Meltdown tells the story of the financial crisis that destroyed the West's investment banks, brought the global economy to its knees, and undermined three decades of neoliberal orthodoxy. Covering the credit crunch and its aftershocks from the economic front line, BBC journalist Paul Mason explores the roots of the US and UK's financial hubris, documenting the real world causes and consequences from the Ford Factory, to Wall Street, to the City of London. In response to the immense challenge now facing the existing economic system, he outlines an era of hyper-regulated capitalism that could emerge from the wreckage.
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Review
A page turning account ... Mason is refreshingly clear-eyed and angry. --Will Hutton, Guardian
What people need is a reliable guide to the financial crisis... Meltdown is the book they are looking for. --John Gray, New Statesman
A lucid and sharply polemical account of the crisis. --Oliver Kamm, The Times
What people need is a reliable guide to the financial crisis... Meltdown is the book they are looking for. --John Gray, New Statesman
A lucid and sharply polemical account of the crisis. --Oliver Kamm, The Times
About the Author
Paul Mason is the economics editor of BBC Newsnight. He has covered globalisation and social justice stories from locations across the world, including the USA, Latin America, Africa and China. His book Live Working or Die Fighting was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. Paul's blog on the financial crisis is at www.meltdowntheendoftheageofgreed.com
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
40 of 42 people found the following review helpful
By T. J. Rich
Format:Paperback
Mason is BBC Newsnight's economics editor and one of the most cogent, far-thinking and incisive writers on business I've read. 'Meltdown' was written as the financial crisis unfolded, and it reads both as a cold eye on the fundamental flaws in the global capital markets and an on-the-spot report detailing the hot-blooded wrestling that has taken place in government offices and corporate boardrooms. The roots of the current crisis are complex, but it's disappointing that so many business writers (and business people) have collapsed into intellectual nihilism in response. It's not impossible to understand what structured investment vehicles are, and why they're affecting almost all of us in some way right now. Mason not only explains what went on, he also provides a view on what is going on, and what it might mean for the future of business, finance, workers, international relations and the world. This book is a rare example of business writing that combines clarity, sophistication and personal perspective, but it's also an invaluable hint of business issues to come. And - refreshingly - it's a delight to read: concise, personable, flowing. Highest common denominator writing.
29 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Paul Mason, the economics editor of BBC Newsnight, has written a powerful study of the crash. He surveys the financial meltdown, the decade that led to the disaster, and the life and death of neo-liberalism.
Gordon Brown told us in June 2007 that deregulating Britain's banks would be `the beginning of a new golden age'. The bankers lied that they took high risks so they deserved their high rewards. But they took the profits from industrial production and put them into finance, not back into industry: "the end result is that profits are funnelled from ordinary savers into the pockets of the rich."
The bankers created the credit bubbles in dotcom, housing and commodities. Speculators bought technologies, houses, oil, rice, wheat and soya, until all the bubbles burst, laying waste those parts of the real economy.
After the financial crisis, the governments bought the banks' debts as dearly as possible, so as not to penalise them, running up huge debts and printing money, to save the banks, whatever the cost to the economy. There are $10 trillions' worth of toxic loans, only $1 trillion of which has been written off so far.
The world's workforce has doubled since 1979 to three billion. This huge supply of labour has tilted the balance of power from labour towards capital. So now we need to fight smarter for higher wages, and for a different economy.
To do so, workers will have to reject what Mason calls the `low-level, non-ideological, anti-political culture' of the anti-globalisation movement. He points out, "In the same month that half a million American workers would lose their jobs, the main focus of the Non-Governmental Organisations leaflets was `Don't forget aid to Africa'." We should reject the NGOs' slogan `Think globally, act locally'. We have to act in our nation-states, in our national unions.
Mason observes, "Capitalism's tendency has been to expand the power of the market: to push for the maximum freedom for market forces and the destruction of all ties - family, clan, nation and class - not based on free exchange." So we have to save our nation and our class from destruction by the capitalist class.
Gordon Brown told us in June 2007 that deregulating Britain's banks would be `the beginning of a new golden age'. The bankers lied that they took high risks so they deserved their high rewards. But they took the profits from industrial production and put them into finance, not back into industry: "the end result is that profits are funnelled from ordinary savers into the pockets of the rich."
The bankers created the credit bubbles in dotcom, housing and commodities. Speculators bought technologies, houses, oil, rice, wheat and soya, until all the bubbles burst, laying waste those parts of the real economy.
After the financial crisis, the governments bought the banks' debts as dearly as possible, so as not to penalise them, running up huge debts and printing money, to save the banks, whatever the cost to the economy. There are $10 trillions' worth of toxic loans, only $1 trillion of which has been written off so far.
The world's workforce has doubled since 1979 to three billion. This huge supply of labour has tilted the balance of power from labour towards capital. So now we need to fight smarter for higher wages, and for a different economy.
To do so, workers will have to reject what Mason calls the `low-level, non-ideological, anti-political culture' of the anti-globalisation movement. He points out, "In the same month that half a million American workers would lose their jobs, the main focus of the Non-Governmental Organisations leaflets was `Don't forget aid to Africa'." We should reject the NGOs' slogan `Think globally, act locally'. We have to act in our nation-states, in our national unions.
Mason observes, "Capitalism's tendency has been to expand the power of the market: to push for the maximum freedom for market forces and the destruction of all ties - family, clan, nation and class - not based on free exchange." So we have to save our nation and our class from destruction by the capitalist class.
21 of 24 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A convincing account of the causes and consequences of the global crisis
26 April 2009
Format:Paperback
Paul Mason's Meltdown provides a very useful primer on the financial crisis that began in the Summer of 2007 and is now working its way through the global economy. He is particularly informative and clear about the twists and turns of the various failures of market confidence and the government bailouts that followed. Unlike many commentators, Mason also offers a clear set of proposals for stabilising the financial system in the future.
It is too early to have a definitive account of the crisis. But Mason's book is extremely useful. He also has a good eye for the telling anecdote. I don't often write Amazon reviews but in this case I thought I would make an exception.
It is too early to have a definitive account of the crisis. But Mason's book is extremely useful. He also has a good eye for the telling anecdote. I don't often write Amazon reviews but in this case I thought I would make an exception.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A really good read
This is wonderfully informative and is written in a very accessible style. Here is a Northern lad, telling this complicated financial and human tale in a way that opens it up and... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Mr. D. Cunningham
4.0 out of 5 stars
Meltdown
Economics is difficult for most of us and so a book that clearly explains theories and stops in mid flow to interpret jargon into plain English is welcome. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Germinal
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent
Clear and easily digestible overview of the banking crisis from one of the few mainstream journalists worth listening to. Read more
Published 16 months ago by P. Duval
1.0 out of 5 stars
Shockingly ignorant book
Everytime there is a crisis, leftists try to seize the opportunity and put up a jolly good show, creating the next, bigger one. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Misesfollower
5.0 out of 5 stars
Deciphering the crunch.
Paul Mason is a brilliant journalist.His abilities with language and his talent for making the incredibly complex something even I can grasp, is invaluable. Read more
Published 20 months ago by stingyjane
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliantly written
This is the best book I have ever read on modern economics, its clarity, clear clear sightedness and birds eye view of the events of the financial crash are enlighting because Paul... Read more
Published 22 months ago by J. Maher
3.0 out of 5 stars
Predictable, but interesting in its way
The first thing to say is that Paul Mason has a history of being on the (fairly) hard left.
I have no idea what his current political persuasion is, but I think it's unlikely... Read more
I have no idea what his current political persuasion is, but I think it's unlikely... Read more
Published on 28 April 2011 by MonsterMunch
5.0 out of 5 stars
CAPITALISM AS OPPOSED TO WHAT?
Paul Mason is the economics editor of the BBC's flagship Newsnight programme. He explicitly says that this is a journalist's account of the current, and still ongoing, world... Read more
Published on 24 Mar 2011 by DAVID BRYSON
5.0 out of 5 stars
We're Still Melting Down
You might know Paul Mason as Newsnight's economics editor. If so, then the sound of his voice probably brings up mixed emotions for you: most of his appearances over the last few... Read more
Published on 3 Mar 2011 by P Newall
5.0 out of 5 stars
A brilliant and easy to understand explanation of the global financial...
This book explains in simple terms (most of the time) how the Financial crisis happened, why it happened and names the people responsible for both making it happen and for allowing... Read more
Published on 15 Jan 2011 by S. Moore
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