While some people deride Robert Scheer for continually harping on the banks, he also tends to be right about them and the stranglehold they have on American and world societies. He does not go into much detail about the derivatives that led to the current financial crisis themselves, but rather how they were created and, more importantly, what legislation allowed their creation and trading.

One thing that was particularly refreshing about this book is how he does not favor one end of the political spectrum over the other. He places the blame squarely on the shoulders of both the Republicans AND the Democrats. In fact, he hammers the Clinton administration much more savagely than the Reagan administration. But not without good cause, as is detailed in the book. And he quite rightly expresses his extreme disappointment with the lack of financial reform under the current Obama administration.

Overall, it is a good book to read if you do not know much about how the current financial crisis came into being, and the answers are much simpler and straightforward than most of the financial regulators make it out to be. This book will get your blood boiling and make you want to start taking action to enact real regulatory reform. ( )

Robert Scheer does a great job of tracing the roots of the current financial crisis. He starts during the Reagan administration, but this isn't a book that blames one party or the other. He spends a great deal of time castigating Clinton's cozy relationship with Wall Street, as well. Along the way, the author also draws attention to the few who predicted that deregulation would end in disaster. There's no doubt that it was the makers of the mess who benefited from the bailouts, while those who suffered because of their decisions were allowed to wallow in joblessness and looming foreclosure. It's a very sobering read, especially since, effectively, nothing has changed. ( )

In this RSA Animate, renowned academic David Harvey asks if it is time to look beyond capitalism towards a new social order that would allow us to live within a system that really could be responsible, just, and humane?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOP2V_np2c0

A Watson Institute video on the global trend toward Austerity budgets featuring Mark Blyth:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmsjGys-VqA ( )