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Greedy Bastards: How We Can Stop Corporate Communists, Banksters, and Other Vampires from Sucking America Dry
The host of the eponymous MSNBC show, Dylan Ratigan offers a bold and original post-partisan program to resuscitate the American Dream.At a time of deep concern with the state of America’s economy and government, it seems that all the media can give us is talking (or screaming) heads who revel in partisan brinkmanship. Then there’s Dylan Ratigan—an award-winning journalist respected and admired across the political spectrum. In Greedy Bastards , he rips the lid off of our deeply crooked system—and offers a way out.Employing the nuanced reporting and critical analysis that have earned him so much respect, Ratigan describes the five “vampires” that are sucking the nation dry, including an educational system that values mediocrity above all else; a healthcare system that is among the priciest and least-effective infrastructures in the industrialized world; a political system in which lobbyists write legislation; a “master-slave” relationship with our Chinese bankers; and an addiction to foreign oil that has sapped our willingness to innovate. In offering solutions to these formidable and entrenched obstacles, he does nothing less than lay the groundwork for a political movement dedicated to tackling the rot at the heart of the country.In its desperation, America needs more than just endless stock tips and Wall Street navel-gazing. It needs passionate debate and smart policy—and a hero to take on the establishment. Dylan Ratigan is that hero, and this is the book that will rally people behind him.
256 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2012
48 people are currently reading
478 people want to read
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April 9, 2017
You know those books "Eat This, Not That" well if I published a book called "Read This, Not That," the first entry I would put in it would be "Read Dylan Ratigan's Greedy Bastards not Thomas Friedman's That Used to Be Us." While both books deal with the sorry state that this country is in, Friedman still has some right-wing delusions.
Ratigan just tells it like it is. Facts like the American finance and banking industry want to the world to be their gambling casino and when they loose all their bets, they want the American taxpayer to pay for it. Why not gamble all the time if there is no risk in it for you?
That greedy bastards in health care don't want there to be too many doctors and they want to keep medical costs high.
That this country has really become a plutocracy through the lobbying system and election contributions.
While no one may have all the answers for the dire situation that we are in, I beleive that Ratigan is right in suggesting to try to curb the greedy bastard's behavior in order to save the United States.
Ratigan just tells it like it is. Facts like the American finance and banking industry want to the world to be their gambling casino and when they loose all their bets, they want the American taxpayer to pay for it. Why not gamble all the time if there is no risk in it for you?
That greedy bastards in health care don't want there to be too many doctors and they want to keep medical costs high.
That this country has really become a plutocracy through the lobbying system and election contributions.
While no one may have all the answers for the dire situation that we are in, I beleive that Ratigan is right in suggesting to try to curb the greedy bastard's behavior in order to save the United States.
July 27, 2013
Some takeaways from this book:
1. From this book and others its becoming clearer to me--in the same way we must look at the world of communications differently after the Internet, we must look at our aspirations, the "American Dream" if you will. The grow up/raise kids for college, a job/career that truly calls to us and at which we need not spend every waking hour, a spouse chosen for love, kids, good schooling for the kids, and an owned-home can no longer be our ideal. Realistically, for most people, it is no longer affordable.
It begins for the child that must choose between foregoing the college experience of his dreams or--if he pursues it--graduating with tens of thousands of dollars in debt. Then there is the pursuit of career that truly calls to us--if its banking that truly calls to you, you may be able to earn enough to pay for the above. if its some other field, be wary. Similarly, if you do not mind giving your life to the office you might be able to wing it--but then, what's the point since you'll rarely see home and family?
In sum--what was standard just a few years ago--affordable health care, good public schools and affordable public colleges, lots of good paying jobs to choose from--under the guise of the free-market and capitalism, government and business have joined to create an extractionsim economy whereby the business interests, with the help of the elected politicians, extract more and more of the money that allowed the earlier "American Dream" to be possible.
Interestingly it is hard to see what the new Dream should look like. The old Dream is so clear in our minds and hard to let go. But we only hurt ourselves if we resist letting that old dream go.
The new dream: something more like tribal living, adult children living with parents, companies (e.g. Pixar, Google, Facebook) acting more like living spaces and families (though they are not your family which is a whole another issue!) people banding together to obtain what is no longer affordable on one's own.
2. Ratigan helped answer a question I'd had about why the Fed's quantitative easing hasn't yet created much inflation? He explains that this is in part because the dollar has "reserve currency status" which means that other countries must hold onto dollars so that they can use them to conduct large international business transactions. THis means then, as the Fed prints money reducing the value of the dollar, the value of the dollars held by other countries goes down as well. Further, at bottom, the inflationary impact is thus spread around a larger area so that it will take longer for us to feel it. Of course if we lose reserve currency status because we are not protecting the value of the dollar, we'd be in the doo-doo.
3. Thanks too to Ratigan for pointing out that GDP is a crazy number and helps us focus even more, only on what makes money now--like breaking your neighbor's arm because it will generate doctor bills--rather than what we need to happen--like using the neighbors arm to help you get a new business started that may not see a profit this year.
1. From this book and others its becoming clearer to me--in the same way we must look at the world of communications differently after the Internet, we must look at our aspirations, the "American Dream" if you will. The grow up/raise kids for college, a job/career that truly calls to us and at which we need not spend every waking hour, a spouse chosen for love, kids, good schooling for the kids, and an owned-home can no longer be our ideal. Realistically, for most people, it is no longer affordable.
It begins for the child that must choose between foregoing the college experience of his dreams or--if he pursues it--graduating with tens of thousands of dollars in debt. Then there is the pursuit of career that truly calls to us--if its banking that truly calls to you, you may be able to earn enough to pay for the above. if its some other field, be wary. Similarly, if you do not mind giving your life to the office you might be able to wing it--but then, what's the point since you'll rarely see home and family?
In sum--what was standard just a few years ago--affordable health care, good public schools and affordable public colleges, lots of good paying jobs to choose from--under the guise of the free-market and capitalism, government and business have joined to create an extractionsim economy whereby the business interests, with the help of the elected politicians, extract more and more of the money that allowed the earlier "American Dream" to be possible.
Interestingly it is hard to see what the new Dream should look like. The old Dream is so clear in our minds and hard to let go. But we only hurt ourselves if we resist letting that old dream go.
The new dream: something more like tribal living, adult children living with parents, companies (e.g. Pixar, Google, Facebook) acting more like living spaces and families (though they are not your family which is a whole another issue!) people banding together to obtain what is no longer affordable on one's own.
2. Ratigan helped answer a question I'd had about why the Fed's quantitative easing hasn't yet created much inflation? He explains that this is in part because the dollar has "reserve currency status" which means that other countries must hold onto dollars so that they can use them to conduct large international business transactions. THis means then, as the Fed prints money reducing the value of the dollar, the value of the dollars held by other countries goes down as well. Further, at bottom, the inflationary impact is thus spread around a larger area so that it will take longer for us to feel it. Of course if we lose reserve currency status because we are not protecting the value of the dollar, we'd be in the doo-doo.
3. Thanks too to Ratigan for pointing out that GDP is a crazy number and helps us focus even more, only on what makes money now--like breaking your neighbor's arm because it will generate doctor bills--rather than what we need to happen--like using the neighbors arm to help you get a new business started that may not see a profit this year.
March 29, 2018
Greedy Bastards: How We Can Stop Corporate Communists, Banksters, and Other Vampires from Sucking America Dry by Dylan Ratigan
“Greedy Bastards” is a fun, engaging look at “extractionism”, that is taking money from others without creating anything of value. Former host of The Dylan Ratigan Show and political commentator for the Young Turks, and now candidate for the House in New York’s 21st Congressional District, Dylan Ratigan provides readers with an expose on greedy bastards. This interesting 256-page book includes the following eight chapters: 1. Trillion Dollar Vampires, 2. The World’s Biggest Ongoing Heist, 3. International Trading Pirates, 4. Health Care Without Health, 5. The Castle Is Collapsing, 6. Breaking the Oil Pushers’ Grip, 7. The Unholy Alliance, and 8. It’s Just Us.
Positives:
1. Straightforward prose. Engaging tone, with a can-do attitude.
2. Covers many political/economical issues of interest and provides his unique perspectives.
3. A fun book to read. Ratigan has passion and conviction behind his words and has a keens sense of injustice.
4. To the heart of what this book is about. “Greedy bastards don’t make money at all. They just take it.” “I’m a ‘capitalist who takes,’ exploiting my power to influence the government for my own private gain, no matter the harm to anyone else. I’m a greedy bastard.”
5. He provides four principles to combat the vampire industries acronymed VICI: Visibility, Integrity, Choice and Interests.
6. He identifies the banking system as the number one heist. “We are still stuck with a financial system that has become, essentially, a secret casino where the world’s wealthiest companies and individuals bet with trillions in other people’s money—our money—exempted from the laws that the rest of us have to follow. The winning gamblers keep all of the profits for themselves, while the government and the people pay the losses.”
7. He identifies the Act that was at the heart of the recession. “The Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999, sponsored by Republican Representatives Phil Gramm of Texas, Jim Leach of Iowa, and Thomas Bliley of Virginia, revoked the rule, established after the stock market crash of 1929, that no one company could act as a traditional bank, a Wall Street investment firm, and an insurance company at the same time.”
8. Provocative quotes that stay with me. “The financial markets need regulation the way a nuclear power plant needs a cooling agent for its radioactive fuel rods.”
9. Provides solutions to address the banking system. “Maybe we should tax spending—consumption—rather than income, and let the tax code discourage short-term investors and reward long-term investors. If you find a way to use your computer to extract money from the stock market in a few seconds, you should be taxed very high. If you commit your money for years and launch a business and build something new that others can use, you should be taxed low.”
10. Interesting perspectives on international trade. “Wal-Mart, to give one example, became increasingly a Chinese company, orchestrating the shipment of goods made by poor Chinese workers to increasingly poor American workers.”
11. Observations that hurt. “It’s more profitable for the trade vampires and the banksters to invest in China and pay off the American politicians than it is for them to invest in America. It pays short term. And like any other kind of criminal, bankers will keep committing the same crime as long as it pays.”
12. Exposes the health care system. “There is no penalty for overcharging a patient. So it should not come as a surprise that Medical Billing Advocates of America, a national association that checks medical bills for consumers, says eight out of ten hospital bills its members scrutinize contain errors.”
13. Interesting financial implications in health care. “The VHA already had the advantage we’ve seen with the Mayo Clinic, in that doctors are salaried instead of charging a fee-for-service. Its physicians don’t clamor for expensive technology just because it boosts profits; they are paid to treat people, period.”
14. A look at the cost of education. “I’m describing the college loan market, which has become a big greedy-bastard business. As of June 2010, the total value of student loans, reports the website FinAid, approached $1 trillion. According to the Federal Reserve, that’s more than enough money to pay off every credit card held by every single person in the country.”
15. The educational gap. “Ultimately, poverty is the biggest root cause of our educational gap. As unemployment rises, driven by the trade and bank extraction, poverty increases with it. In 2010, the fraction of Americans living in poverty clicked up to 15.1 percent of the population, and 22 percent of children are now living below the poverty line, the Wall Street Journal reported. In the same way that politicians subsidize the production of foods such as high-fructose corn syrup, which contributes to obesity and diabetes, they incentivize wealth extractions—resulting in unemployment and a spike in poverty, which then adversely affect our educational system.”
16. The truth behind big oil. “The costs of government subsidies for oil companies hidden in our tax code, which, according to Bob Deans of the National Resources Defense Council, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget estimates officially at $46 billion over the next ten years. However, former CIA director James Woolsey said they might be five times that much, explaining, ‘You get a lot of disagreement about how much they are total. There are a lot of subsidies for oil that have been in the tax code for a long time. . . . It depends on what you count.’”
17. Exposing a rigged system. “Consider General Electric, the biggest corporation in America. In 2010, according to the New York Times, GE reported profits of $14.2 billion, of which $5.1 billion came from operations in the United States. What did the company pay in taxes that year? Nothing.”
18. Eye-opening facts. “Back in the 1950s, corporate taxes contributed 30 percent of the federal government’s revenue. Today that number has fallen to less than 7 percent.”
19. The power of lobbying. “Lobbying is an essential service. But because of the unholy alliance, lobbyists wield influence based on their ability to raise money for or against a given policy, not based on the good of that policy.”
20. Greedy politicians. “The financial incentives to vote with the greedy bastards extend beyond political careers. Politicians who are sympathetic to major industries are often hired by those industries once their political work is done. This is essentially a deferred bribe.”
Negatives:
1. No notes or links to source material, which is a must for a book of this ilk.
2. No formal bibliography.
3. More like a good rant than a scholarly effort.
In summary, this is a fun book to read. Ratigan wrote this book to identify vampire industries, and provides guidance on how to combat them and ways to stop them. He provides four principles that hopefully will turn bad deals into good ones. The book is an expose of the greedy. The lack of notes to source material is disappointing but there is much to enjoy in this one and I recommend it!
Further suggestions: “The Age of Greed” by Jeff Madrick, “Makers and Takers“ by Rana Foroohar, “The Price of Inequality” by Joseph E. Stiglitz, “Saving Capitalism” by Robert B. Reich, “A Fine Mess” by T.R. Reid, “The Monster: How a Gang of Predatory Lenders and Wall Street Bankers Fleeced America…” by Michael W. Hudson and “The Looting of America” by Les Leopold.
“Greedy Bastards” is a fun, engaging look at “extractionism”, that is taking money from others without creating anything of value. Former host of The Dylan Ratigan Show and political commentator for the Young Turks, and now candidate for the House in New York’s 21st Congressional District, Dylan Ratigan provides readers with an expose on greedy bastards. This interesting 256-page book includes the following eight chapters: 1. Trillion Dollar Vampires, 2. The World’s Biggest Ongoing Heist, 3. International Trading Pirates, 4. Health Care Without Health, 5. The Castle Is Collapsing, 6. Breaking the Oil Pushers’ Grip, 7. The Unholy Alliance, and 8. It’s Just Us.
Positives:
1. Straightforward prose. Engaging tone, with a can-do attitude.
2. Covers many political/economical issues of interest and provides his unique perspectives.
3. A fun book to read. Ratigan has passion and conviction behind his words and has a keens sense of injustice.
4. To the heart of what this book is about. “Greedy bastards don’t make money at all. They just take it.” “I’m a ‘capitalist who takes,’ exploiting my power to influence the government for my own private gain, no matter the harm to anyone else. I’m a greedy bastard.”
5. He provides four principles to combat the vampire industries acronymed VICI: Visibility, Integrity, Choice and Interests.
6. He identifies the banking system as the number one heist. “We are still stuck with a financial system that has become, essentially, a secret casino where the world’s wealthiest companies and individuals bet with trillions in other people’s money—our money—exempted from the laws that the rest of us have to follow. The winning gamblers keep all of the profits for themselves, while the government and the people pay the losses.”
7. He identifies the Act that was at the heart of the recession. “The Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999, sponsored by Republican Representatives Phil Gramm of Texas, Jim Leach of Iowa, and Thomas Bliley of Virginia, revoked the rule, established after the stock market crash of 1929, that no one company could act as a traditional bank, a Wall Street investment firm, and an insurance company at the same time.”
8. Provocative quotes that stay with me. “The financial markets need regulation the way a nuclear power plant needs a cooling agent for its radioactive fuel rods.”
9. Provides solutions to address the banking system. “Maybe we should tax spending—consumption—rather than income, and let the tax code discourage short-term investors and reward long-term investors. If you find a way to use your computer to extract money from the stock market in a few seconds, you should be taxed very high. If you commit your money for years and launch a business and build something new that others can use, you should be taxed low.”
10. Interesting perspectives on international trade. “Wal-Mart, to give one example, became increasingly a Chinese company, orchestrating the shipment of goods made by poor Chinese workers to increasingly poor American workers.”
11. Observations that hurt. “It’s more profitable for the trade vampires and the banksters to invest in China and pay off the American politicians than it is for them to invest in America. It pays short term. And like any other kind of criminal, bankers will keep committing the same crime as long as it pays.”
12. Exposes the health care system. “There is no penalty for overcharging a patient. So it should not come as a surprise that Medical Billing Advocates of America, a national association that checks medical bills for consumers, says eight out of ten hospital bills its members scrutinize contain errors.”
13. Interesting financial implications in health care. “The VHA already had the advantage we’ve seen with the Mayo Clinic, in that doctors are salaried instead of charging a fee-for-service. Its physicians don’t clamor for expensive technology just because it boosts profits; they are paid to treat people, period.”
14. A look at the cost of education. “I’m describing the college loan market, which has become a big greedy-bastard business. As of June 2010, the total value of student loans, reports the website FinAid, approached $1 trillion. According to the Federal Reserve, that’s more than enough money to pay off every credit card held by every single person in the country.”
15. The educational gap. “Ultimately, poverty is the biggest root cause of our educational gap. As unemployment rises, driven by the trade and bank extraction, poverty increases with it. In 2010, the fraction of Americans living in poverty clicked up to 15.1 percent of the population, and 22 percent of children are now living below the poverty line, the Wall Street Journal reported. In the same way that politicians subsidize the production of foods such as high-fructose corn syrup, which contributes to obesity and diabetes, they incentivize wealth extractions—resulting in unemployment and a spike in poverty, which then adversely affect our educational system.”
16. The truth behind big oil. “The costs of government subsidies for oil companies hidden in our tax code, which, according to Bob Deans of the National Resources Defense Council, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget estimates officially at $46 billion over the next ten years. However, former CIA director James Woolsey said they might be five times that much, explaining, ‘You get a lot of disagreement about how much they are total. There are a lot of subsidies for oil that have been in the tax code for a long time. . . . It depends on what you count.’”
17. Exposing a rigged system. “Consider General Electric, the biggest corporation in America. In 2010, according to the New York Times, GE reported profits of $14.2 billion, of which $5.1 billion came from operations in the United States. What did the company pay in taxes that year? Nothing.”
18. Eye-opening facts. “Back in the 1950s, corporate taxes contributed 30 percent of the federal government’s revenue. Today that number has fallen to less than 7 percent.”
19. The power of lobbying. “Lobbying is an essential service. But because of the unholy alliance, lobbyists wield influence based on their ability to raise money for or against a given policy, not based on the good of that policy.”
20. Greedy politicians. “The financial incentives to vote with the greedy bastards extend beyond political careers. Politicians who are sympathetic to major industries are often hired by those industries once their political work is done. This is essentially a deferred bribe.”
Negatives:
1. No notes or links to source material, which is a must for a book of this ilk.
2. No formal bibliography.
3. More like a good rant than a scholarly effort.
In summary, this is a fun book to read. Ratigan wrote this book to identify vampire industries, and provides guidance on how to combat them and ways to stop them. He provides four principles that hopefully will turn bad deals into good ones. The book is an expose of the greedy. The lack of notes to source material is disappointing but there is much to enjoy in this one and I recommend it!
Further suggestions: “The Age of Greed” by Jeff Madrick, “Makers and Takers“ by Rana Foroohar, “The Price of Inequality” by Joseph E. Stiglitz, “Saving Capitalism” by Robert B. Reich, “A Fine Mess” by T.R. Reid, “The Monster: How a Gang of Predatory Lenders and Wall Street Bankers Fleeced America…” by Michael W. Hudson and “The Looting of America” by Les Leopold.
May 30, 2016
I think almost everyone should read this book. A lot of this was not news to me - I remember reading about how our government's approach to the 2008-2010 economic crisis was a band-aid at best; I've heard endless stories about government waste of taxpayer money; lobbyists are usually depicted as self-serving leeches in television shows like The Good Wife and House of Cards. So I don't think anything in the book came as a surprise, but what author-reporter Dylan Ratigan does is put everything together and explain some of the more difficult concepts in layman's terms. And we should all know what we're facing so that, at the very least, we can make informed decisions at the polls.
I expected Greedy Bastards to be a partisan book, but Ratigan repeatedly calls out mistakes on both sides of the aisle: "Both Democrats and Republicans give away vast amounts of taxpayer money to greedy bastards; they just go about it differently." However, he also explains how politicians are hamstrung by the current laws. Loved the organization of the book, and I like that he doesn't just explain the problems, he also gives suggestions for how to fix them.
This book was a solid 4-star for me until the last chapter. The concluding chapter was great because Ratigan, despite the use of the epithet "Greedy Bastards" repeatedly throughout the book, takes a decidedly sensible stance. Yes, be pissed off that we're getting fleeced, but channel that energy productively to repairing the problem. Don't go lynching the Greedy Bastards because they're doing what almost anyone would do in their situation: taking advantage of circumstances to further their own agenda. I also like his optimism that our problems can be solved no matter how insurmountable they seem.
While reading this book, I was reminded of Jared Diamond's book Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies because in that book Diamond argues that when leadership gets too spread out (such as in a democratic society), laws tend to become more short-sighted because everyone acts in their own immediate interest without seeing the larger picture. For example, Ratigan mentions at one point how unions fight for company-provided health insurance even though companies purchase health insurance such that it benefits the company (e.g. lower rates) without much consideration of how it benefits the individual (e.g. services provided), so the company's interests are not aligned with the individual's interests, which in the end creates a scenario that doesn't much benefit the individual at all. Ratigan provides a number of such examples of Very Bad Deals where the smaller picture we're seeing looks great but in the context of the Big Picture are catastrophic. Anyway, having made this comparison in my head to Diamond's book, I was amused later in the book when Ratigan makes a direct comparison of the USA to another society (Roman Empire) that once was a great civilization and later fell. Hopefully we can save ourselves before it's too late.
I expected Greedy Bastards to be a partisan book, but Ratigan repeatedly calls out mistakes on both sides of the aisle: "Both Democrats and Republicans give away vast amounts of taxpayer money to greedy bastards; they just go about it differently." However, he also explains how politicians are hamstrung by the current laws. Loved the organization of the book, and I like that he doesn't just explain the problems, he also gives suggestions for how to fix them.
This book was a solid 4-star for me until the last chapter. The concluding chapter was great because Ratigan, despite the use of the epithet "Greedy Bastards" repeatedly throughout the book, takes a decidedly sensible stance. Yes, be pissed off that we're getting fleeced, but channel that energy productively to repairing the problem. Don't go lynching the Greedy Bastards because they're doing what almost anyone would do in their situation: taking advantage of circumstances to further their own agenda. I also like his optimism that our problems can be solved no matter how insurmountable they seem.
While reading this book, I was reminded of Jared Diamond's book Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies because in that book Diamond argues that when leadership gets too spread out (such as in a democratic society), laws tend to become more short-sighted because everyone acts in their own immediate interest without seeing the larger picture. For example, Ratigan mentions at one point how unions fight for company-provided health insurance even though companies purchase health insurance such that it benefits the company (e.g. lower rates) without much consideration of how it benefits the individual (e.g. services provided), so the company's interests are not aligned with the individual's interests, which in the end creates a scenario that doesn't much benefit the individual at all. Ratigan provides a number of such examples of Very Bad Deals where the smaller picture we're seeing looks great but in the context of the Big Picture are catastrophic. Anyway, having made this comparison in my head to Diamond's book, I was amused later in the book when Ratigan makes a direct comparison of the USA to another society (Roman Empire) that once was a great civilization and later fell. Hopefully we can save ourselves before it's too late.
January 12, 2012
I think this is a very good book, but be aware that if you have read books that go into depth about the problems behind corporate finance and lobbying, education, energy, and the like that you probably don't need to read this book. This is another in the list of basic books that people should read to get up to speed on the many problems we have in the U.S. if they wonder why so many of us are so concerned right now. It takes some great books on various current events (most of which I have already read) and aggregates them to a more easy to read package.
This book presents an overall look at several of the "vampire industries" that we have in the U.S. right now. From Big Oil to the MPAA, we've got dozens of big money industries that are fighting to keep to their outdated business plans afloat. Ratigan is right, if you can't make these industries work let them die. What we are seeing with the outright purchasing of laws by lobbying groups is *not* capitalism.
Ratigan has done a good job at showing the difference between true capitalism and the what he calls extractionsism. I think giving a name to what is happening with these vampire industries is extremely important. There is a big difference in what you would see in a true capitalistic market and what we see today. People go on TV and yell that groups like OWS are against capitalism because so far the debate has conflated the two. OWS can't even properly argue because there is no "official" term for the type of economics is happening in the big banks like Goldman Sachs. The term "extractionist" may or may not catch on, but it's obvious there has to be a distinction between those who really complete and those who use their influence in Congress to suck the marrow out of the USA's capitol. There is a difference between those who create (the best small business owners) and those that extract (the greedy Wall Streeter who sold packages of bad mortgages so they could bet against them in the credit default market). As we've seen in this joke that has become this Presidential primary season you can't have a fair debate otherwise.
Another big kudos for Ratigan: this book is perhaps the most unpartisan book I have read in a long time. If you look at the world though a partisan lens you will likely be upset about something that Ratigan says in this book. He calls both "sides" out properly as part of the same coin. In terms of how the different parties benefit from the broken system there is no difference. Near the end of the book Ratigan calls out both sides for some of the meaningless debates that are gumming up the system in a time of crisis.
We can only hope that people start coming at these issues with an open mind and start talking about things that matter. Ratigan provides some good starting points for solutions throughout this book and we can only hope that other persons start to add in their own ideas and we can actually start to get some things done.
This book presents an overall look at several of the "vampire industries" that we have in the U.S. right now. From Big Oil to the MPAA, we've got dozens of big money industries that are fighting to keep to their outdated business plans afloat. Ratigan is right, if you can't make these industries work let them die. What we are seeing with the outright purchasing of laws by lobbying groups is *not* capitalism.
Ratigan has done a good job at showing the difference between true capitalism and the what he calls extractionsism. I think giving a name to what is happening with these vampire industries is extremely important. There is a big difference in what you would see in a true capitalistic market and what we see today. People go on TV and yell that groups like OWS are against capitalism because so far the debate has conflated the two. OWS can't even properly argue because there is no "official" term for the type of economics is happening in the big banks like Goldman Sachs. The term "extractionist" may or may not catch on, but it's obvious there has to be a distinction between those who really complete and those who use their influence in Congress to suck the marrow out of the USA's capitol. There is a difference between those who create (the best small business owners) and those that extract (the greedy Wall Streeter who sold packages of bad mortgages so they could bet against them in the credit default market). As we've seen in this joke that has become this Presidential primary season you can't have a fair debate otherwise.
Another big kudos for Ratigan: this book is perhaps the most unpartisan book I have read in a long time. If you look at the world though a partisan lens you will likely be upset about something that Ratigan says in this book. He calls both "sides" out properly as part of the same coin. In terms of how the different parties benefit from the broken system there is no difference. Near the end of the book Ratigan calls out both sides for some of the meaningless debates that are gumming up the system in a time of crisis.
We can only hope that people start coming at these issues with an open mind and start talking about things that matter. Ratigan provides some good starting points for solutions throughout this book and we can only hope that other persons start to add in their own ideas and we can actually start to get some things done.
February 17, 2024
Ratigan's take on what is going wrong with the economy, politics and what to do about it. Interesting & thought provoking.
April 29, 2018
Greedy Bastards: How We Can Stop Corporate Communists, Banksters, and Other Vampires from Sucking America Dry by Dylan Ratigan
“Greedy Bastards” is a fun, engaging look at “extractionism”, that is taking money from others without creating anything of value. Former host of The Dylan Ratigan Show and political commentator for the Young Turks, and now candidate for the House in New York’s 21st Congressional District, Dylan Ratigan provides readers with an expose on greedy bastards. This interesting 256-page book includes the following eight chapters: 1. Trillion Dollar Vampires, 2. The World’s Biggest Ongoing Heist, 3. International Trading Pirates, 4. Health Care Without Health, 5. The Castle Is Collapsing, 6. Breaking the Oil Pushers’ Grip, 7. The Unholy Alliance, and 8. It’s Just Us.
Positives:
1. Straightforward prose. Engaging tone, with a can-do attitude.
2. Covers many political/economical issues of interest and provides his unique perspectives.
3. A fun book to read. Ratigan has passion and conviction behind his words and has a keens sense of injustice.
4. To the heart of what this book is about. “Greedy bastards don’t make money at all. They just take it.” “I’m a ‘capitalist who takes,’ exploiting my power to influence the government for my own private gain, no matter the harm to anyone else. I’m a greedy bastard.”
5. He provides four principles to combat the vampire industries acronymed VICI: Visibility, Integrity, Choice and Interests.
6. He identifies the banking system as the number one heist. “We are still stuck with a financial system that has become, essentially, a secret casino where the world’s wealthiest companies and individuals bet with trillions in other people’s money—our money—exempted from the laws that the rest of us have to follow. The winning gamblers keep all of the profits for themselves, while the government and the people pay the losses.”
7. He identifies the Act that was at the heart of the recession. “The Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999, sponsored by Republican Representatives Phil Gramm of Texas, Jim Leach of Iowa, and Thomas Bliley of Virginia, revoked the rule, established after the stock market crash of 1929, that no one company could act as a traditional bank, a Wall Street investment firm, and an insurance company at the same time.”
8. Provocative quotes that stay with me. “The financial markets need regulation the way a nuclear power plant needs a cooling agent for its radioactive fuel rods.”
9. Provides solutions to address the banking system. “Maybe we should tax spending—consumption—rather than income, and let the tax code discourage short-term investors and reward long-term investors. If you find a way to use your computer to extract money from the stock market in a few seconds, you should be taxed very high. If you commit your money for years and launch a business and build something new that others can use, you should be taxed low.”
10. Interesting perspectives on international trade. “Wal-Mart, to give one example, became increasingly a Chinese company, orchestrating the shipment of goods made by poor Chinese workers to increasingly poor American workers.”
11. Observations that hurt. “It’s more profitable for the trade vampires and the banksters to invest in China and pay off the American politicians than it is for them to invest in America. It pays short term. And like any other kind of criminal, bankers will keep committing the same crime as long as it pays.”
12. Exposes the health care system. “There is no penalty for overcharging a patient. So it should not come as a surprise that Medical Billing Advocates of America, a national association that checks medical bills for consumers, says eight out of ten hospital bills its members scrutinize contain errors.”
13. Interesting financial implications in health care. “The VHA already had the advantage we’ve seen with the Mayo Clinic, in that doctors are salaried instead of charging a fee-for-service. Its physicians don’t clamor for expensive technology just because it boosts profits; they are paid to treat people, period.”
14. A look at the cost of education. “I’m describing the college loan market, which has become a big greedy-bastard business. As of June 2010, the total value of student loans, reports the website FinAid, approached $1 trillion. According to the Federal Reserve, that’s more than enough money to pay off every credit card held by every single person in the country.”
15. The educational gap. “Ultimately, poverty is the biggest root cause of our educational gap. As unemployment rises, driven by the trade and bank extraction, poverty increases with it. In 2010, the fraction of Americans living in poverty clicked up to 15.1 percent of the population, and 22 percent of children are now living below the poverty line, the Wall Street Journal reported. In the same way that politicians subsidize the production of foods such as high-fructose corn syrup, which contributes to obesity and diabetes, they incentivize wealth extractions—resulting in unemployment and a spike in poverty, which then adversely affect our educational system.”
16. The truth behind big oil. “The costs of government subsidies for oil companies hidden in our tax code, which, according to Bob Deans of the National Resources Defense Council, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget estimates officially at $46 billion over the next ten years. However, former CIA director James Woolsey said they might be five times that much, explaining, ‘You get a lot of disagreement about how much they are total. There are a lot of subsidies for oil that have been in the tax code for a long time. . . . It depends on what you count.’”
17. Exposing a rigged system. “Consider General Electric, the biggest corporation in America. In 2010, according to the New York Times, GE reported profits of $14.2 billion, of which $5.1 billion came from operations in the United States. What did the company pay in taxes that year? Nothing.”
18. Eye-opening facts. “Back in the 1950s, corporate taxes contributed 30 percent of the federal government’s revenue. Today that number has fallen to less than 7 percent.”
19. The power of lobbying. “Lobbying is an essential service. But because of the unholy alliance, lobbyists wield influence based on their ability to raise money for or against a given policy, not based on the good of that policy.”
20. Greedy politicians. “The financial incentives to vote with the greedy bastards extend beyond political careers. Politicians who are sympathetic to major industries are often hired by those industries once their political work is done. This is essentially a deferred bribe.”
Negatives:
1. No notes or links to source material, which is a must for a book of this ilk.
2. No formal bibliography.
3. More like a good rant than a scholarly effort.
In summary, this is a fun book to read. Ratigan wrote this book to identify vampire industries, and provides guidance on how to combat them and ways to stop them. He provides four principles that hopefully will turn bad deals into good ones. The book is an expose of the greedy. The lack of notes to source material is disappointing but there is much to enjoy in this one and I recommend it!
Further suggestions: “The Age of Greed” by Jeff Madrick, “Makers and Takers“ by Rana Foroohar, “The Price of Inequality” by Joseph E. Stiglitz, “Saving Capitalism” by Robert B. Reich, “A Fine Mess” by T.R. Reid, “The Monster: How a Gang of Predatory Lenders and Wall Street Bankers Fleeced America…” by Michael W. Hudson and “The Looting of America” by Les Leopold.
“Greedy Bastards” is a fun, engaging look at “extractionism”, that is taking money from others without creating anything of value. Former host of The Dylan Ratigan Show and political commentator for the Young Turks, and now candidate for the House in New York’s 21st Congressional District, Dylan Ratigan provides readers with an expose on greedy bastards. This interesting 256-page book includes the following eight chapters: 1. Trillion Dollar Vampires, 2. The World’s Biggest Ongoing Heist, 3. International Trading Pirates, 4. Health Care Without Health, 5. The Castle Is Collapsing, 6. Breaking the Oil Pushers’ Grip, 7. The Unholy Alliance, and 8. It’s Just Us.
Positives:
1. Straightforward prose. Engaging tone, with a can-do attitude.
2. Covers many political/economical issues of interest and provides his unique perspectives.
3. A fun book to read. Ratigan has passion and conviction behind his words and has a keens sense of injustice.
4. To the heart of what this book is about. “Greedy bastards don’t make money at all. They just take it.” “I’m a ‘capitalist who takes,’ exploiting my power to influence the government for my own private gain, no matter the harm to anyone else. I’m a greedy bastard.”
5. He provides four principles to combat the vampire industries acronymed VICI: Visibility, Integrity, Choice and Interests.
6. He identifies the banking system as the number one heist. “We are still stuck with a financial system that has become, essentially, a secret casino where the world’s wealthiest companies and individuals bet with trillions in other people’s money—our money—exempted from the laws that the rest of us have to follow. The winning gamblers keep all of the profits for themselves, while the government and the people pay the losses.”
7. He identifies the Act that was at the heart of the recession. “The Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999, sponsored by Republican Representatives Phil Gramm of Texas, Jim Leach of Iowa, and Thomas Bliley of Virginia, revoked the rule, established after the stock market crash of 1929, that no one company could act as a traditional bank, a Wall Street investment firm, and an insurance company at the same time.”
8. Provocative quotes that stay with me. “The financial markets need regulation the way a nuclear power plant needs a cooling agent for its radioactive fuel rods.”
9. Provides solutions to address the banking system. “Maybe we should tax spending—consumption—rather than income, and let the tax code discourage short-term investors and reward long-term investors. If you find a way to use your computer to extract money from the stock market in a few seconds, you should be taxed very high. If you commit your money for years and launch a business and build something new that others can use, you should be taxed low.”
10. Interesting perspectives on international trade. “Wal-Mart, to give one example, became increasingly a Chinese company, orchestrating the shipment of goods made by poor Chinese workers to increasingly poor American workers.”
11. Observations that hurt. “It’s more profitable for the trade vampires and the banksters to invest in China and pay off the American politicians than it is for them to invest in America. It pays short term. And like any other kind of criminal, bankers will keep committing the same crime as long as it pays.”
12. Exposes the health care system. “There is no penalty for overcharging a patient. So it should not come as a surprise that Medical Billing Advocates of America, a national association that checks medical bills for consumers, says eight out of ten hospital bills its members scrutinize contain errors.”
13. Interesting financial implications in health care. “The VHA already had the advantage we’ve seen with the Mayo Clinic, in that doctors are salaried instead of charging a fee-for-service. Its physicians don’t clamor for expensive technology just because it boosts profits; they are paid to treat people, period.”
14. A look at the cost of education. “I’m describing the college loan market, which has become a big greedy-bastard business. As of June 2010, the total value of student loans, reports the website FinAid, approached $1 trillion. According to the Federal Reserve, that’s more than enough money to pay off every credit card held by every single person in the country.”
15. The educational gap. “Ultimately, poverty is the biggest root cause of our educational gap. As unemployment rises, driven by the trade and bank extraction, poverty increases with it. In 2010, the fraction of Americans living in poverty clicked up to 15.1 percent of the population, and 22 percent of children are now living below the poverty line, the Wall Street Journal reported. In the same way that politicians subsidize the production of foods such as high-fructose corn syrup, which contributes to obesity and diabetes, they incentivize wealth extractions—resulting in unemployment and a spike in poverty, which then adversely affect our educational system.”
16. The truth behind big oil. “The costs of government subsidies for oil companies hidden in our tax code, which, according to Bob Deans of the National Resources Defense Council, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget estimates officially at $46 billion over the next ten years. However, former CIA director James Woolsey said they might be five times that much, explaining, ‘You get a lot of disagreement about how much they are total. There are a lot of subsidies for oil that have been in the tax code for a long time. . . . It depends on what you count.’”
17. Exposing a rigged system. “Consider General Electric, the biggest corporation in America. In 2010, according to the New York Times, GE reported profits of $14.2 billion, of which $5.1 billion came from operations in the United States. What did the company pay in taxes that year? Nothing.”
18. Eye-opening facts. “Back in the 1950s, corporate taxes contributed 30 percent of the federal government’s revenue. Today that number has fallen to less than 7 percent.”
19. The power of lobbying. “Lobbying is an essential service. But because of the unholy alliance, lobbyists wield influence based on their ability to raise money for or against a given policy, not based on the good of that policy.”
20. Greedy politicians. “The financial incentives to vote with the greedy bastards extend beyond political careers. Politicians who are sympathetic to major industries are often hired by those industries once their political work is done. This is essentially a deferred bribe.”
Negatives:
1. No notes or links to source material, which is a must for a book of this ilk.
2. No formal bibliography.
3. More like a good rant than a scholarly effort.
In summary, this is a fun book to read. Ratigan wrote this book to identify vampire industries, and provides guidance on how to combat them and ways to stop them. He provides four principles that hopefully will turn bad deals into good ones. The book is an expose of the greedy. The lack of notes to source material is disappointing but there is much to enjoy in this one and I recommend it!
Further suggestions: “The Age of Greed” by Jeff Madrick, “Makers and Takers“ by Rana Foroohar, “The Price of Inequality” by Joseph E. Stiglitz, “Saving Capitalism” by Robert B. Reich, “A Fine Mess” by T.R. Reid, “The Monster: How a Gang of Predatory Lenders and Wall Street Bankers Fleeced America…” by Michael W. Hudson and “The Looting of America” by Les Leopold.
January 19, 2012
Think of this as a book that provides an overview of the various problems corrupting the political and financial systems, combined with solutions on how to fix it. If you are a politically aware reader, many of the issues brought up will seem like old news to you, such as how the various industries write legislation, how the education system is broken, and how the true monetary cost of many items are not always reflected on the sticker price. Ratigan does provide a few solutions on how to fix the various issues, but these are mostly brief summaries lacking the "nuts and bolts" on getting them done. For those who follow the author, Dylan Ratigan, this book is best described as a review of what he talks about already but with everything in one, easy-to-read source. The book is also written very well and it is easy to follow with Ratigan's writing. The only real downside to this book is it seems too much like an overview without much in the way of actually fixing the problems. A very large portion of the book is devoted to spelling out the issues and explaining them, which Ratigan does quite well, but a small part is devoted to explaining how to repair the damage. This section on fixing the issues is brief and doesn't go in-depth with past attempts to fix the damage, various pitfalls, methods on how to do it, nor examples on how people have successfully done so. Overall, I liked the book, it isn't too dense, is written well, and explains the issues in a way anyone can understand.
January 18, 2013
[I actually listened to this as an audio book]
There are many works out there documenting the misaligned interests and "short-term greedy" woes that have overtaken this country in recent years. Some might actually do a better job of laying out the case of how they have exploited the American political system and people (im thinking in particular of Simon Johnson's 13 Bankers, Matt Taibbi's Griftopia, or Lawrence Lessig's Republic Lost). This book might function more as a great overview for someone curious about the subject - the title and cover design are certainly aimed to catch the eye of a casual reader.
But I don't say that to disparage the book at all. I think its a great read (or listen at least). Time and time again, in industry after industry, we've permitted unnecessary complexity to foster extractionism rather than open capitalism. This isn't a right vs. left issue. the answer isn't bigger government, or smaller government. the answer is what Ratigan refers to as the "VICI" code: Visibility, (price) Integrity, Choice, and (aligned) Interests. These are the values we should be promoting. It is in all our interests to be "long-term greedy." These values, each supporting the next, foster this mentality.
Where Ratigan really excelled, and some of the books I mentioned before didn't, was his optimism that the problem can be solved - and relatively simply. Paraphrased from his conclusion:
What is missing from the US today is a feeling of a common us, rather than us vs them.
There are many works out there documenting the misaligned interests and "short-term greedy" woes that have overtaken this country in recent years. Some might actually do a better job of laying out the case of how they have exploited the American political system and people (im thinking in particular of Simon Johnson's 13 Bankers, Matt Taibbi's Griftopia, or Lawrence Lessig's Republic Lost). This book might function more as a great overview for someone curious about the subject - the title and cover design are certainly aimed to catch the eye of a casual reader.
But I don't say that to disparage the book at all. I think its a great read (or listen at least). Time and time again, in industry after industry, we've permitted unnecessary complexity to foster extractionism rather than open capitalism. This isn't a right vs. left issue. the answer isn't bigger government, or smaller government. the answer is what Ratigan refers to as the "VICI" code: Visibility, (price) Integrity, Choice, and (aligned) Interests. These are the values we should be promoting. It is in all our interests to be "long-term greedy." These values, each supporting the next, foster this mentality.
Where Ratigan really excelled, and some of the books I mentioned before didn't, was his optimism that the problem can be solved - and relatively simply. Paraphrased from his conclusion:
What is missing from the US today is a feeling of a common us, rather than us vs them.
February 18, 2017
Λίγο απλουστευμένο και κάνει επιφανειακή ανάλυση για τα θέματα με τα οποία καταπιάνεται αλλά διαβάζεται γρήγορα.
October 18, 2017
Finally someone in the media who not only doesn't subscribe to the belief in a free market utopia but who admits that the market is rigged!
November 9, 2018
This book is straightforward and informative.
September 5, 2018
hard to rate. it's not my favorite topic (greedy bastards! isn't a very nice phrase, though there's a kind of humor/concern), though the topic area was/is a salient phenomenon/concern. effort to understand and be good reasonable about the issues is appreciated, though focusing on more pleasant things in life. problems can be annoying, though also with some calibration indication.
July 27, 2012
This is the type of book that I want to buy multiple copies of, so I can loan them out to my friends and keep one for myself to reread every year.
I heard about this book when I caught part of a Commonwealth Club of CA with Dylan Ratigan (find it here: http://tunein.com/program/?SegmentId=...). Ratigan was clearly bright, well-spoken, and surprisingly even-handed and non-partisan, and these qualities shine through in Greedy Bastard$. Don't be fooled by the title. This work delves into the world of money, and how money influences political decisions made in the US, targeting banking/finance, job outsourcing, health care, education, and political lobbying. It's written in simple language that is meant for those of us without any training in economics or finance. Each section is thoroughly researched, to the point that the number of quotations sometimes interrupts Ratigan's flow, yet it doesn't feel like he is just cherrypicking convenient studies or evidence.
However, by far my favorite aspect of this book is that, at its core, it is a book of solutions: instead of rattling off terrible stories, raking up some gloom and doom, then moving on, Ratigan offers point-by-point suggestions about what can be done to counteract the effects of greediness and money in politics. In the end, this book will get you raging mad, but leave you full of activist-minded energy.
I heard about this book when I caught part of a Commonwealth Club of CA with Dylan Ratigan (find it here: http://tunein.com/program/?SegmentId=...). Ratigan was clearly bright, well-spoken, and surprisingly even-handed and non-partisan, and these qualities shine through in Greedy Bastard$. Don't be fooled by the title. This work delves into the world of money, and how money influences political decisions made in the US, targeting banking/finance, job outsourcing, health care, education, and political lobbying. It's written in simple language that is meant for those of us without any training in economics or finance. Each section is thoroughly researched, to the point that the number of quotations sometimes interrupts Ratigan's flow, yet it doesn't feel like he is just cherrypicking convenient studies or evidence.
However, by far my favorite aspect of this book is that, at its core, it is a book of solutions: instead of rattling off terrible stories, raking up some gloom and doom, then moving on, Ratigan offers point-by-point suggestions about what can be done to counteract the effects of greediness and money in politics. In the end, this book will get you raging mad, but leave you full of activist-minded energy.
June 4, 2012
This book was phenomenal. Ratigan diagnoses our vampirous industries of banking, trade, health care, education, and energy. Not only does Ratigan diagnose the problems, but he proposes solutions that make you feel hopeful after feeling completely hopeless in the preceding paragraphs. - this cycle continues throughout the book; one moment you sit in total rage, the next, a bit of light, if only because we have solutions, and the conversation has at least been started. Forgive me if this mini-review is sort of rambling and aimless, I just finished the book and haven't reflected back on the entirety yet.
I can't think of a better book that I've read that lays out the revolving door reality of our legislatures and our private industries better than this. (Not saying they don't exist but I haven't read them.) Business and government is inextricably linked in our current system, and this has to be broke if we hope for any real reforms.
My point: I don't even know if I believe that our current mess can be reformed within the system, and that this book gave me hope that it can, that it is actually possible, is a testament to Ratigan's (and his teams) rigor, analysis, and journalistic integrity.
Read this book and remember, "anger is a gift." We must face our problems head on if we are to solve to them.
5 out of 5.
I can't think of a better book that I've read that lays out the revolving door reality of our legislatures and our private industries better than this. (Not saying they don't exist but I haven't read them.) Business and government is inextricably linked in our current system, and this has to be broke if we hope for any real reforms.
My point: I don't even know if I believe that our current mess can be reformed within the system, and that this book gave me hope that it can, that it is actually possible, is a testament to Ratigan's (and his teams) rigor, analysis, and journalistic integrity.
Read this book and remember, "anger is a gift." We must face our problems head on if we are to solve to them.
5 out of 5.
October 12, 2013
Am still reading it, but it's blown my mind. In 1994, I kind of sensed something weird was happening but it was strictly an intuition. I was pre-wonk. Fast forward to now & I'm trying to understand what in the Wide World of Sports happened the hell to all the opportunity and I got this book - aHA. China's pegging of its currency to half of the Dollar in 1993... which initiated an extraction (one of several he mentions) the size of Mt. Aetna.
So... which sucking sound did Ross Perot predict - the one of jobs going to Mexico or the one of jobs going East? Dunno. But between the basic 8 to 5 gigs that most people can do going away leaving most people with nothing to do... and then various & sundry corporate and banking shenanigans heisting a good chunk of retirement bucks, and we have an extraordinary post-industrial problem. And we have this book - and it is extremely helpful as far as the run up, but so far I'm not feeling the same kind of love from him with solutions as he has for nailing the problems. And nail them he does. We really need something solid before the rest of the U.S. looks like Detroit. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I kind of like the post-apocalyptic look. Just not writ large.
So... which sucking sound did Ross Perot predict - the one of jobs going to Mexico or the one of jobs going East? Dunno. But between the basic 8 to 5 gigs that most people can do going away leaving most people with nothing to do... and then various & sundry corporate and banking shenanigans heisting a good chunk of retirement bucks, and we have an extraordinary post-industrial problem. And we have this book - and it is extremely helpful as far as the run up, but so far I'm not feeling the same kind of love from him with solutions as he has for nailing the problems. And nail them he does. We really need something solid before the rest of the U.S. looks like Detroit. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I kind of like the post-apocalyptic look. Just not writ large.
February 6, 2012
I'm a liberal and I don't care for MSNBC, but I've always known Dylan Ratigan to be a good fact-based journalist when it comes to corporate matters and our financial markets. In fact, he's probably the only certifiable journalist that MSNBC has. This book gives a lot of good insights to the corruption caused by deregulation in our markets, or the lack of any regulation in our markets. He discusses the financial meltdown of our country in 2008, the bank bailouts, trade with the Chinese, our health care system, education, and how we can fight back against all of it. Ratigan doesn't speak in political language or political rants, he speaks in facts. There are some things I didn't agree with him on, but a majority of the things he discussed in this book are definitely a start to a good discussion on what needs to change if we want to restore the American economy. He also makes the point that our country is being controlled by "greedy bastards" who proclaim they are patriotic but do all they can to destroy our economy in hopes of making us work for less, devalue our homes, and make us pay inflated prices for health care.
December 10, 2013
GREEDY BASTARDS by Dylan Ratigan is an inspiring book on taking America back from the clutches of tainted capitalism. From lobbyists and the so called "Greedy Bastards" that steal money from wall street and suck America dry of its last cent. Ratigan goes into detail giving the who,what,where,and why and how people should confront and neutralize the sticky situation.
GREEDY BASTARDS is written in a style that i have never encountered before. Like an enticing news story in a narrative style, Ratigan engages the reader and explains in an eloquent manner on the matter at hand. No one is safe from the rant and thats the way it is to be presented. A modern day muckraker exposing the greedy capitalist "vampires" and waking America up to the situation.
Where the book falls shory is that It is biased at times and there are some who will not appreciate his rant style of writing and opinions on capitalist lobbyists.
I am glad i read this book because it helped me understand the siuation with wall street and exposing what lobbyists are and why they need to be stopped.
GREEDY BASTARDS is written in a style that i have never encountered before. Like an enticing news story in a narrative style, Ratigan engages the reader and explains in an eloquent manner on the matter at hand. No one is safe from the rant and thats the way it is to be presented. A modern day muckraker exposing the greedy capitalist "vampires" and waking America up to the situation.
Where the book falls shory is that It is biased at times and there are some who will not appreciate his rant style of writing and opinions on capitalist lobbyists.
I am glad i read this book because it helped me understand the siuation with wall street and exposing what lobbyists are and why they need to be stopped.
May 4, 2012
I decided to read this book after seeing Dylan Ratigan's now famous "rant" on MSNBC because what he was saying made a lot of sense to me. In Greedy Bastards he takes on everyone - big business, the financial system in general and banks in particular, the oil industry, health care, education, the media and politicians. He shows how the American people have been sold out by these institutions to the point where we are headed toward becoming a third world country unless we find a way to change things. If even half of what he says is totally true, reading this book should make you madder than Hell. If it were in my power, I would make it mandatory for every adult American to read this book before the next elections. Incidentally, he is totally non-partisan. He shares my "a plague on both your houses" view. Read this!
February 27, 2012
This book is filled with a thousand insanities in need of fixing. This country has a lot of opportunity for folks who want to extract wealth without making any discernible social contribution. One model of crime is human pathology meets opportunity. The first step to removing opportunity is to point out the problems, and that is exactly what Dylan does.
Read this book to get a good picture on how some bozos are extracting wealth from the prison system, how others extract it from student loans, how yet others extract it from the banking system, and so on.
Let's get this country into a space where clever, greedy people are forced to make money by benefiting society instead of burning it down.
Read this book to get a good picture on how some bozos are extracting wealth from the prison system, how others extract it from student loans, how yet others extract it from the banking system, and so on.
Let's get this country into a space where clever, greedy people are forced to make money by benefiting society instead of burning it down.
March 19, 2012
This book offers insight and solution to the corruption that led to the financial meltdown in 2008 including the bank bailouts, trade with the Chinese, our health care system, and our educational system.
Most of the information you should know but what Ratigan does is offer concrete solutions to each of the situations and suggests using the modern communication methods of the Internet and these general solutions:
1. Update our gauges to get a better sense of the good from the bad.
2. Get money out of politics.
3. Restore capital requirements across the financial industry.
4. Cancel debt bases on idle speculation.
Most of the information you should know but what Ratigan does is offer concrete solutions to each of the situations and suggests using the modern communication methods of the Internet and these general solutions:
1. Update our gauges to get a better sense of the good from the bad.
2. Get money out of politics.
3. Restore capital requirements across the financial industry.
4. Cancel debt bases on idle speculation.
August 17, 2012
he former Global Managing Editor for Corporate Finance at Bloomberg L.P. before having a financial talk show on CNBC, then moving to MSNBC where he was the moderator/host/commentator of the Dylan Ratigan Show. I hesitated to get the book due to the title and subtitle which I find to be unnecessarily provocative. I was pleasantly surprised. Ratigan is a political moderate that rails against those in business who have used our government to slant the playing field to enrich themselves at the expense of our children, our seniors and our middle class. He blames both political parties who have sold out to corporate America, whether the military, education, or medical industrial complexes.
December 6, 2013
I've learned far to none from "Greedy Bastards.". It is just babble talk on personal commentary and rhetoric. Dylan Ratigan used to have his own show on a financial cable network. It's a bit ironic that he decided to write a book on greed.
Also, this is United States where greed and profitability is the sole purpose. Not all vampires are evil. Ratigan goes on and on how these companies are all greedy bastards, but he never explains what the greed are paying for, like research and development in the pharmaceutical Industry for better treatment.
We live in a capitalist society, if there was no blood sucking vampires, there would be no risk.
Also, this is United States where greed and profitability is the sole purpose. Not all vampires are evil. Ratigan goes on and on how these companies are all greedy bastards, but he never explains what the greed are paying for, like research and development in the pharmaceutical Industry for better treatment.
We live in a capitalist society, if there was no blood sucking vampires, there would be no risk.
March 23, 2012
excellent coverage of what's wrong with the country, how it got that way and how to fix it. bipartisan point of view. his opinion is not that a bunch of evil overlords are pulling our strings but that the system is broken and people are playing it the way it is and that can be changed. i've read plenty of books that tell you what's wrong so it's nice to read one that has constructive ideas on how to fix things, not just one short chapter tacked on at the end. well done. i'd read it again and have recommended it to others also.
June 22, 2012
A good primer for understanding corporatocracy, banksters, and the disenfranchisement of citizens from a once productive nation, particularly from the chapters and references to financial and economic policies. Some excellent personal insights in my opinion, especially in the concluding analysis, but not really any specific details as to how to stop 'the greedy bastards." Rating based on presentation, relative simplicity, illustrative examples, unique perspective.
March 2, 2013
A very insightful and informative book. I would recommend it to those who seek to understand some of America's problems. While Ratigan is associated with the liberal MSNBC, he also worked at CNBC as a financial reporter. This book should appeal to to liberals and conservatives -- to everyone -- who want explanation as to the root of the evils eating away at American foundations. The book is written in layman's terms so that it's easy to understand and digest.
October 28, 2013
This is a book that every American should take the time to read. It is bipartisan in it's exposition of greed in nearly all of our institutions, from corporations to education. This is not an enjoyable read, but rather an explanation of the corruption that infests our country on nearly every public level. Most of us have an inkling of the problem, and most of us will feel enlightened by the specifics. The book also offers solutions to the many problems. I encourage all to read this.
January 13, 2014
A clear list of priorities that we need to address to get our country back on track. He takes shots at The Obama Administration as well as others so at least in his mind he is being balanced. I tend to agree with his perspectives but having the internet at my fingers allows to me to do my own research and form my own opinions. Plus we have the track record of various policies to fall back on as well. A worthy read even if the title is overly provocative.
November 18, 2016
An excellent book chronicling what he views as exhoribant profits acquired by the financial industry. The title might lead one to expect that author Dylan Ratigan is a
Marxist or socialist, but he's a retired stock analyst formerly of CNBC who is a self-identified greedy guy himself, but has come to believe that the U.S. Congress is the "bought Congress" which has so much influence that it led to the melltdown of the 2007 crash.
Marxist or socialist, but he's a retired stock analyst formerly of CNBC who is a self-identified greedy guy himself, but has come to believe that the U.S. Congress is the "bought Congress" which has so much influence that it led to the melltdown of the 2007 crash.
February 23, 2012
Good book. If you care about what's ruining the country via extractionist policies, read this book. I don't care what your political views are, this book doesn't either. It shows how both parties are corrupt and how the payoffs from big corporations and special interests of all stripes are corrupting the process to benefit the few.
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