Age of greed : the triumph of finance and the decline of America, 1970 to the present / Jeff Madrick.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Madrick, Jeff, 1947-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wealth--Moral and ethical aspects.

Wealth.

Financial crises--United States--History.

Financial crises.

Politics and government.

History.

United States--Politics and government--20th century.

United States.

United States--Politics and government--21st century.

Physical Description:

xi, 464 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2011.

Summary:

As Jeff Madrick makes clear, the single-minded pursuit of huge personal wealth has been on the rise in the United States since the 1970s, led by a few individuals who argue that self-interest guides society more effectively than community concerns. In telling the stories of these politicians, economists, and financiers who declared a moral battle for freedom but instead gave rise to an age of greed, Madrick traces the lineage of some of our nation's most pressing economic problems. He begins with Walter Wriston, head of what would become Citicorp, who led the battle against government regulation. He examines the ideas of economist Milton Friedman, who created the plan for an anti-Rooseveltian America; the politically expedient decisions of Richard Nixon that fueled inflation; the philosophy of Alan Greenspan, on whose libertarian ideology a house of cards was built on Wall Street; and Sandy Weill, who constructed the largest financial institution in the world, which would have gone bankrupt in 2008 without a federal bailout.--From publisher description.

Contents:

Revolution

Prologue Lewis Uhler believer

Walter Wriston regulatory revoltá

Milton Friedman proselytizer

Richard Nixon and Arthur Burns political expediencyá

Joe Flom the hostile takeover

Ivan Boesky wanting it all

Walter Wriston II bailing out citibank

Ronald Reagan the making of an ideology

Ted Turner, Sam Walton, and Steveáross size becomes strategy

Jimmy Carter and Charles Schultze capitulation

Howard Jarvis tapping the anger

Paul Volcker, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan revolution completed

The new guard

Tom Peters and Jack Welch promises broken

Michael Milken "the magnificent"

Alan Greenspan ideologue

George Soros and John Meriwether fabulous wealth and controversial power

Sandy Weill king of the world

Sandy Weill, Jack Grubman, Frank Quattrone, and Ken Lay decade of deceit

Angelo Mozilo, the American tragedy

Jimmy Cayne, Richard Fuld, Stan O'Neal, Chuck Prince collapse.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781400041718

1400041716

OCLC:

676726572