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 a 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.
Longtime political and economic commentator Phillips continues the theme of his American Theocracy(2006)-also narrated by Scott Brick (
—Dale Farris
Kevin Phillips has been a political and economic commentator for more than three decades. A former White House strategist, he is a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times and NPR and writes for Harper’s and Time. His books include New York Times bestsellers The Politics of Rich and Poor and Wealth and Democracy.
Preface to the Revised Edition: After the Fall: The Inexcusable Failure of American Fianance xi
1 Introduction: The Panic of August 1
2 Finance: The New Real Economy? 29
3 Bullnomics: Its Favoritism and Fictions 69
4 Securitization: The Insecurity of It All 96
5 Peak Oil: A Potential Pivot of the 2010s 120
6 The Politics of Evasion: Debt, Finance, and Oil 154
7 The Global Crisis of American Capitalism 179
Afterword: Speculative Capitalism Endangered: The Domestic and Global Consequenses 210
Appendix: Global Public Opinion and the Loss of Respect for the United States, 2003-7 237
Notes 241
Index 261
TulaneGirl
Posted December 17, 2008
Kevin Phillips gives a provocative analysis of our current economic crisis. Except that incredibly he did it a year before it came to pass. We are now living the predictions made in this book. He also gives a good analysis of how it came to be - the mechanisms that allowed it to happen, the bad decisions that were made, the hubris that created the environment. And he does it all in a user friendly way.
5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
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Posted August 25, 2009
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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.
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted May 1, 2008
Kevin Phillips once again provides a thoughtful and provocative analysis of the economic and social condition of the United States. Not for the mindlessly jingoistic: the USA needs a little tough-love if it wants to maintain its leadership role in the world and Phillips provides great background for the tough decisions ahead, if there are any politicians or citiziness out there brave enough to make and fight for them.
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted July 18, 2009
The author's incisive opinions and broad knowledge make this volume essential reading for thoughtful readers.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted January 18, 2010
Bad Money offers an in-depth look at the major contributing factors that caused our current recession. It provides historical background as well as the application of empirical research. This combination makes it suitable reading whether or not one possesses a strong business acumen.
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Posted September 21, 2008
Well what can you say. The U.S. Goverment is going to spend at least 700 Billion dollars to bail out the companies of these criminally negiligent a__holes.
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Overview
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 a 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 ...