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Product Reviews

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Louisville, US

★★★★★ 5

A Complete Autopsy of the 2008 Financial Crash and the Government Response

Format: Hardcover

First, let me say that I can't believe one person wrote this entire book. Tooze handles everything - economics, finance, politics, diplomacy, public policy, housing, discrimination, trading platforms - and does it expertly. The author's detailed understanding of such a wide arrange of topics is dazzling, especially his handle on inscrutable national bank mechanics. Second, if you want a macro understanding of how governments responded to the 2008 financial crisis and how these responses produced such wildly differing results, read this book. The analysis at times is like eating sawdust and it is excruciatingly detailed. There were entire chapters on the European side of the crises that I felt were repetitive and could possibly be removed from the book without losing too much. However, clearly Tooze has done his homework and the data underlying his conclusions is vast. Third, I learned a lot and I had previously read "Too Big to Fail" by Sorkin and some other lesser known books on the recession. Tooze handles everything from a policy perspective and his data support his overarching theme: the US had a cohesive, massive stimulus program that probably could have gone further, while the EU responded in nibbles. The US rebounded well, albeit not perfectly while the EU went from crises to crises. He also shows that there were massive consequences from the bailout of the financial system: Brexit and cartoonish clown politicians like Trump in the US, and Farage in the EU, who are supported at their roots by a dangerously racist and nationalistic surge of those left behind by the modern global economy. This is an excellent read.

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Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2018

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Stefanie UWS

Natrona Heights, US

★★★★★ 4

It's good financial history

Format: Hardcover

especially how the EURO members' values slow down negotiations. I hardly came upon the fluidness in their story line post 2008 in this book, like I do the USAs through media. The FED is king in the USA in both knowledge and strategy (Powell Doctrine). A nice read but it could be shorter; my opinion of course!

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Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2018

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BookHawk

Houston, US

★★★★★ 5

Dazzling, Exhaustive, Exhausting.

Format: Kindle

Mr. Tooze has delivered a tour de force. He has marshaled what surely must be the most comprehensive and informed account of the 2008 crash and its aftermath. Tooze examines in detail and at length, the financial, economic and political forces at work in this gigantic mosaic of global crisis. And he clearly understands the process, providing shrewd insights and informed commentary. It's a heavy lift--a bit like trying to drink out a a fire hydrant; the sheer volume of information is daunting. But the prose is clear and accessible. Tooze clearly identifies with the the leaders and institutions that mobilized themselves in new and highly unorthodox programs to contain the crisis. That's not popular among critics on both the far left and the hard right. But he illustrates the vapidity of their carping--which largely constitutes a substitute eitherfor understanding the issues or crafting workable solutions. I would argue that he overlooks the opportunity Obama had in January 200i9 to bend both parties to his will in crafting a real Economic Stimulus plan that the nation could have embraced. Instead he passed the initiative to the House leadership who simply dredged up failed old chestnuts which they newly christened as stimulus programs. Obama bought in and launched its initiative as a partisan weapon--which has only served to widen the current divide. An activist approach that would have drawn from both Republican and Democratic resources--and which was actually directed as a stimulus--might have created a moderate center from which to conduct his business. We'll never know. Obama didn't ever buy into working with others--even n his own party. It was generally his way of the highway. But it's tempting to look back and consider the possibilities. His concluding message, asks what resources will the current administration--which eschews both institutions and expertise--be able to mobilize in the all too likely event some new global crisis hits. For now, read and enjoy the (long) but very well informed ride.

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Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2018

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David Titus

Lexington, US

★★★★★ 5

Excellent history of 2008 financial crisis

Format: Kindle

As a non-economist, I wanted to learn about the causes and consequences of the 2008 financial crisis. Overall, Tooze has created what will likely become the definitive history of the crisis. He tells an incredibly detailed story of the rise of power among international banks, and how these banks created securities around mortgages that concealed their riskiness. The blow by blow story often had me in high suspense, testifying to the power of how Tooze put together the background events - and fininacial instruments of mass destruction - that nearly gave us WW Depression 2.0. Personally, I come away with great respect for Paulson, Berneke, Geitner, to name the key actors in this drama - for saving the world economy from ruins. I also come away with an unsolved mystery: why did America not fill its jails with crooked bankers? Yes, I understand from Tooze that the US Fed and Treasury were bankers, and disliked immensely turning in their own. But, zero bankers in jail, after causing what Tooze argues was the greatest bank crisis, ever, including Great Depression 1.0.? It makes no political sense that banks and their leaders nearly destroyed the world economy, but zero went jail, when millions across the world lost homes to foreclosure, suffered severe unemployment, had Democratic election results ignored by financial authorities (mainly in Europe). I am personally convinced this lack of fairness and justice has given us not only Trump but a broad range of autocratic political parties. They claim to protect everyday people, but of course do not. In sum, this rather masterpiece of historical financial analysis is a surefooted guide across the tricky lengthy and politically dangerous terrain of the 2008 financial crisis. Five stars.

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Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2019

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wsmrer

Whiting, US

★★★★★ 5

2008 Neoliberalism crashes the state rushes back-- just in time

Format: Kindle

“Whereas since the 1970s the incessant mantra of the spokespeople of the financial industry had been free markets and light touch regulation, what they were now demanding was the mobilization of all of the resources of the state to save society’s financial infrastructure from a threat of systemic implosion, a threat they likened to a military emergency.” (Loc. 3172-3174) Adam Tooze takes the well know Financial Crisis of 2007-08 through its full history of international ramifications and brings it up to the present with the question of whether the large organizations, structures and processes on the one hand; decision, debate, argument and action on the other that managed to fall into place in that crisis period in this and many other countries will develop if needed again. “The political in “political economy” demands to be taken seriously.” (Loc. 11694). That he does. Tooze is an Economic Historian and Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World is a wonderfully rich enquiry into causes and effects of the Financial Crisis and how the failing of poorly managed greed motivated practices of a few financial institutions, and their subprime mortgagees, tumbled economies in the developed and developing world, causing events that matched the Great Depression’s dislocation and could have matched its duration, springing from world wide money markets “interlocking matrix” of corporate balance sheets— bank to bank.” A warning he is not kind to existing political beings, the Republican Party in particular “…to judge by the record of the last ten years, it is incapable of legislating or cooperating effectively in government.” (Loc.11704) His criticism is, in fairness, based on technical management grounds, and he does find fault as well with the inner core of the Obama advisors and their primary concerns for the financial sectors well being, rather than nationwide happenings where homes and incomes disappeared. This reviewer’s favorite (not mentioned by Tooze) is the early 2009 comment of Larry Sumners when Christina D. Romer, the chairwoman of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers and leading authority on the Great Depression saw a need for $1.8 trillion stimulus package, “What have you been smoking?” Sumners, Geithner, and Orszag, who favored transferring $787 billion to the banks to offset possible bank failures and such -- became policy. Tooze mentions that by 2012 Sumners was concerned by the slowness of the U.S. economy’s recovery taking, as it did, 8 years to reach 2008 levels of employment.* Can an Economic History be an exciting read? Tooze gives us over 700 pages of just that, but much will be familiar as reported news and may be skimmed, and some of the Fed’s expanded international roles very dense in content. His strength is the knowledge of what could have happened, had solutions not been found, and how agreements were reached out of public sight. “… the world economy is not run by medium-sized … entrepreneurs but by a few thousand massive corporations, with interlocking shareholdings controlled by a tiny group of asset managers. (Loc.418-419). Add wily politicians and hard driven bankers EU Ukraine and China you have an adventure. Corporate control is not new -- rich descriptions of its inner connections are. Adam Tooze does this well a reference work for years to come. 5 stars *For an in depth critique of that period see: A Crisis Wasted: Barack Obama’s Defining Decisions by Reed Hundt

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Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2018