Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism

by Kevin Phillips, Scott Brick (Narrated by)

Overview

Read by Scott Brick

In a devastating follow-up to his last bestseller, American Theocracy, Kevin Phillips describes the consequences of our catastrophic economic policies, our mounting debt, our collapsing housing market, our diminishing oil, and the end of American domination of world markets.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781429592147
Publisher:	Penguin Group (USA), Inc.
Publication date:	04/01/2008
Edition description:	Unabridged

About the Author

Kevin Phillips has been a political and economic commentator for more than three decades. A former White House strategist, he has been a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times and National Public Radio, and has written for Harper's Magazine and Time. He is the author of ten books, including The New York Times bestsellers American Theocracy and American Dynasty.

Table of Contents

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

Editorial Reviews

There is no one quite like Kevin Phillips. As a political strategist, he earned fame and presidential recognition as the author of The Coming Republican Majority, but since then his astute political and economic commentary has cut across party lines, excoriating leaders on both sides for ineptitude and cowardice. Bad Money might be best seen as the even more focused sequel to his American Theocracy. Clearly, Phillips thinks that the situation has grown worse since that 2006 book: "The parallel to the historical Achilles heels of previous leading world economic powers -- global over-reach, worn-out politics, excessive debt, financialization and exhausted energy regions -- are chilling." No simple jeremiad, Bad Money is an alarum against the politics of evasion.

Bad Money is perfectly timed for the present, as the foul stench of moldering debt and American decline lingers in the concrete canyons of Manhattan…Phillips is an entertaining writer. His prose is full of jabs and one-two combinations that keep things moving briskly.
—The New York Times

Daniel Gross

Longtime political and economic commentator Phillips continues the theme of his American Theocracy(2006)-also narrated by Scott Brick (www.scottbrickpresents.com)-with this gloomy projection of a major economic storm brewing on the horizon. Here, Phillips again draws parallels between our current situation and the declines of 17thcentury Spain, the 18thcentury Dutch Republic, and early 20thcentury Britain, parallels over which historians and economists will likely quibble. However, even if his moody pessimism is not entirely defensible, his warnings should provide useful fodder for enlightened, learned voters in the exhausting 2008 presidential campaign. Brick's steady pacing will help listeners sustain focus throughout this informationpacked read. Recommended for university libraries supporting business and economics curricula and for larger public libraries. [Also recorded by Books on Tape. 8 CDs. unabridged. ISBN 9781415949900
—Dale Farris

Library Journal