- Hardcover: 192 pages
- Publisher: Knopf; 1 edition (Sep 21 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0307592812
- ISBN-13: 978-0307592811
- Product Dimensions: 14.8 x 2 x 24.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 422 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#67,491 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #54 in Books > Professional & Technical > Accounting & Finance > Finance > Banks & Banking
- #55 in Books > Business & Investing > Finance > Banks & Banking
- #92 in Books > Business & Investing > International > Economic Conditions
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
“In Aftershock, Robert Reich takes the blame off ‘Wall Street’ and suggests our economic crisis isn’t universally due to ‘Wall Street.’ Reich states the real problem is structural—the rich get richer . . . and the middle class get more heavily debt-ridden to maintain a decent standard of living. All Americans will benefit from reading this insightful, timely book.”
-Bill Bradley
“Important and well executed . . . Reich is fluent, fearless, even amusing.”
-Sebastian Mallaby, The New York Times Book Review
“One of the clearest explanations to date of what has happened—how the United States went from . . . ‘the Great Prosperity’ of 1947 to 1975 to the Great Recession.”
-Bob Herbert, The New York Times
“Lucid and cogent.”
-Kirkus
“Well argued and frighteningly plausible: without a return to the “basic bargain” (that workers are also consumers), the “aftershock” of the Great Recession includes a long-term high unemployment and a political backlash—a crisis, he notes with a sort of grim optimism, that just might be painful enough to encourage necessary structural reforms.”
-Publishers Weekly
Product Description
A brilliant new reading of the economic crisis—and a plan for dealing with the challenge of its aftermath—by one of our most trenchant and informed experts.
When the nation’s economy foundered in 2008, blame was directed almost universally at Wall Street. But Robert B. Reich suggests a different reason for the meltdown, and for a perilous road ahead. He argues that the real problem is structural: it lies in the increasing concentration of income and wealth at the top, and in a middle class that has had to go deeply into debt to maintain a decent standard of living.
Persuasively and straightforwardly, Reich reveals how precarious our situation still is. The last time in American history when wealth was so highly concentrated at the top—indeed, when the top 1 percent of the population was paid 23 percent of the nation’s income—was in 1928, just before the Great Depression. Such a disparity leads to ever greater booms followed by ever deeper busts.
Reich’s thoughtful and detailed account of where we are headed over the next decades reveals the essential truth about our economy that is driving our politics and shaping our future. With keen insight, he shows us how the middle class lacks enough purchasing power to buy what the economy can produce and has adopted coping mechanisms that have a negative impact on their quality of life; how the rich use their increasing wealth to speculate; and how an angrier politics emerges as more Americans conclude that the game is rigged for the benefit of a few. Unless this trend is reversed, the Great Recession will only be repeated.
Reich’s assessment of what must be done to reverse course and ensure that prosperity is widely shared represents the path to a necessary and long-overdue transformation. Aftershock is a practical, humane, and much-needed blueprint for both restoring America’s economy and rebuilding our society.
When the nation’s economy foundered in 2008, blame was directed almost universally at Wall Street. But Robert B. Reich suggests a different reason for the meltdown, and for a perilous road ahead. He argues that the real problem is structural: it lies in the increasing concentration of income and wealth at the top, and in a middle class that has had to go deeply into debt to maintain a decent standard of living.
Persuasively and straightforwardly, Reich reveals how precarious our situation still is. The last time in American history when wealth was so highly concentrated at the top—indeed, when the top 1 percent of the population was paid 23 percent of the nation’s income—was in 1928, just before the Great Depression. Such a disparity leads to ever greater booms followed by ever deeper busts.
Reich’s thoughtful and detailed account of where we are headed over the next decades reveals the essential truth about our economy that is driving our politics and shaping our future. With keen insight, he shows us how the middle class lacks enough purchasing power to buy what the economy can produce and has adopted coping mechanisms that have a negative impact on their quality of life; how the rich use their increasing wealth to speculate; and how an angrier politics emerges as more Americans conclude that the game is rigged for the benefit of a few. Unless this trend is reversed, the Great Recession will only be repeated.
Reich’s assessment of what must be done to reverse course and ensure that prosperity is widely shared represents the path to a necessary and long-overdue transformation. Aftershock is a practical, humane, and much-needed blueprint for both restoring America’s economy and rebuilding our society.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of those "must reads",
By D. Crawford "book sponge" (Victoria, BC, Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future (Hardcover)
This book is written for ease of understanding and it covers national financial and social topics everyone should be aware of. He does inject a small ray of hope so it isn't totally bleak.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pleasant read,
By
This review is from: Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future (Hardcover)
Good read, it is true that tax cuts at some level don't make difference, especially for the super rich. The Us will have to make much tougher choices by delaying fiscal responsibility and major infrastructure needed in all areas
4.0 out of 5 stars
Une vision révélatice, des solutions rêveuses,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future (Paperback)
Robert B. Reich semble avoir placé le doigt sur un véritable problème. Il décrit avec conviction sa vision des raisons qui qui explique le raz-le-bol des Américains contre l'establishment de Wall Street.Cependant ses solutions, certaines innovatrices, certaines difficilement "achetables" me laissent songeur quand à la possibilité d'un retournement de situation. Ce livre se lit d'une traite.
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