Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism | 
 enlarge | Author: Kevin Phillips
Publisher: Viking Adult
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  34 reviews
Sales Rank: 638
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.1
ISBN: 0670019070
Dewey Decimal Number: 330.973
EAN: 9780670019076
ASIN: 0670019070
Publication Date: April 15, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
The bestselling author reveals how the U.S. financial sector has hijacked our economy and put Americas global future at risk
In American Theocracy, Kevin Phillips warned us of the perilous interaction of debt, financial recklessness, and the increasing cost of scarce oil. The current housing and mortgage debacle is proof once more of Phillipss prescience, and only the first harbinger of a national crisis. In Bad Money, Phillips describes the consequences of our misguided economic policies, our mounting debt, our collapsing housing market, our threatened oil, and the end of American domination of world markets. Americas current challenges (and failures) run striking parallels to the decline of previous leading world economic powersespecially the Dutch and British. Global overreach, worn-out politics, excessive debt, and exhausted energy regimes are all chilling signals that the United States is crumbling as the world superpower.
Bad money refers to a new phenomenon in wayward megafinancethe emergence of a U.S. economy that is globally dependent and dominated by hubris-driven financial services. Also bad are the risk miscalculations and strategic abuses of new multitrillion-dollar products such as asset-backed securities and the lure of buccaneering vehicles like hedge funds. Finally, the U.S. dollar has been turned into bad money as it has weakened and become vulnerable to the worlds other currencies. In all these ways, bad finance has failed the American people and pointed U.S. capitalism toward a global crisis. Bad Money is the perfect follow- up to Phillipss last book, whose dire warnings are now proving frighteningly accurate.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 29 more reviews...
 Losing Control July 22, 2008
Kevin Phillips describes immediate problems with the economy, that is, energy shortage, dollar decline, and mushrooming debt. Few are thinking about what it will take to avoid major recession and how badly a recession will be compounded with huge debts.
The end result is loss of control. Growth of debt and credit industry leads to public loss of control of its economic future - a result of higher inflation coupled with higher interest rates producing enormous debts. The financial sector now dominates the industrial sector. The Federal Reserve Board would play a major role in determining the future, yet it is controlled in part by the banking sector which is not elected.
Phillips' style is arduous yet candid. When style is compounded with the bad news this can be a trying book. Phillips makes up for it with a multitude of important points.
 Sound Message, Poor Writing July 18, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The book brought forth a significant message about what ails America and how/why the dollar is facing collapse. The problem is that Phillips writes in a high-brow academic style and with an assumption of knowledge probably not possessed by the average reader. He has been poorly served by his editor/publisher in this regard. This important and timely work could've delivered the same message to a much wider audience had he written in plain English. Phillips gets an 'A' for concepts/ideas/analysis, but a 'C' for rendering his thoughts in a marketable manner. Pity.
 Bad Money Tedious, no solutions July 17, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Phillips' book Bad Money is one of the most poorly written, tedious books I have ever tried to read. It has a lot of disturbing facts through-out; things the american public should be informed about, and elected officials should be held accountable for. But GEEZ! Why doesn't the author abide by basic writing principles, for example having one main subject per paragraph, clear and concise language, etc. The book reads like a rough draft.
What are we supposed to DO about the problem??? No help here.
Bad Money July 8, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I found parts of this book to be very difficult to comprehend and enjoy, i.e. the details of the financial industry and their various methods/schemes. However, the chapters on Peak Oil and the Politics of Delusion were outstanding! In fact, I would recommend the purchase of the book for the Peak Oil chapter alone. Every American should read that chapter; especially those who think we're fighting a military war with the rest of the world. In fact, we're fighting an economic war with the rest of the world and we're losing it; partially because of the slow, steady drain that fighting a military war brings with it.
Makes you want to put your money in the mattress July 4, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Mr. Phillips hardly needs another glowing review, but his analysis will make you want to pull your money out of whatever U.S.-based investment it is in now, and stick it in the mattress (Don't! Inflation will eat it up). What blows me away is that Mr. Phillips wrote the book I wanted to publish. In fact, the prospectus I wrote at the end of last year to interest my publisher in such a work eerily echoes almost all of the major themes hammered on in "Bad Money."
What Phillips does best is profusely illustrate and provide evidence for the complicity of the traditional Wall Street firms, the "shadow" banking system (private equity and hedge funds), and the US Government (Federal Reserve, Secretary of the Treasury, etc) in perpetuating the myth of U.S. economic well-being. What you are led to conclude is the economic crisis we are currently experiencing, not even close to bottoming out, is simply the five year delay of the collapse of the dot.com, telecom, and energy (e.g., Enron) sectors, caused by the same financial shenanigans perpetrated by the same financial engineers.
The only weakness I can see in the book is that Phillips only hints at who these people are and how they seem to move comfortably from one economic crisis to another. He provides a glancing history of how other world powers were felled by their infactuation with financial mercantilism, facilitated by migrant financial engineers. While he acknowledges that there's more here the reader needs to know about, it seemed painfully obvious to this reader that he felt this was a line in inquiry better left to others.
Thankfully, Phillips sets aside any poliitcal and economic ideology. He is unsparing in his critique of politicians from all sides of the spectrum and shows how this crisis has nothing to do with party affiliation and everything to do with the crony-capitalism that has reduced free-market economics to a shadow of its former self.
Every American with an inquiry mind should read this book.
Jason Makansi, author of "Lights Out: The Electricity Crisis, the Global Economy, and What It Means To You."
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