Meltdown: The End of the Age of Greed [Paperback]

Paul Mason (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1844673960 | ISBN-13: 978-1844673964 | Publication Date: May 19, 2009 | Edition: Original

A gripping account of the global financial collapse by the BBC’s economics editor.

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Mason (Live Working or Die Fighting), the economics editor of BBC Newsnight, relies on accessible and pithy language to lay out the time line of the meltdown of the U.S. economy in September 2008 and its global reverberations. He details the root causes, names names with impunity and place the blame squarely on the shoulders of policymakers. He argues that when the law governing debt to capital ratios was quietly changed in 2004, this gave banks carte blanche to do whatever they needed to do to make money. Mason writes, Had the old capital restrictions been in place, it is unlikely that any of the Wall Street banks could have built up toxic debts on the scale that eventually sank them. With a quick history (and refutation) of neoliberal ideology, he makes his case that we are seeing the closing of an era; the future heralds the end of the old world banking system business model in favor of low-profit, utility-style banking. This is an instructive and succinct play-by-play of the global crisis, helpful for anyone in finance, economics or even policy. (June)
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Review

"Brilliantly conceived and beautifully written book...[Mason] has found a way to make his book vividly accessible...without compromising its intellectual force." Guardian "A page turning account - Mason is refreshingly clear-eyed - and angry." Will Hutton, Guardian "What people need is a reliable guide to the financial crisis - Meltdown is the book they are looking for." John Gray, New Statesman "A lucid and sharply polemical account of the crisis." Oliver Kamm, The Times "A reporter's eye-view of key events, enlivened by colourful brushstrokes." Sunday Telegraph

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 198 pages
• Publisher: Verso; Original edition (May 19, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1844673960
• ISBN-13: 978-1844673964
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #748,987 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must read - Puts the economic crash in perspective, May 24, 2009

By 

Richard Knox (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Meltdown: The End of the Age of Greed (Paperback)

Since the fall of 2008 I've bought and read 35 books on economic related subjects - most from Amazon here - and been scanning 17 blogs by experts such as Krugman and Simon Johnson in my attempt to understand what is really happening - how the current financial crisis evolved and where it is going.

This book gives Mason's (economics editor for BBC's newsnight) perspective in a comprehensive logical detailed way - backed up by 230 footnotes; and gives a logical explanation of where we are probably headed.

He explains how world forces are breaking the dominance of the US oligarchs and will probably force the US into having a responsible financial sector. He describes a future evolving as a struggle between the workers of China - versus the power structure of China - versus the class interests of the West.

It is by far the best explanation I've seen.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Handy Digest, August 21, 2009

By 

Douglas Doepke (Claremont CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Meltdown: The End of the Age of Greed (Paperback)

Mason's brief work (170 pps.) presents an incisive digest of a global meltdown that came with the kind of suddenness that left many of us asking, "What happened?". The first few chapters provide a week-to-week account of the meltdown itself, a helpful timeline of how the crisis unfolded. The next section looks at the more remote background events and assumptions behind the crisis, chiefly deregulation and neo-liberal policy. The last part may be the most challenging by examining the structure of neo-liberalism itself, mainly from the critical standpoints of Kondratieff and Minsky. The general conclusion is that neo-liberal policy is dead for the foreseeable future, and a more "socialized" banking system recommends itself as the best and perhaps only solution.

He writes in mid-February, 2009, and as of this moment in August, the Obama administration shows no sign of a major bank overhaul, let alone a successor model to neo-liberalism. By Mason's lights, this means a prolonged slump with a very murky future. Be that as it may, the book is a succinct and timely account for the layperson, and I particularly appreciate the inclusion of a glossary of terms. I sometimes think these high-level train wrecks occur because the general public is excluded by the arcane terminology of finance itself. Worse, it's the same public who then pay the price by having to survive amid the debris.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deserves Great Review, January 10, 2010

By 

GlobalChangeSupercenter5 "Globalchangesuperce... (Salem, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Meltdown: The End of the Age of Greed (Paperback)

The title is of course wrong - There will never be an end to greed, and the idea that this represents the end of an age is now highly dubious. Still, the combination of on-the-spot journalism and great intellectual command makes this slim book a marvelous read and achievement. Paul Mason is a fine writer, and strong thinker, and since this was one of the most incredible economic happenings of all time, we need his voice to make sense of what is going on around our ears.