a bit dated(!) but let us take heed of Santayana's quip about those who cannot remember the past.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In this brilliant book, Kevin Phillips, a long-time student of the USA, exposes Wall Street's greed, criminality and stupidity. He also exposes the governments which thought they had `picked a winner' in Wall Street as a whole. They passed laws keeping finance outside the law and gave hedge funds a licence to create debts which acted as money.
The USA's bloated financial sector grew from 12% of GNP in the 1980s to 21% by 2005, at the expense of manufacturing industry, which fell from 25% to 12% of GNP. The market does not help industry by its bets on changes in asset prices.
The problem is still Wall Street's toxic debts in banking, insurance, real estate and securities. From 1987 to 2006 the USA's total credit market debt rose from $11 trillion to $44 trillion, 340% of GDP. Wall Street has borrowed $15 trillion since 1983. Derivatives were $615 trillion in 2008, up from $14 trillion in 1993. Mortgage debt doubled to $10 trillion.
Obama has cosseted, not controlled Wall Street, aiding even greater concentration of economic power. The bailouts rescued the five biggest commercial banks (Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, the Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Wachovia), and the five biggest investment banks (Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers), the top four mortgage firms and insurance giant AIG.
But Obama has not required the banks to lend to the real economy. Instead, federal dollars are funding gross bonuses and salaries.
Phillips goes on to show how the new seven sisters are not private US firms, but state-owned oil companies: Saudi Aramco, Gazprom (Russia), PetroChina, the National Iranian Oil Company, Petrobras (Brazil), Petronas (Malaysia) and Petroleum de Venezuela. They control 75% of world petroleum reserves. OPEC is moving towards pricing oil in euros not dollars.
Phillips shows how the attack on Iraq led to soaring oil prices, transferring vast wealth from the USA and Britain to the oil-producing nations. He stresses the need for energy security and calls on Americans to abandon `the hubris of military and financial imperialism', to strengthen their manufacturing industry and curb their bankers.
The USA's bloated financial sector grew from 12% of GNP in the 1980s to 21% by 2005, at the expense of manufacturing industry, which fell from 25% to 12% of GNP. The market does not help industry by its bets on changes in asset prices.
The problem is still Wall Street's toxic debts in banking, insurance, real estate and securities. From 1987 to 2006 the USA's total credit market debt rose from $11 trillion to $44 trillion, 340% of GDP. Wall Street has borrowed $15 trillion since 1983. Derivatives were $615 trillion in 2008, up from $14 trillion in 1993. Mortgage debt doubled to $10 trillion.
Obama has cosseted, not controlled Wall Street, aiding even greater concentration of economic power. The bailouts rescued the five biggest commercial banks (Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, the Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Wachovia), and the five biggest investment banks (Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers), the top four mortgage firms and insurance giant AIG.
But Obama has not required the banks to lend to the real economy. Instead, federal dollars are funding gross bonuses and salaries.
Phillips goes on to show how the new seven sisters are not private US firms, but state-owned oil companies: Saudi Aramco, Gazprom (Russia), PetroChina, the National Iranian Oil Company, Petrobras (Brazil), Petronas (Malaysia) and Petroleum de Venezuela. They control 75% of world petroleum reserves. OPEC is moving towards pricing oil in euros not dollars.
Phillips shows how the attack on Iraq led to soaring oil prices, transferring vast wealth from the USA and Britain to the oil-producing nations. He stresses the need for energy security and calls on Americans to abandon `the hubris of military and financial imperialism', to strengthen their manufacturing industry and curb their bankers.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Devastating critique of the U.S.
Many readers already admire Kevin Phillips's previous books, with their incisive analysis of U.S. politics. Read more
Published on 27 Mar 2009 by Rolf Dobelli
Bad Money
Kevin Phillips has an amazing grasp of economic/political/religious data and has organized massive detail into about 5 major themes. Read more
Published on 10 Mar 2009 by Richard W. Baker
An Overlong and Not Very Insightful Look at Excess Debt, Peak Oil, Bad...
The short message from this book is that the U.S. economy is in trouble and that trouble is about to get worse. Why? Read more
Published on 3 Jun 2008 by Donald Mitchell
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