内容简介
A vividly told history of greed and its greatest practitionersin the last forty years, and how it gave rise to our currenteconomic ills.
As Jeff Madrick makes clear in a narrative at once sweeping andincisive, the single-minded pursuit of huge personal wealth did notstart in the 2000s but has been on the rise in the United Statessince the 1970s, led by a few individuals who argued thatself-interest guides society more effectively than communityconcerns.
In telling the stories of these politicians, economists, andfinanciers—who declared a moral battle for freedom but gave rise toan age of greed—Madrick traces the lineage of some of our nation’smost pressing economic problems. He begins with Walter Wriston,head of what would become Citicorp, who led the battle againstgovernment regulation. He examines the ideas of economist MiltonFriedman, who created the plan for an anti- Rooseveltian America;the politically expedient decisions of Richard Nixon that fueledinfl ation; and the actions of numerous economic players, includingIvan Boesky, Michael Milken, Jack Welch, Alan Green span, andSanford Weill.
As Jeff Madrick makes clear in a narrative at once sweeping andincisive, the single-minded pursuit of huge personal wealth did notstart in the 2000s but has been on the rise in the United Statessince the 1970s, led by a few individuals who argued thatself-interest guides society more effectively than communityconcerns.
In telling the stories of these politicians, economists, andfinanciers—who declared a moral battle for freedom but gave rise toan age of greed—Madrick traces the lineage of some of our nation’smost pressing economic problems. He begins with Walter Wriston,head of what would become Citicorp, who led the battle againstgovernment regulation. He examines the ideas of economist MiltonFriedman, who created the plan for an anti- Rooseveltian America;the politically expedient decisions of Richard Nixon that fueledinfl ation; and the actions of numerous economic players, includingIvan Boesky, Michael Milken, Jack Welch, Alan Green span, andSanford Weill.