Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism
Viking Adult - Viking Adult
Release date: 2008-04-15
Hardcover
Author: Kevin Phillips
Contemporary Economic Situations And Conditions, Political Science, Politics / Current Events, Politics/International Relations, Political Science / Government / National, Public Policy - Economic Policy, Government - General, 2001-, 20th century, Economic Conditions, Economic Policy, United States
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Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism
Date undefinedAfter listening to this audio book I felt like I was beginning to understand some of the financial quagmire big money has gotten our country into, perhaps it will make me a wiser investor. I have bought this book for several of my friends.
Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism
Date undefinedKevin Philips has written an excellent book describing the current meltdown of the US economy and building a strong case that the US may well be headed towards a second great depression.
He also makes the connection with scarcity of cheap oil, arguing that this is one of the reasons that the US may fall from its position of leadership.
The facts presented are chilling, but present only part of the story.
For years, Americans have been ignoring one of the most serious problems they face, and that is how population growth makes inevitable a scarcity of resources.
Quite recently the population within the US has been growing at about .9% per year, meaning that all resources (water, food, oil and oil substitutes) must grow at .9% per year for the average standard of living to remain constant. Population growth within the US is almost entirely due to illegal immigration and the increased fertility of illegal immigrants.
In spite of all of the press coverage of first the ozone hole, then global warming, then peak oil and its consequences, virtually nobody makes the connection that overpopulation is the underlying cause for all of these problems.
The reason is that it would demand that the US adopt policies that stop illegal immigration and give a full range of family planning options to all who wanted them, and these issues are highly unpopular in the first case with the left, in the second with the far right. Both policies are opposed by religious groups, who have in effect prevented an informed discussion of population issues.
The basic thesis of this book is correct: depletion of oil sounds the death knell for US supremacy in world ecoomic affairs.
For decades we have been pretending that population growth does not matter because it can be superceded by technological progress and the resulting economic growth. For several decades, the "green revolution," largely based on the increased productivity that oil products could provide in food harvests, has enabled us to ignore population growth. For decades we were able to borrow from the Chinese and create arcane derivatives based upon mathematical models understood by only a few savants, thereby enabling a false sense of wealth among US consumers. Realizing that we were running out of the resource that made this pyramid scheme possible, we invaded Iraq, in an attempt to further delay the day of reckoning.
Now we must pay the piper. The results will not be easy to bear. In the period 1929-32, the Dow lost 89% of its value and unemployment rose to 25%. This time around, the collapse will end with a much lower average standard of living for US citizens, as they indeed begin to compete with an unlimited number of Indians and Chinese who are willing to do their jobs for pennies on the dollar.
Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism
Date undefinedThis 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 sprinkled throughout the book. One figure I found fascinating was the ranking of principal suppliers of crude oil to the US. It turns out that Canada is our leading source of oil, accounting for 1.85MM barrels per day. It's followed by Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Nigeria, Angola, Algeria, and Iraq (p. 139).
A great book, and one I could see myself re-reading again in 6 months.
