Age of Greed: The Triumph of Finance and the Decline of America, 1970 to the Present

A vivid history of the economics of greed told through the stories of those major figures primarily responsible.

Age of Greed shows how the single-minded and selfish pursuit of immense personal wealth has been on the rise in the United States over the last forty years.

Economic journalist Jeff Madrick tells this story through incisive profiles of the individuals responsible for this dramatic shift in our country’s fortunes, from the architects of the free-market economic philosophy (such as Milton Friedman and Alan Greenspan) to the politicians and businessmen (including Nixon, Reagan, Boesky, and Soros) who put it into practice. Their stories detail how a movement initially conceived as a moral battle for freedom instead brought about some of our nation's most pressing economic problems, including the intense economic inequity and instability America suffers from today. This is an indispensible guide to understanding the 1 percent.

Introduction ix

1 Revolution

Prologue: Lewis Uhler Believer 3

1 Walter Wriston Regulatory Revolt 10

2 Milton Friedman Proselytizer 26

3 Richard Nixon and Arthur Burns Political Expediency 52

4 Joe Flom The Hostile Takeover and Its Consequences 71

5 Ivan Boesky Wanting It All 86

6 Walter Wriston II Bailing Out Citibank 96

7 Ronald Reagan The Making of an Ideology 110

8 Ted Turner, Sam Walton, and Steve Ross Size Becomes Strategy 125

9 Jimmy Carter Capitulation 144

10 Howard Jarvis and Jack Kemp Tapping the Anger 155

11 Paul Volcker, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan Revolution Completed 160

2 The New Guard

12 Tom Peters and Jack Welch Promises Broken 179

13 Michael Milken "The Magnificent" 202

14 Alan Greenspan Ideologue 222

15 George Soros and John Meriwether Fabulous Wealth and Controversial Power 248

16 Sandy Weill King of the World 286

17 Jack Grubman, Frank Quattrone, Ken Lay, and Sandy Weill Decade of Deceit 318

18 Angelo Mozilo The American Tragedy 351

19 Jimmy Cayne, Richard Fuld, Stan O'Neal, and Chuck Prince Collapse 371

Epilogue 398

Notes 405

Acknowledgments 443

Index 445

480 pages, Paperback

Po otrzymaniu zamówienia poinformujemy,
czy wybrany tytuł polskojęzyczny lub anglojęzyczny jest aktualnie na półce księgarni.

AGE OF GREED: THE TRIUMPH OF FINANCE AND THE DECLINE OF AMERICA

MADRICK J.

Age of Greed: The Triumph of Finance and the Decline of America, 1970 to the Present

A vivid history of the economics of greed told through the stories of those major figures primarily responsible.

Age of Greed shows how the single-minded and selfish pursuit of immense personal wealth has been on the rise in the United States over the last forty years.