Product DescriptionThe bestselling author reveals how the U.S. financial sector has hijacked our economy and put America’s 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 Phillips’s 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. America’s current challenges (and failures) run striking parallels to the decline of previous leading world economic powers—especially 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 megafinance—the 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 world’s 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 Phillips’s last book, whose dire warnings are now proving frighteningly accurate.
What Others Say
Phillips
This is a great book about the origins our our current financial straits. It's not a light read but compelling and thought provoking to be sure.
It details America's rise as global financial hegemon and offers predictions about what the future of the global economy will look like. Phillips offers four predictions for the future of the world economy namely that (1) Asia will dominate the global economy by 2030 (2) China will be the dominant player within Asia (3) Some city with a large Chinese population will eventually emerge as a financial capital, rivaling London and New York and (4) the leading currency in Asia will have a global reserve function by 2030 (p. 182).
There are also a number of interesting facts ... Read More
A Major Disappointment
This review covers the audio version of Bad Money, which runs 8 cds. I am a fan of Kevin Phillips, so this audio book was a major disappointment. I found the text disorganized, ill-focused, pompous, and too long by a half. It wasn't until well into disk 2 that he stated his major thesis, then he went off AGAIN on some tangent or another, jumping forward and backward in time, disgressing repeatedly, alternating between being descriptive and analytic. I couldn't follow "the plot" and quit listening mid-way through disk 3. Scott Brick, the reader, manages to overdramatize much of the text, further exacerbating the unpleasant listening experience. The 8 CD set of Bad Money is a waste of money and in my opinion Kevin Phillips should quit writing ... Read More
Why isn't this guy President?
Good book. I was surprised at how right on he is. We are even studying Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism as a companion to our Bible Study (who would have thought).
This Only LOOKS Like A Book About the Economy
One would expect that a book subtitled "Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism" would answer two basic questions: (1) What is wrong with the economy, and (2) How did it get that way? As a bonus, we might also like to know just who is responsible for the incipient Great Depression II, so that we can begin erecting gallows and fashioning enough nooses, and we might like to entertain suggestions as to how the crisis might be solved, but it turns out that Dr. Phillips knows no more about economics than do you or I or your local greengrocer. As a result, the book meanders in a desultory manner around various topics that are at best only tangentially related to our financial woes, and most are irrelevant.
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Bad Money is a good read!
This is a must read for any elected pol who thinks they know whats going on.
