My real rating for the book is a mix. One star; or 4 plus stars. Chicken little would give it a 5; Paul Krugman and the Keynsians would trash it.
Stockman''s lengthy tome is a vast expansion of a half-page Op-Ed piece of a few months ago arguing that our political inability to bring deficits under control will ultimately destroy our economy. I feel the same way, so I bought the book to provide me with comfort reading. For a true believer such as I, deeply concerned for the future of my grandchildren, it provides lots of anecdotal support for the ugly reality that both political parties and the Fed have abandoned the free-market economy, and will use the government printing press to shower money on their friends until some Armageddon stops their profligacy. The Keynsians will simply ignore Stockman's fevered prose, knowing that it is always more popular to keep filling the punch-bowl than to take it away, no matter how chaotic the party is becoming.
Trying to evaluate the book as a read, without regard to its message, these observations: First, the bad news. The principal negative its it it's too long by at least half. Stockman would have been well served by an editor equipped with a big pair of scissors and a thesaurus.
If the reader isn't persuaded after 300 pages, he or she isn't likely to suddenly see the light. And much of the "fill" is, in my judgment both unnecessary and unconvincing. He spends many pages with a revisionist history of the New Deal, asserting that the Depression was nearing an end before Roosevelt took office, and that the measures of the New Deal actually prolonged the pain. Again, philosophically I would like to agree, but that's a lot of highly unorthodox thought to be offered without a single footnote. Certainly the book would, in my judgment, have been much stronger if he had either eliminated, or at least dramatically shortened, the material about the New Deal, which is of use to him only in bemoaning the current tendency to claim that what was done, or not done, during the Depression provides proof that the policies of today must be right..
When Stockman moves to a more current time, his writing is more persuasive because he was personally involved in the events, and because he excoriates both Republicans and Democrats. He may, in fact, be even harder on the Republicans, who purport to be supporters of a market economy, but, when in power, are just as much statists as are the Democrats. But he can''t avoid min-numbing detail about arcane financial deals he has known. I spent almost 50 years working with complicated financial transactions, but despite this, following his lengthy descriptions of the several deals he talks about was just too much work.
The last bit of bad news is a minor annoyance. Perhaps because of the book's length, Stockman runs out of news words to describe the events he's talking about, and so tends to overuse, and, even worse, misuse (in my judgment) a few adjectives. The one I found particularly grating was his constant reference to apparently endless upward trends as "parabolic''. But upward parabolas come to a peak, and then go down, and none of the "parabolic" events he talks of ever crested. I would have been lots happier with some better word or words.
The good news is that Stockman is, generally, a quite engaging writer. Or at least, his contempt for many of the men of whom he writes is so deeply felt that he can often indulge in sarcastically contemptuous descriptions of foolish men doing dumb things with high-sounding objectives. He adopts some most contemptuous terms to describe the villains of his book--Keynes, Greenspan, and especially Bernanke--to whom He refers with a wonderful (to me) variety of terms of praise so obviously not intended that they become pejoratives--"the maestro" being my favorite.
The final bit of good news is that Stockman was on the front lines during the current march to insolvency, a witness to the folly of our current policies both as a member of the Reagan cabinet, and as an investment banker who got rich thanks to Bernanke's improvidence. One looking for a catalog of horrors of the current madness couldn't do better. Overall, I think the book may be best as a source for anecdotes of the excesses of our current financial structure. I plan to make a few notes.about some of these cases to serve as ammunition when next I argue about these issues.
Enjoy fast, FREE delivery, exclusive deals and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime
and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Join or create book clubs
Choose books together
Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Learn more
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Flip to back Flip to front
Follow the Author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
Frequently bought together
$15.17
Get it as soon as Friday, Aug 18
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Choose items to buy together.
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
About the author
Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Should Be Mandatory Reading for American Voters
Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2019
Where do I begin? This is a lengthy read with lots of meaty content. I found myself going back and re-reading sections to fully grasp his points. This book will take the reader through the last 100 years of political-financial history from Woodrow Wilson to Barack Obama's Administration. He is definitely not a fan of Keynesian Economics. Stockman is also not very complimentary toward the Federal Reserve Chair's over the years nor those that influence Presidential or Congressional policy. He frequently refers to Fed Chair's Greenspan and Bernanke as "nothing more than bagmen for the Wall Street Casinos." Despite the history book's treatment, he believes that only Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Herbert Hoover served the American economy well through their actions and leadership. As Director of the Office of Management and Budget during President Reagan's first term, he accurately nails the account of fiscally conservative ideologies gone awry with unnecessary runaway defense spending and the mortgaging of America's future through out-of-control government spending. Nonetheless, Stockman possesses a brilliant mind and is accurate in his factual accounts. The book is surprisingly apolitical. He treats both parties with somewhat disdain for their lack of fiscal responsibility. He identifies Washington politicians and the expanded role of the Federal Government as the problem while citing frequent examples. He has strong opinions and even offers solutions toward the end of the book to fix the malaise that previous irresponsible generations of politicians have woven. He paints a portrait of "Financial Armageddon" for the USA unless we get spending and the deficit under control. This book is enlightening and brutally honest and in my humble opinion should be mandatory reading for every American voter.
Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2019
Images in this review
Top reviews from other countries
Freter
No parece un libro nuevo
Reviewed in Mexico on May 1, 2019
Freter
Reviewed in Mexico on May 1, 2019
Images in this review
Merwin Fernandes
Excellent book giving a lot of datapoints and insights into ...
Reviewed in India on September 18, 2015Noëlle
présentation utile du capitalisme américain
Reviewed in France on June 24, 2013
