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Meltdown: The End of the Age of Greed
Meltdown tells the story of the financial crisis that destroyed the West’s investment banks, brought the global economy to its knees, and began to undermine three decades of neoliberal orthodoxy. Covering the credit crunch and its aftershocks from the economic front line, BBC journalist Paul Mason explores the roots of the US and UK’s financial hubris, documenting the real world causes and consequences from the Ford Factory, to Wall Street, to the City of London. In response to the immense challenge now facing the existing economic system, he outlines a new era of hyper-regulated capitalism that could emerge from the wreckage.
198 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2009
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About the author
Paul Mason
68 books238 followersNote: Paul^^Mason
Paul Mason is an English journalist and broadcaster. He is economics editor of the BBC's Newsnight television programme and the author of several books.
Paul Mason is an English journalist and broadcaster. He is economics editor of the BBC's Newsnight television programme and the author of several books.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
June 11, 2024
A call for fresh thinking and new leadership to shape the character of capitalism in the wake of the 2008 meltdown in the global financial system, which this book documents both accurately and accessibly.
Final sentences put it well:
"The task of finding a better model confronts us in a period of economic recession and rising social unrest, and with the ideology of neoliberalism now lying shattered alongside that of Stalinist Marxism, which has been dead for twenty years.The magnitude of the crisis is much bigger than most of us yet imagine.
...In the first week of October 2008 a deregulated banking system brought the entire economy of the world to the brink of collapse. It was the product of giant hubris and the untrammelled power of a financial elite. The crisis happened because the world was persuaded to forget the causes and consequences of 1929. It must never forget the events of 2008." (p172/173)
Final sentences put it well:
"The task of finding a better model confronts us in a period of economic recession and rising social unrest, and with the ideology of neoliberalism now lying shattered alongside that of Stalinist Marxism, which has been dead for twenty years.The magnitude of the crisis is much bigger than most of us yet imagine.
...In the first week of October 2008 a deregulated banking system brought the entire economy of the world to the brink of collapse. It was the product of giant hubris and the untrammelled power of a financial elite. The crisis happened because the world was persuaded to forget the causes and consequences of 1929. It must never forget the events of 2008." (p172/173)
February 4, 2012
Paul Mason, a journalist for Newsnight, makes a pretty good job of describing the events of the financial collapse of 2008 and afterwards. He also gives a good rundown of the competing economic theories that can contribute to our understanding of what went wrong and how to fix it.
Where Mason is slightly weaker is on the analysis of what was going on behind the scenes and the financial instruments whereby the banks committed fraud on a global scale. Mason is pretty angry about the failure of governments to legislate, but doesn't seem angry enough about how and why the banks failed to conduct their business in a way that was honest.
In all, I would recommend this book as an overview of events and the failure of government to legislate or to formulate any adequate mechanisms to avert the current continuation and and future repeat of the economic catastrophe in which we find ourselves.
Where Mason is slightly weaker is on the analysis of what was going on behind the scenes and the financial instruments whereby the banks committed fraud on a global scale. Mason is pretty angry about the failure of governments to legislate, but doesn't seem angry enough about how and why the banks failed to conduct their business in a way that was honest.
In all, I would recommend this book as an overview of events and the failure of government to legislate or to formulate any adequate mechanisms to avert the current continuation and and future repeat of the economic catastrophe in which we find ourselves.
March 11, 2015
تحميل كتاب انهيار الاقتصاد العالمي لكاتبه بول مايسون من هذا الرابط
http://goo.gl/zZwDWG
http://goo.gl/zZwDWG
October 4, 2010
This is a really great account of the collapse of the economic 'hyperbubble' in 2008. The author is not an anti-capitalist, and cites a bunch of good things capitalism and neoliberalism has done for us: the destruction of a conservative social order and the social solidarities created by the working class movements of the 19th and 20th century have given way to a society where you can "borrow big-time, negotiate your own salary, duck and dive, migrate if you have to... but lock your door at night. And let your hair down. They can treat you like shit at work, but they can't tell you who to sleep with or what time the pubs close anymore."
He argues that free market fundamentalism is as discredited as Leninism, and there will be an 'unwinding' of the imbalances between east and west, but with china (and growing chinese working class power) calling the shots. It is worth reading this book just for the last chapter about post-neoliberal politics and economics. Familiarity breeds contempt, which might explain my pleasure at his assertion that, "in conditions where the state has made the biggest intervention into the world economy in a century", social movements must not ignore the state, and can't restrict themselves to 'think global, act local'. Take that, anarcho-tosspots.
He argues that free market fundamentalism is as discredited as Leninism, and there will be an 'unwinding' of the imbalances between east and west, but with china (and growing chinese working class power) calling the shots. It is worth reading this book just for the last chapter about post-neoliberal politics and economics. Familiarity breeds contempt, which might explain my pleasure at his assertion that, "in conditions where the state has made the biggest intervention into the world economy in a century", social movements must not ignore the state, and can't restrict themselves to 'think global, act local'. Take that, anarcho-tosspots.
November 6, 2013
I got this book by mistake searching for a recommended book also titled "Meltdown" This book is basically a socialist manifesto call for a transition to the end of market capitalism. The book was published in early 2009 and says in the very beginning that either the banks must be nationalized or the world will descend into another great depression. Well, as with the predictions of Karl Marx, it didn't happen.
May 11, 2019
First class account
March 20, 2015
I came out of reading this with a much clearer idea of what happened in the world economy in 2008-2010 than I have picked up from elsewhere. Mostly it's pretty clear but the book does start assuming more economics knowledge on the part of the reader as it goes on so I couldn't really make sense of all of it. For example, the book talks about credit default swaps a bit and also has sections on quantitive easing but they're not really explained in enough detail to make sense of quite what they actually mean, so I had to go to Wikipedia. Hardly the biggest deal and I don't mind working to understand a text, but given that QE and CDSs are central to the crises, the explanation could have been a bit more detailed. The final two chapters, added in a book update a year after its initial publication, feel pretty cursory and have loads of typographical mistakes - it looks pretty rushed!
All that said, it's a really informative and readable book and explains a lot of political economy concepts very well.
All that said, it's a really informative and readable book and explains a lot of political economy concepts very well.
October 7, 2010
There are now a few very good books about the global financial crisis that I've read but this one is probably the best. Offering a systematic and angry analysis of the current situation and also managing to enlighten the reader about such economists as Kondratiev and Minsky - Mason's background interestingly leaves him suggesting that organized labour will come back as a force (driven by China)in the coming years.
August 31, 2016
I enjoyed this book even though my knowledge of finance and global finance is incredibly weak. I especially enjoyed the parallelism and references to "Atlas Shrugged". I do not necessarily agree with the title, but I do understand the purpose of it. A scratch the surface look at the global financial "meltdown" of the last decade. It intrigues me enough to look into the subject further and look to educate myself about global finance more.
July 29, 2009
A lively little book which tells the tale of the current financial crisis and the lead up to it. The following discussion ranges from Ayn Rand to Nikolai Kondratiev and Hyman Minsky and makes clear that one era has ended and another is beginning whatever the attempts to reinflate the bubble.
October 23, 2011
Sadly much of this books content went over my head given my unfamiliarity with economics. That said it none the less proved a riveting read, with the charting of the rise of neoliberalism and the present "power elite" via think tanks etc proving especially interesting.
Read
February 25, 2013The more I know, the less I know. We're on the road to knowwhere, etc etc. :) Great book, not sure if its the time in my life or his style that makes the seemingly unreadable much more exciteing!
Poses as many questions as it answers, but hey, such is life. Right now.
Poses as many questions as it answers, but hey, such is life. Right now.
January 30, 2011
Mason really helps even the economically-challenged reader understand what happened in the bank failures and market crashes on both sides of the Atlantic in fall 2008.
August 2, 2011
Very in depth. But you would need to know a little bit about finance to truly understand.
September 20, 2011
Best book yet about the financial crisis, especially in providing a more global view than others.
June 7, 2023
Timely review of events at the time I'm sure. Serves me right for reading 14 years on... Still some good arguments made by Mason
Want to read
July 29, 2010Available in RP Lib HB 3722.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews