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Bestselling author John R. Talbott, who predicted the housing and mortgage crisis, pictures in Obamanomics--written well in advance of the historic 2008 elections--a Barack Obama presidency based on justice and cooperation—principles that have not held sway in Washington, DC, for quite some time. Talbott's powerful grasp of finance allows him to connect the issue of financial inequality in America with our need as a people to embrace change. Obama has shown he knows that divisions among races, religions, and political views have prevented Americans from coming together to solve the most important problems of our age. Obamanomics, infused with Obama's speeches, campaign policy statements, and other writings, describes a government acting according to democratic principles to enact lobbying reform, get our economy moving again, fix our healthcare system, slow global warming, prevent unnecessary wars, improve education, address the aging of our population, find alternative energy sources, and bring about housing, mortgage, and banking reform.
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A former investment banker for Goldman Sachs, JOHN R. TALBOTT is the author of seven books on economics and politics, including The Coming Crash of the Housing Market, Obamanomics, Contagion, and The 86 Biggest Lies on Wall Street. He has appeared on CNN, Fox News, CNBC, CBS Marketwatch and written for the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and the Boston Globe.
John offers financial consulting advice on a very personal and confidential basis to individuals and families. You can learn more about his One on One consulting activities at www.StopTheLying.com
John R. Talbott is the bestselling author of nine books on economics and politics that have accurately detailed and predicted the causes and devastating effects of this entire financial crisis including, in 2003, The Coming Crash in the Housing Market. In 2004, he correctly identified corporate and banking lobbyists and big corporate money in politics as the major underlying cause of the current crisis with, Where America Went Wrong. In January 2006, he called the absolute peak month of home prices in the US by releasing, Sell Now! The End of the Housing Bubble and warned that the problem was not local, or even national, but international. In 2008, his book, Contagion: The Financial Epidemic That Is Sweeping the Global Economy predicted the subprime mortgage problem developing in the US would mutate and grow and infect not only prime mortgages, but other markets such as the stock market, commercial real estate, the municipal bond market, as well as threaten the solvency of banks and governments around the globe leading to a very long, deep and painful global recession. In 2009, The 86 Biggest Lies on Wall Street exposed the ineptness of the government's response to the crisis and the futility of enacting real reform of Wall Street when Wall Street itself is the biggest lobbyist of our congress.
Formerly, an investment banker for Goldman Sachs and a Visiting Scholar at UCLA's Anderson School of Management, Talbott has written peer reviewed academic research on democracy, inequality, AIDS prevention and developing country economics and has acted as an economic adviser to Jordan and Russia. He has made presentations on economics and politics throughout the United States and in Italy and Australia. He graduated from Cornell's School of Engineering and received an MBA from UCLA. His work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Herald Tribune, the New Republic, the Huffington Post and salon.com. He has appeared as a financial expert on television for CNN, CBS, Fox News, CNBC, FBN, CSPAN and MSNBC as well as on hundreds of radio programs. Talbott, whose family has lived in Kentucky for 230 years is the son of a career Army officer, is 57 years old, single, an avid college football and basketball fan and lives on the left coast with his faithful companion, Boca Jr., who rarely objects to any of Talbott's writings or politics except when it is time to go for a walk.
The media can contact Talbott at johntalbs@hotmail.com as well as anyone who might be interested in discussing possible speaking engagements. Those interested in learning more about Talbott's one on one consulting service can find information here www.StopTheLying.com
Please don't get thrown off with an impression of a three star rating. This book has its strong points - it has clear and crisp prose, the section on home ownership is great (not surprising given the author's reputation), he avoids getting bogged down in statistics, and he goes to painful lengths explaining a few areas where he disagrees with what Obama presents in his speeches. Unfortunately, as a complete volume, I walked away with the impression that this is a summary of Obama's policy views, with a little bit of the author's opinion sprinkled in. Starting every chapter with an excerpt of an Obama speech is good propaganda, but lacks policy analysis depth. With a title of Obamanomics, I was hoping for a better explanation of why bottom-up economics is better than trickle-down, but instead I bought 200 pages of policy summary, a lot I could have gotten free off a website. Perhaps in this election year, this book will convince some swing voters who want a brief summary of how Obama will possibly be different, but explanations of why he will be different are lacking.
I cannot believe that this horrid excuse for a book was ever published. I only got 1/2 way through before I literally threw it in the garbage. Not only due to the shoddy writing style...but for god sakes, look at the end notes that he incessantly refers to. After the first mention of statistics I thought something seemed a little fishy. This buffoon of a writer actually (and repeatedly) cites his own previous publications, disreputable sources...and Wikipedia. You would be far better off having a discussion on the subject with your waitress at Denny's.
I read this book with an open mind and a longing for the insights to Obama and while Talbott's writing was clear, it was a bit naive. His insistence on economic justice as the fix to our financial issues is nothing more than redistribution of wealth. His disdain for Americans who want a 12000 square foot house and a Hummer reveals a deep bias. Of course no one needs that much space, but in this country we value liberty and freedom to choose. It's not the governments place to decide what we need and/or want. One of Obamas campaign promises is to raise taxes on the wealthy, those making over $250K a year. Talbott says the current system 'gives money to top earners", when in fact the system allows top earners to keep more of the money they have earned. I think this basic difference in economic viewpoint is what irked me the most, being one of those 'lucky' few that Obama considers rich. He seems to know that the 'rich will not reinvest their extra money, they will put in a savings account. This is how it works. I have two kids in private college. They couldn't get into the UC system for their majors because they were impacted. I pay 40K a year, per student. I am too rich to qualify for any aid. So any and all extra money we get to keep is going to private colleges. Most people considered wealthy work just as hard as those who make less money, so it's very difficult to not see Obama's policies as nothing more than socialism wrapped in a pretty package and topped with a pinch of guilt.
I found this book very interesting but not quite what I expected. I was expecting a more detailed explanation of exactly why bottom up economics will work much better than trickle down has. With historical data or accepted financial theory to back it up. This is an argument I have been making for years and was hoping this would give me some concrete facts and statistics to support this idea. A lot of the book instead were suggestions by the author of how Obama should run his administration. I agree with much of it, though not all, but am still left with little historic proof of the concept.
I definitely recommend the book because as I said there are some very interesting ideas in it.
"Obamanomics" presents some of the approaches an Obama administration would employ to lower the debt, close the gap between the rich and poor, and lessen the enormous influence corporations have on U.S. and global society in general The Corporation. There is a tendency among supporters of plutocracy to ridicule those who criticize corporations, but it's a critique that's even more necessary now than it was when Teddy Roosevelt was trust-busting, and when Thomas Jefferson was saying, "I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country." Obama does not accept money from lobbyists, which is a stark contrast to John McCain who welcomes lobbyists into his "straight-talk" bus McCain: The Myth of a Maverick.
