The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crash

Location: Home » esoterica » General » The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crash

Similar Items:

•	Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism
•	The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What It Means
•	Greenspan's Bubbles: The Age of Ignorance at the Federal Reserve
•	When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change
•	The Panic of 1907: Lessons Learned from the Market's Perfect Storm

Editorial Reviews:

Product Description

We are living in the most reckless financial environment in recent history. Arcane credit derivative bets are now well into the tens of trillions. According to Charles R. Morris, the astronomical leverage at investment banks and their hedge fund and private equity clients virtually guarantees massive disruption in global markets. The crash, when it comes, will have no firebreaks. A quarter century of free-market zealotry that extolled asset stripping, abusive lending, and hedge fund secrecy will come crashing down with it.

The Trillion Dollar Meltdown explains how we got here, and what is about to happen. After the crash our priorities will be quite different. But things are likely to get worse before they better. Whether you are an active investor, a homeowner, or a contributor to your 401(k) plan, The Trillion Dollar Meltdown will be indispensable to understanding the gross excess that has put the world economy on the brink—and what the new landscape will look like.

Customer Reviews: Read 68 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Makes the Incomprehensible Comprehensible March 23, 2008
139 out of 150 found this review helpful

This is a great book for those of you like me who are not in the financial services industry but who want to understand why our economy is melting down as we speak. It will also help you understand why this upcoming election is so important: The author describes the seismic ideological shifts over the last 40 years, from the Liberal/Keynsian era that imploded in the late 70s, to the current dying embers of the Chicago-School free market ideology that has held sway from Reagan up to the present moment. The author believes it is time once again for the pendulum to swing in the direction of more activist, socially conscious government intervention. He is not a liberal ideologue but a former banker who comes to his conclusions based on objectivity, knowledge, and lucid thought. The integrity of his thinking shines through every page. This is not always an easy book to read; due to the subject matter it is rife with all sorts of financial industry acronyms and terms like "tranch" and "quant" and "put", but don't let that throw you. Just keep reading with the big picture in mind and it will all come together in the end. It's well worth the effort!

4 out of 5 stars

must read March 16, 2008
87 out of 105 found this review helpful

I rated this book 4 stars for its timeliness.

In my opinion, most people do not even begin to understand what is going on in the credit market and those who could are either in self-denial or lying to the public. This book is an excellent primer on the subject.

I expect that by the time more in-depth books are written the problem will be evident for all to see.

The last chapter, although well intentioned, is highly opinionated. However, the rest of the book is objective.

5 out of 5 stars

Well written, great perspective March 17, 2008
85 out of 94 found this review helpful

I am learning a lot reading this, even though I've followed the economy for years. The preface summarizes the situation and outlines the book, but is maybe slightly dense and technical for the average person. But the first chapter is great for giving perspective on how the US economy has evolved, especially the troubles of the stagflation period and what caused that. The book goes up to November 2007, with a clear understanding that the credit bubble was going to have to unwind, and it was either going to cost $1 trillion, or, if the government tried to paper it over, a lot more.

5 out of 5 stars

Previous post is misleading March 26, 2008
42 out of 51 found this review helpful

I want to clarify the previous poster's statement, which is misleading: "Mr. Morris: don't say "'I told you so' when you were saying 'c'mon, everybody!' not too long ago."

In fact, Morris wrote that book in 1991, 17 years ago. That is "not too long ago"? And in fact, Morris was correct at that time as well. If you had entered the stock market then time you would be very well off indeed, as what he wrote turned out to be extremely accurate. Especially if you had taken the advice of his current book and gotten out of the market during the time when he was writing this book.

1991-1992 was a period of recession by the way. Real estate was dropping like a stone. The market looked risky and over-valued. I took my mother out of the market at that time and boy was I surprised when the market took off, for exactly the reasons Morris spelled out (I hadn't read his book). Morris may have changed his tune in the past 17 years, but times have changed too. He has called the tune correctly, then and now.

3 out of 5 stars

Disappointed June 6, 2008
42 out of 53 found this review helpful

I was very much impressed by Charles R. Morris's "The Coming Global Boom" in the early 1990's, so this book was quite a disappointment. "The Trillion Dollar Meltdown" is an example of the phase Charles Kindleberger describes in his "Panics, Manias, and Crashes" as "looking for the scapegoats." Here the principal scapegoats are Milton Friedman and Alan Greenspan. Morris both decries and predicts the demise of Friedman's free market "ideology" and Reagan's idea that government is part of the problem and not the solution.

Morris sets up his argument by describing how liberalism and fiscal Keynesianism lost credibility by the end of the 1970's with what has been described as stagflation. Fiscal stimulus no longer stimulated an economy mired in so much debt. Morris then describes how Paul Volker implemented Friedman's Monetarism policy , but according to Morris, it worked because Volker didn't believe in the ideology. Volker just wanted to demonstrate to the world he was serious about inflation.

While I think Morris brilliantly critiqued the Liberalism of the 1970's, I disagree with his argument that it went away. Reagan promised to abolish the Energy and Education Departments and that went nowhere. Republicans talked about "government as the problem" but then expanded most government programs. The liberal interest groups that proliferated in the 1970's turned their attention to the Federal Courts and achieved many of their goals there. Interest group Liberalism didn't go away in the 1980's. It's agenda was still advanced merely by changing venues.

My point is that big government never died, Morris's claims notwithstanding. Nor did financial regulation end with the repeal of Glass-Steagall Act. In the aftermath of the Dot.com boom-bust, the Sarbanes Oxley Act---which Morris doesn't mention---put heavy restrictions on new stock issuances. So, the money went where the regulations aren't. As it usually does.

I would also say that in dealing with the current crisis, Fed Chairman Bernanke is not using the Milton Friedman approach of letting the "fire burn itself out." Instead, Bernanke is using the Walter Bagehot strategy of finding the lender of last resort to bail out the ailing institutions.

Now, I agree with Morris that many of these `investments" he describes are scams. I think variable rate mortgages are a bad idea because most people who agree to one have no idea that they are placing a bet on what the Fed will do over the life of the loan. They are signing up for what could be a rather bumpy ride.

I also agree with Morris's criticisms of Sallie Mae and the student loan mess, but I would point out that the colleges themselves are considerably to blame for these problems. Many colleges have accumulated vast trust funds while doing little to help their students. It sometimes seems to me that a college education has become like home ownership: having one is better than not having one but too many bucks have been chasing too little bang for some time now.

I think the institution that is most profoundly in need of reform in America is the United States Congress. When the Republicans forgot what they had been elected to do, they were turned out of office. But, when the Democrats returned to power, I saw that many faces of the Committee Chairs were the same as those who were turned out of power in 1994. Do you think they learned anything in the interim? I don't.

Powered by Associate-O-Matic

T-shirts, Posters

Pentagram T-shirts, bags, etc...

Gothic Posters