The Gods That Failed
How the Financial Elite Have Gambled Away Our Futures
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- ¥1,600
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- ¥1,600
発行者による作品情報
You have been had.
MARKETS ARE NOT MAGIC.
DEBT IS NOT FREEDOM.
THE GODS HAVE FAILED.
A risk-prone, privatised profit-driven economic model overseen by a largely unaccountable, greedy and arrogant elite has resulted in one of the worst financial crises in history.
The over-paid heroes of Wall Street and the City worshipped the gods of globalisation, financialisation and speculation, and during the years of economic growth we, and our governments, worshipped them too. But high in the boardrooms of Mount Olympus, the reckless lust of banks for big bonuses and bigger profits led to excesses that have proved unsupportable.
The warning signs were ignored - now the Masters of the Universe are toppling and we're footing the bill.
Find out how an unregulated elite were able to run riot with your cash, and find out how to stop it happening again.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Latest in the parade of where-were-they-a-year-ago expert financial authors are economics editors Elliott (of the Guardian) and Atkinson (of Britain's Mail on Sunday). Likening Wall Street professionals to "New Olympians" who opened a "Pandora's Box" of financial evils, the two are less than skilled with their analogies, but possess great knowledge and a perspective encompassing London, Wall Street and Washington DC. While it's true that free-market philosophies have been increasingly adopted, even by the left (Jimmy Carter's deregulation of airlines and telecommunications, Bill Clinton's NAFTA), the authors blame the current mess, somewhat fantastically, on an international group of 38 economic theorists (including Friedrich von Hayek, Karl Popper and Milton Friedman) who, meeting in Switzerland in 1947, set the course for "classical liberalism" to fight back against "what was seen as the tyranny of the collective." Aside from this, the authors provide an excellent, witty explanation for the past few years of economic boom and bust, with a broad approach that makes clear the multiple forces working to sink the economy (rather than focusing exclusively on, say, Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve). Though it's not impartial, this is a well-written, well-informed guide to today's crisis and a sharp critique of free market philosophies.
