Buy new:

$8.85

List Price: $25.00 Details

Save: $16.15 (65%)

FREE delivery October 1 - 6. Details

Or fastest delivery Friday, October 1. Order within 23 hrs 13 mins. Details

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

As an alternative, the Kindle eBook is available now and can be read on any device with the free Kindle app.

$$8.85 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Secure transaction

Ships from and sold by Amazing Grace by April.

Return policy: Eligible for Return within 30 days of receipt

1-Click ordering is not available for this item.

Share <Embed>

Other Sellers on Amazon

$3.95
+ $4.99 shipping

Sold by: YOJIE

$6.28
+ $3.99 shipping

Sold by: Libraryly

$10.02
+ $3.99 shipping

Sold by: Lucky's Fulfillment

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See this image

Follow the Author

Peter S. Goodman

Past Due: The End of Easy Money and the Renewal of the American Economy Hardcover – September 15, 2009

by Peter S. Goodman (Author)

11 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$11.99

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$8.85

$3.95

$1.88

Enhance your purchase

How Main Street was hit by—and might recover from—the financial crisis, by The New York Times’s national economics correspondent

When the financial crisis struck in 2008, Main Street felt the blow just as hard as Wall Street. The New York Times national economics correspondent Peter S. Goodman takes us behind the headlines and exposes how the flow of capital from Asia and Silicon Valley to the suburbs of the housing bubble perverted America’s economy. He follows a real estate entrepreneur who sees endless opportunity in the underdeveloped lots of Florida—until the mortgages for them collapse. And he watches as an Oakland, California-based deliveryman, unable to land a job in the biotech industry, slides into unemployment and a homeless shelter. As Goodman shows, for two decades Americans binged on imports and easy credit, a spending spree abetted by ever-increasing home values—and then the bill came due.

Yet even in a new environment of thrift and pullback, Goodman argues that economic adaptation is possible, through new industries and new safety nets. His tour of new businesses in Michigan, Iowa, South Carolina, and elsewhere and his clear-eyed analysis point the way to the economic promises and risks America now faces.

Print length

352 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Times Books
Publication date

September 15, 2009
Dimensions

6.51 x 1.29 x 9.57 inches
ISBN-10

0805089802
ISBN-13

978-0805089806
See all details

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Peter S. Goodman is a reporter with a valuable thesis, reams of anecdotes and a habit of being in the right place at the right time. He puts these assets to work in a persuasive book on an all-too-familiar topic, Past Due: The End of Easy Money and the Renewal of the American Economy.”—Bloomberg News

“An authoritative account of events leading up to the current recession…. A must-read.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Peter S. Goodman brings a journalist’s savviness and skepticism to the stories of the people affected by the current economic crisis. Based on more than a decade of reporting in the United States and around the world, Past Due is a compelling and insightful read from one of the best economic correspondents in the country.”—Joseph E. Stiglitz, author of Making Globalization Work

“Peter Goodman has written a gripping tale of the current financial crisis and severe recession. He weaves together stories of individuals swept by the financial tsunami—who have lost jobs, homes, incomes, and wealth—with a broader analysis of the economic and financial excesses that led to the crisis.”—Nouriel Roubini, professor of economics, Stern School of Business, New York University, and chairman, RGE Monitor

“In Past Due, Peter Goodman displays a fine grasp of the big picture, but as few others can do, he illustrates it with dozens and dozens of personal stories of ordinary people who were caught in the fake economic upsurge of the 2000s, and who are now drowning in its backwash. He still manages to end on a hopeful note, pointing to potentially promising paths to a longer-term recovery.”—Charles R. Morris, author of The Trillion Dollar Meltdown

“America’s economic crisis has prompted much hand-wringing and recrimination but few clear-eyed, accessible examinations of the underlying problems. Goodman’s persuasive new book is such an examination—and a captivating story to boot. It should be read by everyone who wants to know what went wrong with our economy, how the reckoning has affected our companies and our workers, and how we can get our country back on track.”—Jacob S. Hacker, professor of political science, Yale University, and author, The Great Risk Shift

“Peter S. Goodman is a reporter’s reporter—relentless, skeptical, fair, energetic, and eager to see things for himself. His instinct for the big story carried him for a decade through the landscape of our current economic crisis—the Internet bubble of Silicon Valley, China’s roaring but unbalanced economy, and the upended American heartland. Past Due is a timely, deeply reported and clarifying book.”—Steve Coll, author of Ghost Wars

About the Author

Peter S. Goodman is the national economics correspondent for The New York Times and a contributor to the paper’s groundbreaking fall 2008 series, “The Reckoning.” Previously, he covered the Internet bubble and bust as The Washington Post’s telecommunications reporter, and served as the Post’s China-based Asian economics correspondent. He lives in New York City.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Times Books (September 15, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0805089802
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0805089806
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.25 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.51 x 1.29 x 9.57 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #4,218,741 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4,515 in Development & Growth Economics (Books)
- #8,834 in Economic History (Books)
- #9,753 in Economic Conditions (Books)

Customer Reviews:
11 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		55%
4 star		9%
3 star		16%
2 star		9%
1 star		12%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Cartoon lover

Good - but too much seems tacked on

Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2010

Verified Purchase

First, the positives - yes, the book is well written overall, with clear explanations of many things like credit default swaps (a term that I have heard bandied about numerous times on the financial news channels).

My main problem with the book is that many of the stories about people seemed tacked on, or dropped into place as if they were meant to expand the page count. The stories were largely repetitive - basically "people decided to improve their lot in life/have the good life with easy money, only to find they didn't read/weren't told/didn't understand the fine print" and wound up in deep trouble. These stories disrupted the narrative of what the overall flow of events were that is far more critical to understand. This is why I only gave the book three stars.

Finally, his "cure". We have to bring more back onto our shores, and create wealth by making things of tangible value as opposed to, as he roughly terms it, financial hocus-pocus (indeed, he draws a metaphor with the overall situation with Neverland of Peter Pan). But there is an underlying theme that many will find disquieting nonetheless - wages will likely be lower than what they once were, and the capital to do all this will likely come from foreign investment of companies buying up US assets. Sadly, as Warren Buffett has said, "we are giving ourselves a party to feed our appetite for oil and imported goods and paying for it by selling off the furniture, our most precious assets." (Maureen Dowd,New York Times editorial, 1/20/08). I fear that the US will have to learn to live with lowered expectations.

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

Bleuangel

Heart wrenching

Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2009

Verified Purchase

Until I read this book, I did not totally understand this recession. Now I feel I do. Its not written in a style that is so boring and technical that you don't quite "get it", instead it is written about people who are living out the horrors of the recession. I found the book informative and hard to put down.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

redjellydonut

The definitive analysis of the global financial meltdown

Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2009

Verified Purchase

Peter S. Goodman has done the almost impossible: He's made the origins of the global financial collapse comprehensible and he's done so without forgetting that it is individual human beings who have been most devastated by the complex tangle of motives that created the crisis. It's that blending of Goodman's incisive, expert understanding of international economics with his ability to put a human face to the disaster that makes "Past Due" such a timely and important book. I can't recommend it more highly.

10 people found this helpful

Helpful

Kenneth Belson

Ron Hodges

Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2009

Verified Purchase

Peter Goodman has written a first-class book not just on the economy and its myriad troubles, but also the American psyche and its endless, often irrational and troubling belief in the quick fix fueled by banks, credit card companies, home builders and politicians of all stripes. The profiles of ordinary Americans swept up in the toxic financial stew known as the dot com boom and housing bubble makes this book unique and uniquely frightening. Goodman ties it together with thoughtful analysis and contextual history. Very readable.

9 people found this helpful

Helpful

Frank A. Stricker

Best on the Great Recession

Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2015

Verified Purchase

Best book at the time about the Great Recession, esp from the bottom up. I used it well in a course.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

WAB

MUST READ!

Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2010

Verified Purchase

This is a must read book for everybody. ESPECIALLY those under the ate of 18. It is never to soon to learn finacial responsibility and the consequences.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

no name supplied

Inciteful and understandable

Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2009

Verified Purchase

I thought this book hit the nail right on the head. It is an understandable, logical explanation of our current state of affairs, yet it is also a compelling read. Most books about the economy are convoluted and hard to follow, not so with this one.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

3PC

PROPAGANDA LIGHT... COURTESY OF THE ROUND TABLE GROUPS.

Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2017

Platitudes, unsupported generalities and a complete absence of the elite agenda that created globalization in the first place. Mr. Goodman works for the Council On Foreign Relations (CFR) controlled New York Times... which itself has failed to repeatedly report. Like so many issues, Mr. Goodman plays off the personal story to get emotional involvement by the reader - and then lays on the blanket statements to get the reader to just believe a load of crap that the banksters want us to believe.

Helpful

Buy new: $8.85

Other Sellers on Amazon

Follow the Author

Past Due: The End of Easy Money and the Renewal of the American Economy Hardcover – September 15, 2009

Enhance your purchase

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Product details

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Buy new:

$8.85