Meltdown: The End of the Age of Greed - Softcover

Mason, Paul

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1844673960 ISBN 13: 9781844673964

Publisher: Verso, 2009

Synopsis

Meltdown tells the story of the financial crisis that destroyed the West’s investment banks, brought the global economy to its knees, and began to undermine three decades of neoliberal orthodoxy. Covering the credit crunch and its aftershocks from the economic front line, BBC journalist Paul Mason explores the roots of the US and UK’s financial hubris, documenting the real world causes and consequences from the Ford Factory, to Wall Street, to the City of London. In response to the immense challenge now facing the existing economic system, he outlines a new era of hyper-regulated capitalism that could emerge from the wreckage.

About this title

About the Author

Paul Mason is the economics editor of the BBC’s flagship current affairsprogram Newsnight and appears frequently on BBC World News America.He has covered globalization and social justice stories from locations aroundthe world, including Latin America, Africa and China. His book Live Working,Die Fighting was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award.

Reviews

Mason (Live Working or Die Fighting), the economics editor of BBC Newsnight, relies on accessible and pithy language to lay out the time line of the meltdown of the U.S. economy in September 2008 and its global reverberations. He details the root causes, names names with impunity and place the blame squarely on the shoulders of policymakers. He argues that when the law governing debt to capital ratios was quietly changed in 2004, this gave banks carte blanche to do whatever they needed to do to make money. Mason writes, Had the old capital restrictions been in place, it is unlikely that any of the Wall Street banks could have built up toxic debts on the scale that eventually sank them. With a quick history (and refutation) of neoliberal ideology, he makes his case that we are seeing the closing of an era; the future heralds the end of the old world banking system business model in favor of low-profit, utility-style banking. This is an instructive and succinct play-by-play of the global crisis, helpful for anyone in finance, economics or even policy. (June)
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Edition details

• Publisher: Verso
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1844673960
• ISBN 13: 9781844673964
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 198