What do you think?
Rate this book
The Crash of 2016
America is in the midst of an economic implosion that could make the Great Depression seem like small potatoes. But like the previous crashes of 1770, 1856, and 1929, the Crash of 2015 will give us the chance to once again embrace the moral motive over the profit motive and to rebuild an economic model that has always yielded great success.
1 pages, Audio CD
First published January 1, 2013
72 people are currently reading
614 people want to read
About the author
Thom Hartmann
97 books371 followersThomas Carl Hartmann is an American radio personality, author, businessman, and progressive political commentator. Hartmann has been hosting a nationally syndicated radio show, The Thom Hartmann Program, since 2003 and hosted a nightly television show, The Big Picture, between 2010 and 2017.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 98 reviews
December 31, 2016
Rating: 4.5* of five
My review is live at Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud. I'm spending 2017 reviewing for change, starting today. It's no secret that I'm a loudmouthed old man whose principles are not those of the Trump voting public. I don't plan to change, but I'm hoping some with doubts will find encouragement to make the leap.
My review is live at Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud. I'm spending 2017 reviewing for change, starting today. It's no secret that I'm a loudmouthed old man whose principles are not those of the Trump voting public. I don't plan to change, but I'm hoping some with doubts will find encouragement to make the leap.
Want to read
October 15, 2018
19th century Alex Tocqueville in his visit to the USA had spotted the “American dream”. Yet that has been “lost”, according to Thom Hartmann.
Once people had health insurance, pensions, wages, guaranteed vacations; even access/opportunity to college education.
In the 1980’s people bought cars. Now, they are leased/ rented.
The USA economy has been “hollowed out”. What was once EQUITY, now is DEBT.
Despite gains in productivity over 200 years, in the last 30 (plus) years wages have not accompanied those gains in productivity. The middle class has been hit, terribly. A generation has been lost.
Yet the top 10 …or the 1% continue “unscathed”, I would say.
Thom speaks about the new rich people of Silicon valley...and Facebook men. (why not Amazon's?)
You may wonder about when did that "American dream" die? Thom's own story is relevant.
By 1976, he recalls those happy days at the age of 25, he got his first credit card. What a joy.
By now, he speaks of thousands of dollars (on average) of debt per American who owns a credit card. After the houses, Americans got their cars and retirement pensions wiped out.
And then came the worst blow: trillions of dollars in students loan debts. Here, Thom argues, is when the American dream died: when a generation ("kids") was put into debt.
About the timing (crash of 2016), Thom explains; Bush “saw it coming” when the housing crisis started in 2006. Then Obama pushed the issue until 2016, as if with a “band aid”.
So, it’s likely that by 2016 a “Major Crisis” will unfold in the USA. Thom believes that THEN it will “produce the political will” to get things changed. He says “young people “are waking up"; and mentions the “Occupy” movement.
He believes in a democratization of the Economy. Certainly, B. Sanders is listening to Thom.....
....
....
UPDATE: I wonder if Hartmann meant "electoral crash...UPCOMING".
4th November 2016
UPDATE: it didn't happen in 2016.
UPDATE: Trump saying FED is "crazy"; and Peter Schiff forecasting a recession
“This is a bubble not just in the stock market, but the entire economy”
-Euro Pacific Capital CEO Peter Schiff
https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/s...
November 16, 2013
The Crash of 2016: The Plot to Destroy America - and What We Can Do to Stop It by Thom Hartmann
"The Crash of 2016" is a provocative and troubling look at an economic implosion that will occur unless we take drastic measures to stop it. "A story of how America was dragged into the Crash of 2016." Well-known progressive national and international radio and TV talk show host and accomplished author, Thom Hartmann places his focus on an economic crisis that may turn into the Fourth Great Crash since the Declaration of Independence in 1776. This stimulating 294-page book includes sixteen chapters broken out by the following five parts: 1. The Economic Royalists and the Corporatist Conspiracy, 2. Why We Crashed, 3. "Oppression, Rebellion, Reformation", 4. The Great Crash, and 5. Out of the Ashes.
Positives:
1. A professional and gifted author Hartmann is a master at engaging the public with a well- balanced narrative of history, current events and foresight.
2. The book has great format and flow. It's entertaining, enlightening and the pages turn themselves.
3. Hartmann is a great and passionate thinker. His knowledge of history, and his ability to identify patterns is only matched by the skill to convey his conclusions in a lucid, straightforward manner.
4. Troubling, straight-forward eye-opening conclusions. "This crash is coming. It's inevitable. I may be off a few years plus or minus in my timing, but the realities of the economic fundamentals left to us by thirty-three years of Reaganomics and deregulation have made it a certainty. We are quite simply repeating the mistakes of the 1920s, the 1850s, and the 1760s, and we are so far into them it's extremely unlikely that anything other than reinflating the recent bubbles to buy a little time here and there will happen."
5. Hartmann provides a compelling case on who looted America over its history. He connects the dots, establishes the pattern and conveys his thoughts in a lucid, direct manner.
6. Consistent use of terms. Hartmann does a great job of defining new terms and being consistent in their use. You will not only understand the terms fully as he applies them throughout the book but it may even become part of your lexicon. Phrases like "the Great Forgetting" and "the Economic Royalists" are now imbedded in my brain.
7. So what was the Tea Act really about? "The purpose of the Tea Act was to give the East India Company full and unlimited access to the American tea trade and to exempt the company from having to pay taxes to Britain on tea exported to the American colonies. It even gave the company a tax refund on millions of pounds of tea that it was unable to sell and holding in inventory." In other words, corporate mooching.
8. Thought-provoking and great quotes abound, ""Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people's masters."
9. A great job of pointing out those elements in our society that threaten our representative democracy. ""We no longer have a government of, by, and for the people--representative democracy. We have government by plutocracy--the rule of the rich for the rich by the rich," Moyers said on my television program. "Plutocracy has one purpose, which is to protect wealth."
10. An expose of those pushing and driving the agenda of the Economic Royalists. "A new generation's legal system with Royalist interpretations: Corporate personhood is real, money is speech, democracy is not sacred, and organized money should always have privilege over organized people."
11. The policies of the New Deal that held the Royalists in check and allowed a middle class to thrive. Great stuff!
12. How Reagan stole the Leisure Society. " As a result of the Reagan tax cuts, that era from 1947 to 1979, in which all classes of Americans saw their incomes grow together, ended. A new era, in which only the wealthiest among us got rich off a booming economy, commenced."
13. In fairness, Clinton does not go unscathed. "Tariffs were ditched, and then Bill Clinton moved in to the White House in the 1990s. He continued Reagan's trade policies and committed the United States to so-called free-trade agreements such as GATT, NAFTA, and the WTO, thus removing all the protections that had kept our domestic manufacturing industries safe from foreign corporate predators for two centuries."
14. The Monopoly Endgame. "Rising health-care, food, and energy costs can all be traced back to this problem of monopoly in America."
15. Interesting points. "Jefferson noted the absurdity of a rigid Constitution--or at least an interpretation of that Constitution--that does not change as the nation grows and times change, saying, 'We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.... Let us follow no such examples, nor weakly believe that one generation is not as capable as another of taking care of itself.'"
16. The rise of the Kocktopus, find out what this is all about.
17. The impact and background behind the Citizens United Supreme Court decision. "As a result of Citizens United, outside political spending skyrocketed from just $68 million in the 2006 midterms, to over $304 million in the 2010 midterms. That's a 400 percent increase in corporate cash influencing elections and buying politicians, just ten months after the Citizens United decision."
18. Troubling strategies exposed. "Kick more voters off the rolls, and let corporations have more of an influence in who wins them--that's ALEC's strategy."
19. The scenarios confronting us due to the looming Crash of 2016. Interesting case studies, Germany and China.
20. In part five, Hartmann provides a path to redemption. "First things first: We need to tip the scales of power away from organized money and back to organized people. And the way to do that is to get rid of this whole idea of corporate personhood."
21. In defense of a Green Revolution. "A new study by the research firm Bloomberg New Energy Finance has found that unsubsidized renewable energy is now cheaper than fossil fuels such as coal and gas. In fact, it's a lot cheaper."
22. Notes linked.
Negatives:
1. Hartmann does a great job of summarizing the illness, providing the path to a cure but less so in the prevention department.
2. Hartmann does wonders with words but more graphs would have added value and provided readers with a visual tool. The one chart provided shows clearly how compensation failed to match actual productivity.
3. Some great scientific and practical discoveries that are helpful to humanity do result from the Military Complex. I do understand Hartmann's point, I just wanted to throw that out.
4. Comprehensive Notes section but a formal and separate Bibliography never hurts.
In summary, I really enjoyed this book. Hartmann exposes the underbelly of the impending economic crash and provides hope and ideas on how to recover from it. It's a thought-provoking and interesting book. Hartmann has a great grasp for what ills our society and provides insightful history and compelling observations, my main concerned is how practical his guidance is. How can we mobilize the populace against this well-funded force that manages to compel people to vote against their own interest in favor of the Economic Royalists without having to hit rock bottom? And that is the question...a very solid book, I highly recommend it!
Further suggestions: "Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class - And What We Can Do about It (BK Currents (Paperback))" and many others by Thom Hartmann, "Griftopia: A Story of Bankers, Politicians, and the Most Audacious Power Grab in American History" by Matt Taibbi, "Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer--and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class" by Jacob S. Hacker, "The Monster: How a Gang of Predatory Lenders and Wall Street Bankers Fleeced America--and Spawned a Global Crisis" by Michael W. Hudson, "Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich--and Cheat Everybody Else" by David Cay Johnston, "The Looting of America: How Wall Street's Game of Fantasy Finance Destroyed Our Jobs, Pensions, and Prosperity—and What We Can Do about It" by Les Leopold, "Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction" Barry C. Lynn, "Beyond Outrage: Expanded Edition: What has gone wrong with our economy and our democracy, and how to fix it (Vintage)" by Robert B. Reich, and "The Great American Stickup: How Reagan Republicans and Clinton Democrats Enriched Wall Street While Mugging Main Street" by Robert Scheer.
"The Crash of 2016" is a provocative and troubling look at an economic implosion that will occur unless we take drastic measures to stop it. "A story of how America was dragged into the Crash of 2016." Well-known progressive national and international radio and TV talk show host and accomplished author, Thom Hartmann places his focus on an economic crisis that may turn into the Fourth Great Crash since the Declaration of Independence in 1776. This stimulating 294-page book includes sixteen chapters broken out by the following five parts: 1. The Economic Royalists and the Corporatist Conspiracy, 2. Why We Crashed, 3. "Oppression, Rebellion, Reformation", 4. The Great Crash, and 5. Out of the Ashes.
Positives:
1. A professional and gifted author Hartmann is a master at engaging the public with a well- balanced narrative of history, current events and foresight.
2. The book has great format and flow. It's entertaining, enlightening and the pages turn themselves.
3. Hartmann is a great and passionate thinker. His knowledge of history, and his ability to identify patterns is only matched by the skill to convey his conclusions in a lucid, straightforward manner.
4. Troubling, straight-forward eye-opening conclusions. "This crash is coming. It's inevitable. I may be off a few years plus or minus in my timing, but the realities of the economic fundamentals left to us by thirty-three years of Reaganomics and deregulation have made it a certainty. We are quite simply repeating the mistakes of the 1920s, the 1850s, and the 1760s, and we are so far into them it's extremely unlikely that anything other than reinflating the recent bubbles to buy a little time here and there will happen."
5. Hartmann provides a compelling case on who looted America over its history. He connects the dots, establishes the pattern and conveys his thoughts in a lucid, direct manner.
6. Consistent use of terms. Hartmann does a great job of defining new terms and being consistent in their use. You will not only understand the terms fully as he applies them throughout the book but it may even become part of your lexicon. Phrases like "the Great Forgetting" and "the Economic Royalists" are now imbedded in my brain.
7. So what was the Tea Act really about? "The purpose of the Tea Act was to give the East India Company full and unlimited access to the American tea trade and to exempt the company from having to pay taxes to Britain on tea exported to the American colonies. It even gave the company a tax refund on millions of pounds of tea that it was unable to sell and holding in inventory." In other words, corporate mooching.
8. Thought-provoking and great quotes abound, ""Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people's masters."
9. A great job of pointing out those elements in our society that threaten our representative democracy. ""We no longer have a government of, by, and for the people--representative democracy. We have government by plutocracy--the rule of the rich for the rich by the rich," Moyers said on my television program. "Plutocracy has one purpose, which is to protect wealth."
10. An expose of those pushing and driving the agenda of the Economic Royalists. "A new generation's legal system with Royalist interpretations: Corporate personhood is real, money is speech, democracy is not sacred, and organized money should always have privilege over organized people."
11. The policies of the New Deal that held the Royalists in check and allowed a middle class to thrive. Great stuff!
12. How Reagan stole the Leisure Society. " As a result of the Reagan tax cuts, that era from 1947 to 1979, in which all classes of Americans saw their incomes grow together, ended. A new era, in which only the wealthiest among us got rich off a booming economy, commenced."
13. In fairness, Clinton does not go unscathed. "Tariffs were ditched, and then Bill Clinton moved in to the White House in the 1990s. He continued Reagan's trade policies and committed the United States to so-called free-trade agreements such as GATT, NAFTA, and the WTO, thus removing all the protections that had kept our domestic manufacturing industries safe from foreign corporate predators for two centuries."
14. The Monopoly Endgame. "Rising health-care, food, and energy costs can all be traced back to this problem of monopoly in America."
15. Interesting points. "Jefferson noted the absurdity of a rigid Constitution--or at least an interpretation of that Constitution--that does not change as the nation grows and times change, saying, 'We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.... Let us follow no such examples, nor weakly believe that one generation is not as capable as another of taking care of itself.'"
16. The rise of the Kocktopus, find out what this is all about.
17. The impact and background behind the Citizens United Supreme Court decision. "As a result of Citizens United, outside political spending skyrocketed from just $68 million in the 2006 midterms, to over $304 million in the 2010 midterms. That's a 400 percent increase in corporate cash influencing elections and buying politicians, just ten months after the Citizens United decision."
18. Troubling strategies exposed. "Kick more voters off the rolls, and let corporations have more of an influence in who wins them--that's ALEC's strategy."
19. The scenarios confronting us due to the looming Crash of 2016. Interesting case studies, Germany and China.
20. In part five, Hartmann provides a path to redemption. "First things first: We need to tip the scales of power away from organized money and back to organized people. And the way to do that is to get rid of this whole idea of corporate personhood."
21. In defense of a Green Revolution. "A new study by the research firm Bloomberg New Energy Finance has found that unsubsidized renewable energy is now cheaper than fossil fuels such as coal and gas. In fact, it's a lot cheaper."
22. Notes linked.
Negatives:
1. Hartmann does a great job of summarizing the illness, providing the path to a cure but less so in the prevention department.
2. Hartmann does wonders with words but more graphs would have added value and provided readers with a visual tool. The one chart provided shows clearly how compensation failed to match actual productivity.
3. Some great scientific and practical discoveries that are helpful to humanity do result from the Military Complex. I do understand Hartmann's point, I just wanted to throw that out.
4. Comprehensive Notes section but a formal and separate Bibliography never hurts.
In summary, I really enjoyed this book. Hartmann exposes the underbelly of the impending economic crash and provides hope and ideas on how to recover from it. It's a thought-provoking and interesting book. Hartmann has a great grasp for what ills our society and provides insightful history and compelling observations, my main concerned is how practical his guidance is. How can we mobilize the populace against this well-funded force that manages to compel people to vote against their own interest in favor of the Economic Royalists without having to hit rock bottom? And that is the question...a very solid book, I highly recommend it!
Further suggestions: "Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class - And What We Can Do about It (BK Currents (Paperback))" and many others by Thom Hartmann, "Griftopia: A Story of Bankers, Politicians, and the Most Audacious Power Grab in American History" by Matt Taibbi, "Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer--and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class" by Jacob S. Hacker, "The Monster: How a Gang of Predatory Lenders and Wall Street Bankers Fleeced America--and Spawned a Global Crisis" by Michael W. Hudson, "Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich--and Cheat Everybody Else" by David Cay Johnston, "The Looting of America: How Wall Street's Game of Fantasy Finance Destroyed Our Jobs, Pensions, and Prosperity—and What We Can Do about It" by Les Leopold, "Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction" Barry C. Lynn, "Beyond Outrage: Expanded Edition: What has gone wrong with our economy and our democracy, and how to fix it (Vintage)" by Robert B. Reich, and "The Great American Stickup: How Reagan Republicans and Clinton Democrats Enriched Wall Street While Mugging Main Street" by Robert Scheer.
December 21, 2013
The basic premise is that conservative lawmakers overreacted to the progressive changes in America that took place in the 1960s and 70s. This resulted massive deregulation and tax cuts, opened the door for the “economic royalist”, particularly predatory banksters – to step in and wreak havoc on the middle class. A good book to have under your belt when confronting your drunk tea bag uncle at the holiday get-together.
July 25, 2015
I tried. Really, I did.
This guy is hopeless. Look, I know there's another crash coming. It's likely to come at some point this fall or thereafter, and the longer we go without one, the worse it's going to be when it finally shows up. On this, it would seem that I'm predisposed to agree with the author. Additionally, I got this book on the recommendation from someone who shares a lot my same viewpoints. You'd think if anything, I'm suffering homophily by picking this up.
I was glad to learn that the author was "a progressive". Sadly, he's more than that. I'm not saying his views are all wrong. For instance, him and I would agree entirely that corporatism is perhaps the biggest threat we're facing in the US. We could go on all day, I'm sure, about how evil and ugly corporatism is. But that's about where our similarities end.
According to Hartmann, we can chalk up all the ills of society to Milton Friedman, Fredrich Hayek, and free market capitalism. In some ways it can be easily argued that capitalism is destroying the world. I can actually get on board with that from a certain vantage, but it's less capitalism than it is anthropogenic. We have 7 billion people on the planet ravaging its resources and scorching the land. A massive amount of this population and resulting destruction is financed through the overwhelming success of capitalism, free markets, free trade, and technological advances.
Instead of focusing his angst in this easily provable cause and effect, he heads out and argues that free markets cause the systemic and structural ills we see in the economy and in politics. Sure, corporatism has decimated our Republic. Sure, corporatism threatens our government, though I actually think our government has already been destroyed by it. What Hartmann fails to acknowledge is that many of his complaints are not from unbridled free markets because corporatism is not free market economics.
It's all deregulation according to Hartmann. Oh sure, there are plenty of snakes that miraculously are saved (by our government) when their venom threatens their own lives. What's the problem here? Is it that the snake was venomous or that we have the stupidity to allow our government to rescue what should kill itself off? I suppose the thought never occurs to Hartmann.
It also never occurs to Hartmann that many of the troubles he mentions have more structural causes. Take economic bubbles, for instance. I kept reading and never once did he mention the biggest cause of bubbles but rather instead focused on free market politicians. Does excessive leverage ever get mentioned? How about sound monetary policies?
Further, the Constitution is toilet paper. That's the only conclusion I can reach.
I don't mind slant. I don't mind some bias if it goes against my beliefs. I can handle it. What I cannot handle is an argument based on maybe 5% of the picture and then using that small percentage to beat the hell out of ideology that has proven itself over several hundred years.
Maybe Hartmann should move to China, Cuba, or some other Utopian society that utilizes sound Marxist principles.
It's too bad. I think there was a lot of promise in a book like this.
This guy is hopeless. Look, I know there's another crash coming. It's likely to come at some point this fall or thereafter, and the longer we go without one, the worse it's going to be when it finally shows up. On this, it would seem that I'm predisposed to agree with the author. Additionally, I got this book on the recommendation from someone who shares a lot my same viewpoints. You'd think if anything, I'm suffering homophily by picking this up.
I was glad to learn that the author was "a progressive". Sadly, he's more than that. I'm not saying his views are all wrong. For instance, him and I would agree entirely that corporatism is perhaps the biggest threat we're facing in the US. We could go on all day, I'm sure, about how evil and ugly corporatism is. But that's about where our similarities end.
According to Hartmann, we can chalk up all the ills of society to Milton Friedman, Fredrich Hayek, and free market capitalism. In some ways it can be easily argued that capitalism is destroying the world. I can actually get on board with that from a certain vantage, but it's less capitalism than it is anthropogenic. We have 7 billion people on the planet ravaging its resources and scorching the land. A massive amount of this population and resulting destruction is financed through the overwhelming success of capitalism, free markets, free trade, and technological advances.
Instead of focusing his angst in this easily provable cause and effect, he heads out and argues that free markets cause the systemic and structural ills we see in the economy and in politics. Sure, corporatism has decimated our Republic. Sure, corporatism threatens our government, though I actually think our government has already been destroyed by it. What Hartmann fails to acknowledge is that many of his complaints are not from unbridled free markets because corporatism is not free market economics.
It's all deregulation according to Hartmann. Oh sure, there are plenty of snakes that miraculously are saved (by our government) when their venom threatens their own lives. What's the problem here? Is it that the snake was venomous or that we have the stupidity to allow our government to rescue what should kill itself off? I suppose the thought never occurs to Hartmann.
It also never occurs to Hartmann that many of the troubles he mentions have more structural causes. Take economic bubbles, for instance. I kept reading and never once did he mention the biggest cause of bubbles but rather instead focused on free market politicians. Does excessive leverage ever get mentioned? How about sound monetary policies?
Further, the Constitution is toilet paper. That's the only conclusion I can reach.
I don't mind slant. I don't mind some bias if it goes against my beliefs. I can handle it. What I cannot handle is an argument based on maybe 5% of the picture and then using that small percentage to beat the hell out of ideology that has proven itself over several hundred years.
Maybe Hartmann should move to China, Cuba, or some other Utopian society that utilizes sound Marxist principles.
It's too bad. I think there was a lot of promise in a book like this.
January 13, 2016
This book is a provocative and profound look at the the underlying causes of the global economic crash of 2008. In surveying the wreckage of that crash, the author examines the structural fissures in our economy that promise a much worse crash to come, and the probable outcome of that crash on the United States (the crash is projected as 2016, but it could come later or sooner, as conditions dictate). The prognosis is dire and demonstrates that more than the economy may be at stake; the very existence of a democratic United States hangs in the balance, and it is a near certainty the US will lose its place as a global super power in the wake of such a crash.
Hartmann offers no prescription for avoiding the crash of 2016; the structural rot is sufficiently advanced that there is really no chance of avoiding a crash even more ruinous than the 1929 and 2008 crashes. What Hartmann suggests is that there will be an opportunity after the crash for the government and economic reforms which will put the economy on a path to real health, and place the government once again in the hands of the people.
The last section of the book s prescriptive, listing only some of the actions that need to be taken to set the ship of our nation in the right direction. Most of these actions, such as cutting subsidies to profitable companies, accelerating the move to renewable energy sources, and reform of the role of corporations in society can be started now. Since the success of these actions will require the building of consensus in the electorate, it's not too soon to start that effort today, even as the conditions for a major crash are building.
All in all a very good read. At times I disagree with his optimism about our post-crash future, and I would have wished for a more thourogh examination of the post crash state of the nation. The title was well chosen to attract attention, though the book is let about the crash than about the weaknesses that will bring it about, and the prescriptive improvements that will stop the endless boom/busts of the previous three decades.
I recommend this read to liberals and conservatives alike as a starting point for pondering our present course and the argument for changing a nation in crisis.
Hartmann offers no prescription for avoiding the crash of 2016; the structural rot is sufficiently advanced that there is really no chance of avoiding a crash even more ruinous than the 1929 and 2008 crashes. What Hartmann suggests is that there will be an opportunity after the crash for the government and economic reforms which will put the economy on a path to real health, and place the government once again in the hands of the people.
The last section of the book s prescriptive, listing only some of the actions that need to be taken to set the ship of our nation in the right direction. Most of these actions, such as cutting subsidies to profitable companies, accelerating the move to renewable energy sources, and reform of the role of corporations in society can be started now. Since the success of these actions will require the building of consensus in the electorate, it's not too soon to start that effort today, even as the conditions for a major crash are building.
All in all a very good read. At times I disagree with his optimism about our post-crash future, and I would have wished for a more thourogh examination of the post crash state of the nation. The title was well chosen to attract attention, though the book is let about the crash than about the weaknesses that will bring it about, and the prescriptive improvements that will stop the endless boom/busts of the previous three decades.
I recommend this read to liberals and conservatives alike as a starting point for pondering our present course and the argument for changing a nation in crisis.
February 1, 2014
This is the most completely researched dispassionate book on our present state of national problems that I have read. He brings in details of the variety of political forces that have shaped the current debate and provides great documentation of the effect the Royalist have had on the middle class.
I'm just going to outline one event that I've not heard any commentator discuss, but I has had a defining impact on the lack of action of the current Congress. The evening of President Obama's inauguration in 2009 there was a meeting in the Caucus Room of the following individuals. "Newt Gingrich was there, So, too, were some of the most prominent Republican members of Congress, including Representatives Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan, and Kevin McCarthy. Senators Jon Kyl, Jim DeMint, and Tom Coburn were there. And Frank Luntz, Republican pollster and Fox News regular, was there, too. .....The Republicans had agreed on a way forward...show united and unyielding opposition to the president's economic policies.....Representative Kevin McCarthy chimed in, saying, 'We've gotta challenge them on every single bill and challenge them on every single campaign."
There's an interesting anecdote about the fall of Rome. They had deforested Italy to fire the furnaces to refine silver used in the Roman coins. This was when Rome could no longer supply its own energy needs and was the first signal of the beginning of the end of the Roman Empire.
There's more to this, but the book should be read by everyone that is interested in what has happened and what to do about it. It is not a doom and gloom book, but a road map to redemption in post-crash America.
I'm just going to outline one event that I've not heard any commentator discuss, but I has had a defining impact on the lack of action of the current Congress. The evening of President Obama's inauguration in 2009 there was a meeting in the Caucus Room of the following individuals. "Newt Gingrich was there, So, too, were some of the most prominent Republican members of Congress, including Representatives Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan, and Kevin McCarthy. Senators Jon Kyl, Jim DeMint, and Tom Coburn were there. And Frank Luntz, Republican pollster and Fox News regular, was there, too. .....The Republicans had agreed on a way forward...show united and unyielding opposition to the president's economic policies.....Representative Kevin McCarthy chimed in, saying, 'We've gotta challenge them on every single bill and challenge them on every single campaign."
There's an interesting anecdote about the fall of Rome. They had deforested Italy to fire the furnaces to refine silver used in the Roman coins. This was when Rome could no longer supply its own energy needs and was the first signal of the beginning of the end of the Roman Empire.
There's more to this, but the book should be read by everyone that is interested in what has happened and what to do about it. It is not a doom and gloom book, but a road map to redemption in post-crash America.
October 27, 2016
So I don't mind a tendentious book, typically. After all, I am a tendentious guy--I worked for the ACLU, listen to my NPR, and openly advocate eating Republicans as a way of maintaining a carbon-negative non-vegetarian life. But at times this book got a little annoying in its smugness. For instance, I get that the author doesn't really think we need to have such a big and costly military--what sane person does?--but that does not mean that there is *no* return on investment to buying a Tomahawk missile, a point he makes a few times in this book, at least not if you're taking for granted that wind power generators and funding liberal arts majors through the GI Bill are unequivocally beneficial to society. And then there were things that he said that were just flat wrong: I'm no fan of Chief Justice John Roberts, but no, he is not the most radical conservative to sit on the bench over the last fifty years; he is not even the most radical conservative on his current bench, even with Scalia dead.
But this book on the whole was fine. A nice, quick little polemic by an unabashed liberal is sometimes what you need on the subway when you are trying to forget that half of your countrymen (and more than half of your benighted race) want to elect Donald Trump for president. The crash of 2016 has not come to pass (though with Brexit, the Sanders ascendancy, and the near-election of Trump, I wonder how pleased the author is with himself), but hopefully we can have some of the revolution he promises in 2017 and thereafter.
But this book on the whole was fine. A nice, quick little polemic by an unabashed liberal is sometimes what you need on the subway when you are trying to forget that half of your countrymen (and more than half of your benighted race) want to elect Donald Trump for president. The crash of 2016 has not come to pass (though with Brexit, the Sanders ascendancy, and the near-election of Trump, I wonder how pleased the author is with himself), but hopefully we can have some of the revolution he promises in 2017 and thereafter.
December 18, 2013
I gave this book four stars, because 3.5 is not an option. I love Thom Hartmann. Hartmann is a progressive populist. In his books, as in his radio talk show, he is incisive and rational, and refrains from name-calling and other invective. In this book he describes the current economic and political crisis in the context of the cycles of history described in William Strauss's and Neil Howe's "The Fourth Turning." In particular he describes how the ongoing struggle for control by what he calls the Economic Royalists (i.e., the 1 percent) inevitably leads speculative bubbles, income inequality, and eventually to a crisis and crash. Periodic revolutions inject populist ideas and grow the middle class. But after a generation or two, people have no direct remembrance of what caused the crisis/revolution, and the royalists are able once more to push their agenda, leading to the next crisis. I found it to be a good lens through which to view our current situation. There is no formula for how it will play out, but at least if we have a context with which to understand what's happening, the chances are greater that we will respond appropriately and avoid the worst possible scenario.
October 25, 2017
The televised interviews are better. Try to find the talk at Boston, MA's Commonwealth Club. There, the author gives a synopsis of what lead him to write this, what the experience of middle class Americas has been (for anglo working-class folks) for the Greatest Generation and the Boomers. nd the ideological history of the Conservative and Progressive-Radical political theory, think Hobbes and Burke, vs Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson. Up to Goldwater and a book called "The Conservative Mind" vs. The Abbie Hoffmans and the Occupy Movement.
After seeing the interviews, read the last three chapters, where he lays out a proposition for getting Big Money out of politics, protecting the Environment, and reclaiming the Commons. And The Epilogue, a letter to his grandchildren, whom he thinks will have to live through another Crash.
After seeing the interviews, read the last three chapters, where he lays out a proposition for getting Big Money out of politics, protecting the Environment, and reclaiming the Commons. And The Epilogue, a letter to his grandchildren, whom he thinks will have to live through another Crash.
December 9, 2013
My copy of Thom Hartmann’s The Crash of 2016 looks like a book from my college days, underlined, highlighted, personal comments in the margins such as Wow! OMG and WTF! His book discusses American economic history, to understand what is happening and how we got here; a part on The Great Crash, our current reality of six factions any one of which can cause America’s economy to crash; and the last part, Out of the Ashes, a very optimistic look into our future. Solid, sound suggestions and solutions that don’t leave you feeling hollow, and a hopeful look for our children’s future, America’s future, and the future of our planet.
March 15, 2015
I like Thom Hartmann. I'm pretty libertarian leaning, and this book is harsh on libertarians. But, he's kind of right because it seems like the most vocal and/or powerful "libertarians" place too much focus on the liberty of the most powerful people in the world. I laughed a bit when he called the billionaires and financiers psychopaths until I looked at the definition of psychopath and found it to be very accurate (I guess Jesus Christ was right about those guys after all). As usual, Hartmann is smart and still upbeat despite all the problems he describes.
July 27, 2015
I'm a liberal, I think a crash is coming, and I enjoyed reading this book -- but I give it only 3 stars. It was too strong-minded and unabashedly liberal. It felt like a leftist bashing and I didn't know how much to trust it. I think something with more of a fair-minded measured analysis might convince more people. On the other hand, I appreciate the value of the sort of partisan commentator that Thom Hartman seems to be in trying to counterbalance the army of screeching extremists on the conservative fringe.
February 19, 2014
The best part of the book is the broad history lesson of the cycles we have gone through as a nation. If you have been paying attention you'll know about the events from 1978 to present. But when they are all put down at once before you it is unnerving and somewhat depressing. But it is also infuriating. Then Hartmann lays out some solutions. It isn't the strongest part of the book, but they are interesting and even exciting possibilities. Overall a solid book.
October 26, 2014
I depend on Thom to keep me informed on progressive attitudes, and this book helps a lot. It's a good outline on how our country's current trajectory confirms the fact that we still don's see to learn lessons from the past.
February 20, 2015
The great historic picture, that is painted, is very interesting for the danish reader. Lots of new stuff!
Even thougt it's most about North American issues, we see that the same powers are active in Europe. Recommented reading!
Even thougt it's most about North American issues, we see that the same powers are active in Europe. Recommented reading!
July 8, 2014
Parts of this book should be required reading.
March 28, 2014
Though I identify as a moderate, I think I skew liberal on a majority of issues. I like skewing liberal. Based on the past century or two of my society's history, it has been liberals (both classical at first and then progressives of late) that have largely been bellwethers of the society's trajectory. And there's no coincidence why: liberals, recently and in the US at least, have been the side of our binary spectrum most championing a generally evolved sense of both civil rights and economic technocracy. But there's been a tart to our nation in the past few decades, and the sourest moment came with the almost-crash of 2008.
The direct culprit was malfeasance by a number of titanic industries. But the underlying cultural shift that enabled a larger, softer malaise unrelated to the crash, as I see it, is the deterioration of social and humanistic bonds within our culture, which have led to stark economic problems like the decline in social responsibility in both our poorest and the richest contingents (the former suffers from a malaise stemming from rootlessness, hopelessness, and a lack of appreciation for our relatively high standard of living here; the latter has chosen to embrace avarice and entirely divorce itself from any pro-social ethics) and the general Walmartization of the business landscape. All of this serves to alienate us and benefit elites, who have become the reliable institutions filling in the vacuum of social bonds that used to be there.
I consider the main political angst of our time to be rooted in the fact that these replacement, ersatz institutions are enormous and utterly dehumanizing. Prior political affiliation determines how one attacks the problem of these superhuge and unwieldy institutions: if you were liberal, like Hartmann, you'll attack the civilization-steering power of corporations and corporate cartels in general. If you're conservative, you'll attack the single biggest and most impersonal, and in a lot of ways most abject-functioning, institution of all, the government.
That's the social underpinning of our current political problem, which is proper considering society always underpins legality/gov't. (Which is why I often blame the population when a democratic government is taken over by corporate interests, like ours: they are, after all, the aforementioned replacement institutions. I don't bank my money with a local place where they know me, I have Chase. So if Chase writes legislation to allow it to displace local banks and canvas every city block, maybe even get special treatment...so much the better for me and my humble paycheck. There's a limit to how riled I can get from this. It's not responsible long-term, but it's not going to result in any political action now.) So when I pick up the treatise of a guy like Hartmann, I can reasonably expect that he's going to articulate one side of this grand disorientation, and not get very far in the way of convincing me that his partisan solutions will fix anything.
The book is premised on the idea that we're in for an enormous "crash" (the 2016 specification was no doubt added to please his pitch editor) in a few years, which is the result of decades of encroaching corporate control of our laws and government. This slow coup has been led by the Economic Royalists, which is his term for the elites that he likens to the Royalists who opposed the American colonies' independence.
It's a bullshit taxonomy. Hartmann's Economic Royalists are anyone and everyone on the right. It's ludicrous to lump in the Koch Brothers, Nixon, and Roger Ailes with a small-business owner who is going mad meeting the cost of compliance, or the California entrepreneur who faces confiscatory taxation and stultifying bureaucracy. I don't understand why Hartmann chose to do this; such a gross generalization weakens his claims and alienates a lot of people who do, on occasion, empathize with smarter-government goals.
A Hartmann-leaning summary of this book would promise a survey of how our society became this explosive civic and economic powderkeg, followed by his prescriptions for repairing it after the unavoidable crash. My summary is that he provides an almost useless reading of the economic history of the US, so slanted is it, and then takes a bunch of shots at Nixonian/Foxian/Kochian conspiracies to benefit corporate America. (As a radio pundit, it's no surprise that this section lambasting his counterparts on the activist right contains his best work.)
To his credit, he follows it all up with his recommended course of action. (It would have been easy to be an unconstructive critic.) There's a lot of info and claims here - smart guy, no doubt - and my reaction, true moderate and somewhat informed as I am, ranged from pulling the book away from my face and going "WHAT??!" to nodding in considering assent.
On the one hand is his endorsement of Modern Monetary Theory, a school of thought that never fails to baffle me and which I sometimes don't believe is real. (It's not a big theme, I'm just picking out random memories.) On the other is his endorsement of protectionist trade policies, which make a lot of sense to me. I go back and forth on free trade all the time, but as with much of the book, it's not so Hartmann's proclamation that NAFTA was an unmitigated disaster that I find hard to swallow, but his juvenile logic. To him, laws are near-uniformly passed with the direct input of ALEC or another cabal of moustache-twirling industrialists. Robert Reich is not one of those, for example, yet he supports it on economic grounds.
Hartmann would do well to treat his ideological opponents with respect and address their concerns. Unions are great and probably necessary, fine, but nowhere does he talk about the easy corruption that overtakes them. NOWHERE does he mention the debt, or really the cost of any socialized (and occasionally socialist) policies. Nowhere does he mention technology's impact on a declining work force. There's a lot he doesn't mention, preferring to cast everything negative in our economy as the handiwork of the Avarice All-Stars. (If you're going to make up a name to falsely collectivize your political opponents into this devious junta, at least make it snappy.)
All in all a thought-provoking assemblage of rants that never really pulls together for anyone who knows anything about public finance, econ, politics, history, or any of it. It's not to say that Hartmann is wrong, per se, but he's just very unapologetically leftist and I'm not. It serves as a manifesto of sorts just fine, which kind of makes it a reference for a particular style of quasi-socialism. Unless that mode of socialism comes roaring back into style, though - don't hold your breath - I'm not sure this is required reading.
The direct culprit was malfeasance by a number of titanic industries. But the underlying cultural shift that enabled a larger, softer malaise unrelated to the crash, as I see it, is the deterioration of social and humanistic bonds within our culture, which have led to stark economic problems like the decline in social responsibility in both our poorest and the richest contingents (the former suffers from a malaise stemming from rootlessness, hopelessness, and a lack of appreciation for our relatively high standard of living here; the latter has chosen to embrace avarice and entirely divorce itself from any pro-social ethics) and the general Walmartization of the business landscape. All of this serves to alienate us and benefit elites, who have become the reliable institutions filling in the vacuum of social bonds that used to be there.
I consider the main political angst of our time to be rooted in the fact that these replacement, ersatz institutions are enormous and utterly dehumanizing. Prior political affiliation determines how one attacks the problem of these superhuge and unwieldy institutions: if you were liberal, like Hartmann, you'll attack the civilization-steering power of corporations and corporate cartels in general. If you're conservative, you'll attack the single biggest and most impersonal, and in a lot of ways most abject-functioning, institution of all, the government.
That's the social underpinning of our current political problem, which is proper considering society always underpins legality/gov't. (Which is why I often blame the population when a democratic government is taken over by corporate interests, like ours: they are, after all, the aforementioned replacement institutions. I don't bank my money with a local place where they know me, I have Chase. So if Chase writes legislation to allow it to displace local banks and canvas every city block, maybe even get special treatment...so much the better for me and my humble paycheck. There's a limit to how riled I can get from this. It's not responsible long-term, but it's not going to result in any political action now.) So when I pick up the treatise of a guy like Hartmann, I can reasonably expect that he's going to articulate one side of this grand disorientation, and not get very far in the way of convincing me that his partisan solutions will fix anything.
The book is premised on the idea that we're in for an enormous "crash" (the 2016 specification was no doubt added to please his pitch editor) in a few years, which is the result of decades of encroaching corporate control of our laws and government. This slow coup has been led by the Economic Royalists, which is his term for the elites that he likens to the Royalists who opposed the American colonies' independence.
It's a bullshit taxonomy. Hartmann's Economic Royalists are anyone and everyone on the right. It's ludicrous to lump in the Koch Brothers, Nixon, and Roger Ailes with a small-business owner who is going mad meeting the cost of compliance, or the California entrepreneur who faces confiscatory taxation and stultifying bureaucracy. I don't understand why Hartmann chose to do this; such a gross generalization weakens his claims and alienates a lot of people who do, on occasion, empathize with smarter-government goals.
A Hartmann-leaning summary of this book would promise a survey of how our society became this explosive civic and economic powderkeg, followed by his prescriptions for repairing it after the unavoidable crash. My summary is that he provides an almost useless reading of the economic history of the US, so slanted is it, and then takes a bunch of shots at Nixonian/Foxian/Kochian conspiracies to benefit corporate America. (As a radio pundit, it's no surprise that this section lambasting his counterparts on the activist right contains his best work.)
To his credit, he follows it all up with his recommended course of action. (It would have been easy to be an unconstructive critic.) There's a lot of info and claims here - smart guy, no doubt - and my reaction, true moderate and somewhat informed as I am, ranged from pulling the book away from my face and going "WHAT??!" to nodding in considering assent.
On the one hand is his endorsement of Modern Monetary Theory, a school of thought that never fails to baffle me and which I sometimes don't believe is real. (It's not a big theme, I'm just picking out random memories.) On the other is his endorsement of protectionist trade policies, which make a lot of sense to me. I go back and forth on free trade all the time, but as with much of the book, it's not so Hartmann's proclamation that NAFTA was an unmitigated disaster that I find hard to swallow, but his juvenile logic. To him, laws are near-uniformly passed with the direct input of ALEC or another cabal of moustache-twirling industrialists. Robert Reich is not one of those, for example, yet he supports it on economic grounds.
Hartmann would do well to treat his ideological opponents with respect and address their concerns. Unions are great and probably necessary, fine, but nowhere does he talk about the easy corruption that overtakes them. NOWHERE does he mention the debt, or really the cost of any socialized (and occasionally socialist) policies. Nowhere does he mention technology's impact on a declining work force. There's a lot he doesn't mention, preferring to cast everything negative in our economy as the handiwork of the Avarice All-Stars. (If you're going to make up a name to falsely collectivize your political opponents into this devious junta, at least make it snappy.)
All in all a thought-provoking assemblage of rants that never really pulls together for anyone who knows anything about public finance, econ, politics, history, or any of it. It's not to say that Hartmann is wrong, per se, but he's just very unapologetically leftist and I'm not. It serves as a manifesto of sorts just fine, which kind of makes it a reference for a particular style of quasi-socialism. Unless that mode of socialism comes roaring back into style, though - don't hold your breath - I'm not sure this is required reading.
October 28, 2015
Truly interesting. The great forgetting has begun where past generations (from 80 years ago) have died off and the US economy is showing similar signs to what occurred before the last great depression. Lots of similarities argued about manufacturing prior to the great depression against today's. Renewables were mentioned as a way to group our internal economy stronger but not a lot of what we could do to grow our export economy.
Looking at what occurred in 07, a different author (somewhere in my goodreads archives) mentioned an approach to stop the band aiding of the American economy. This argument was for letting the economy fail to prevent what happened in Japan. For Japan, the author presented that had the government not stepped in and changed policy, the Japan economy would have fallen apart and started rebuilding quickly. It would not have had the dip followed by a 10+ year recession where it still hasn't fully recovered.
As for tycoons hording cash, interesting. A comparison about who much cash we have vs billionaires was mentioned. $100 bill stack size per annual income (roughly) $50,000 = 2.5 inches; Millionaire $1 2.5 feet, the Billionaire >2 miles high <-- 2 miles wow.
As for what to do next, tough call, I'm still an investor of mutual funds and hopefully if the economy does start to go south, myself and many others will have a chance to move our investments to cash before the crash happens.
Our policy makers have many choices but I'm not sure a change in policy today will impact the macro economy correctly. Too many moving factors. A couple governments have had it right to put people to work to grow the economy.
Thank you to the author for a great book and some great items to consider. It's an interesting perspective that I personally hope I do not have to experience. If it does occur, the co-op sound like a great start to rebuilding.
Looking at what occurred in 07, a different author (somewhere in my goodreads archives) mentioned an approach to stop the band aiding of the American economy. This argument was for letting the economy fail to prevent what happened in Japan. For Japan, the author presented that had the government not stepped in and changed policy, the Japan economy would have fallen apart and started rebuilding quickly. It would not have had the dip followed by a 10+ year recession where it still hasn't fully recovered.
As for tycoons hording cash, interesting. A comparison about who much cash we have vs billionaires was mentioned. $100 bill stack size per annual income (roughly) $50,000 = 2.5 inches; Millionaire $1 2.5 feet, the Billionaire >2 miles high <-- 2 miles wow.
As for what to do next, tough call, I'm still an investor of mutual funds and hopefully if the economy does start to go south, myself and many others will have a chance to move our investments to cash before the crash happens.
Our policy makers have many choices but I'm not sure a change in policy today will impact the macro economy correctly. Too many moving factors. A couple governments have had it right to put people to work to grow the economy.
Thank you to the author for a great book and some great items to consider. It's an interesting perspective that I personally hope I do not have to experience. If it does occur, the co-op sound like a great start to rebuilding.
July 9, 2016
Concise, accurate, and readable summary of the dark side of capitalism and our economic/governmental system. He clearly and simply makes the case, dare I say it, for the next and very looming revolution. And it will come because we have lost our middle class, recognized by the founders of our country as the engine that makes the economy healthy and "we the people" prosperous. Each chapter seemed to be a succinct retelling of another book I've read recently. He supports his statements with copious notes at the end of the book. What makes his books so enlightening is that he uses his doctorate in psychology to give us solutions for the problems and barriers to a fair, free society that have been put in place by, what he calls the 'Economic Royalists'. In the recent past, they were the robber barons and before that named something else. But because of his astute knowledge of history, he can describe the solutions that work to create a free society and those that didn't. (FDR said "Necessitous men are not free men." meaning that if a person is in need of food healthcare or a job, then they are not free. "Liberty means the opportunity to make a living- decent enough to give him something to live for." He is speaking of Maslow's hierarchy of needs here.)
This is a perfect primer for anyone with a keen interest in what is happening to this country. It is very worth reading.
This is a perfect primer for anyone with a keen interest in what is happening to this country. It is very worth reading.
January 27, 2016
Before I started reading this, I thought it would be a ranting screed, some Chicken-Little blow or fictionalization of a doomed, gloomy, ruthless world, but all that turned into mere pre-conceived contempt prior to investigation. Rather, Hartmann does well to make this a handbook for survival against the insane, corporate suicide pact that will, like a cancer, eat all the healthy cells only to expire from its own appetite...in 2016.
The best part of reading that was that Hartmann provides models of countries that are moving out of this global corporate squeeze (Germany and its solar panels, Australia's wind generators, Canada's healthcare model, Germany's unionization). Hartmann also included a section exposing ALEC and its behind-the-scenes involvement in drafting legislation for rushed legislators to sponsors. Also, the famous Lewis Powell, Jr. memo of 1971 gets a full treatment for its influence as the blueprint for radical conservative takeovers of the media, education, the courts, etc. The Powell memo reminds me of the Wannsee Conference minutes.
It's written by a progressive, for progressives, about those who wish to destroy progressives. He writes in detail about ALEC, Koch Industries, Goldman Sachs and other leeches for the public good.
The best part of reading that was that Hartmann provides models of countries that are moving out of this global corporate squeeze (Germany and its solar panels, Australia's wind generators, Canada's healthcare model, Germany's unionization). Hartmann also included a section exposing ALEC and its behind-the-scenes involvement in drafting legislation for rushed legislators to sponsors. Also, the famous Lewis Powell, Jr. memo of 1971 gets a full treatment for its influence as the blueprint for radical conservative takeovers of the media, education, the courts, etc. The Powell memo reminds me of the Wannsee Conference minutes.
It's written by a progressive, for progressives, about those who wish to destroy progressives. He writes in detail about ALEC, Koch Industries, Goldman Sachs and other leeches for the public good.
August 21, 2016
Reagan took office & took the solar panels off the Whitehouse.
Ronald Reagan campaigned against the 55-mph speed limit in 1980
The Royalist launched an unprecedented assault on democracy around the globe.
In the US, they'd learned what had happened after the last Great Crash, when they were banished to the political wilderness for 2 generations. So this time, they reasoned, if they seized power of the means to enact political & economic change, then nothing would get in their way as they completed their harvesting of the middle class & the entire wealth of the nation.
They would become Masters of the Universe.
A Great Crash is a painful event, often too terrible for its citizens even to contemplate.
History tells us that when the foundations collapse, & the society's cultural core is hollowed out & the "madness" takes hold, its members will pretend all is well. Life seems to go on as average citizens try to get by, while the very rich, who understand what's happening, consolidate theor power & wealth before the final crash.
Ronald Reagan campaigned against the 55-mph speed limit in 1980
The Royalist launched an unprecedented assault on democracy around the globe.
In the US, they'd learned what had happened after the last Great Crash, when they were banished to the political wilderness for 2 generations. So this time, they reasoned, if they seized power of the means to enact political & economic change, then nothing would get in their way as they completed their harvesting of the middle class & the entire wealth of the nation.
They would become Masters of the Universe.
A Great Crash is a painful event, often too terrible for its citizens even to contemplate.
History tells us that when the foundations collapse, & the society's cultural core is hollowed out & the "madness" takes hold, its members will pretend all is well. Life seems to go on as average citizens try to get by, while the very rich, who understand what's happening, consolidate theor power & wealth before the final crash.
November 20, 2016
This was an incredible book for those who don't understand how the government and corporations have managed to amass so much power. For those who already have a pretty good idea (like me) this book will finally give you the bullet points and facts to point to when people try to say, "Yeah...that's not how it works." It will also be handy for those looking to insulate themselves from the coming market crash. Because believe me, our current market is not sustainable. While the author may have been off by a few years, the symptoms of a poisoned economy are ever present, the same signs we faced in 1938 right before Black Tuesday. Though I rented this from the library, I will be buying this, and very likely memorizing it. It's complete with citations for the reader to follow up on, something I highly recommend doing as well. All in all, this book was informative, well written, and so historically accurate it made my stomach turn. I'd give it six stars if Goodreads would let me.
September 2, 2014
Very impressive work that everybody should read. Here is a sample passage:
"The hallmark of plutocracy is monopoly. Fewer and fewer companies owning more and more wealth. Competition is destroyed by unrestrained growth of corporate interests. Big companies buy small companies over and over again, until there are no small businesses left. Private-equity firms take care of the rest, even harvesting small- and medium-sized businesses for a profit.
You could parachute from some great altitude over any part of America, into any American city, and you'd have no idea where you are. The great homogenization has happened; all the cities look the same. There are virtually no unique, regional. family-owned small businesses left; just transnational behemoths whose brands populate every mall, downtown, and suburb of this country".
"The hallmark of plutocracy is monopoly. Fewer and fewer companies owning more and more wealth. Competition is destroyed by unrestrained growth of corporate interests. Big companies buy small companies over and over again, until there are no small businesses left. Private-equity firms take care of the rest, even harvesting small- and medium-sized businesses for a profit.
You could parachute from some great altitude over any part of America, into any American city, and you'd have no idea where you are. The great homogenization has happened; all the cities look the same. There are virtually no unique, regional. family-owned small businesses left; just transnational behemoths whose brands populate every mall, downtown, and suburb of this country".
March 9, 2015
This is the book the 1% doesn't want you to read, from an author they'll misrepresent and slander forever. I don't know where to begin or what to highlight or leave our here because every chapter had my heart beating. But I'll mention this at least because it was a sub topic I learned so much more about - If you think you know everything about Roger Ailes and the early days of FOX News, you may not until reading this book. Likewise, if you think you know all about the Koch Brothers, you may not until reading this book (including their power and influence over a collection if American universities and their economics departments). Your right of center of friends will stop talking to you and your left of center friends will tell you, it's about time you've read the most important book as we head toward the next economic disaster in America.
May 24, 2015
Lest anyone think this book is doom and gloom, it all depends on your perspective. It is definitely sobering. No doubt. Yet, hope lies within the context of a spectacular Crash, if we are ready and if we are prepared. That will be the organizing factor, the determiner of what we will be able to accomplish.
The only reason no five stars on this book is that I wish Thom had spent more time on advising how we might personally prepare ourselves for the looming disaster that he argues is all too real and right around the corner. How do we protect our own resources? Maybe I missed something, but I'm pretty sure it is not there in his dissertation. If anyone out there has suggestions, please speak up.
The only reason no five stars on this book is that I wish Thom had spent more time on advising how we might personally prepare ourselves for the looming disaster that he argues is all too real and right around the corner. How do we protect our own resources? Maybe I missed something, but I'm pretty sure it is not there in his dissertation. If anyone out there has suggestions, please speak up.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 27, 2015
Well, what a book. The best one yet for this year. For a while now I have been aware that something is amiss about the USA. When you pay attention to their news and media you begin to realise there is this mistrust in many things that are otherwise fine in the outside world.
America mistrust Government, Unions, anything that isn't coming from the private sector. I never understood why, though I had a sense of it from watching shows such as the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and listening to the Democracy Now! podcast.
I enjoyed the book, I liked the approach as it was not talking to an academic but a normal guy on the street. It was not hard to follow at all. I will recommend this book at the earliest chance.
America mistrust Government, Unions, anything that isn't coming from the private sector. I never understood why, though I had a sense of it from watching shows such as the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and listening to the Democracy Now! podcast.
I enjoyed the book, I liked the approach as it was not talking to an academic but a normal guy on the street. It was not hard to follow at all. I will recommend this book at the earliest chance.
February 15, 2014
It's just amazing the way some of capitalist elite groups could manipulate and make decisions that negatively affect the world economy and therefore, lives of billions of people. We are coming to a much more catastrophic crash, the one that make the 2008 crisis looked like a childish game, but as history has shown, dark time will pass and the world will set the order from chaos on its own. What important is, to stop the boom-bust-war cycles from happening again in the future. The only way to do that, according to Thom, is that we must teach our children, that the power of distributing the common wealth belongs to the people, not just a small elite group.
July 16, 2014
Very interesting read. I am glad someone is writing the stuff I see everyday that I think alot of people are blind to. I hope he is wrong in his prediction, but I dont think he is. Hartmann always cites his resources in great detail, however, there were a couple of comments he made that seemed out there that did not have a source cited. I am not saying he was wrong or lying, but the remarks were far enough out there for me to look for the source he used and saw that none were noted. I am unsure if I am curious enough to dig to see if what he said was accurate (most likely I will), but that was the only reason why I did not give this book 5 stars.
February 2, 2015
I really enjoyed the first three quarters of this book but I have to say the last quarter was impractical just like most books like this are. The advice given was not something that the average person can do and maybe it's just because I'm living in this time that I feel powerless. I also was disappointed that there wasn't any kind of practical advice about how to prepare for the crash. It pretty much was just it's going to crash it's going to be horrific it's going to be terrible but hey after all of that do this, so not very practical for me. Overall I did enjoy the book especially the historical aspect as I really enjoy history.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 98 reviews