Freefall
America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy
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Narrated by:
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Dick Hill
About this listen
The current global financial crisis carries a "made in America" label. In this forthright and incisive book, Nobel Laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz explains how America exported bad economics, bad policies, and bad behavior to the rest of the world, only to cobble together a haphazard and ineffective response when the markets finally seized up.
Drawing on his academic expertise, his years spent shaping policy in the Clinton administration and at the World Bank, and his more recent role as head of a UN commission charged with reforming the global financial system, Stiglitz outlines a way forward, building on ideas that he has championed his entire career: restoring the balance between markets and government, addressing the inequalities of the global financial system, and demanding more good ideas (and less ideology) from economists.
Freefall is an instant classic, combining an enthralling whodunit account of the current crisis with a bracing discussion of the broader economic issues at stake.
©2010 Joseph E. Stiglitz (P)2010 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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Dangerous / Right Wing US view
- By David O'Donovan on 03-05-19
By: Dambisa Moyo, and others
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Why Save the Bankers?
- And Other Essays on Our Economic and Political Crisis
- By: Thomas Piketty, Seth Ackerman - translator
- Narrated by: LJ Ganser
- Length: 5 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Thomas Piketty's work has proved that unfettered markets lead to increasing inequality. Without meaningful regulation, capitalist economies will concentrate wealth in an ever smaller number of hands. Armed with this knowledge, democratic societies face a defining challenge: fending off a new aristocracy. For years Piketty has wrestled with this problem in his monthly newspaper column, which pierces the surface of current events to reveal the economic forces underneath.
By: Thomas Piketty, and others
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A Capitalism for the People
- Recapturing the Lost Genius of American Prosperity
- By: Luigi Zingales
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Born in Italy, University of Chicago economist Luigi Zingales witnessed firsthand the consequences of high inflation and unemployment - paired with rampant nepotism and cronyism - on a country’s economy. This experience profoundly shaped his professional interests, and in 1988 he arrived in the United States, armed with a political passion and the belief that economists should not merely interpret the world, but should change it for the better.
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Enjoyable but a tad predictable.
- By Kevin on 12-24-12
By: Luigi Zingales
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The Death of Money
- The Coming Collapse of the International Monetary System
- By: James Rickards
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 13 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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The international monetary system has collapsed three times in the past hundred years, in 1914, 1939, and 1971. Each collapse was followed by a period of tumult: War, civil unrest, or significant damage to the stability of the global economy. Now James Rickards, the acclaimed author of Currency Wars, shows why another collapse is rapidly approaching - and why this time, nothing less than the institution of money itself is at risk.
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A good review of the global financial system
- By Jean on 04-22-14
By: James Rickards
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Naked Money
- A Revealing Look at What It Is and Why It Matters
- By: Charles Wheelan
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Consider the $20 bill. It has no more value, as a simple slip of paper, than Monopoly money. Yet even children recognize that tearing one into small pieces is an act of inconceivable stupidity. What makes a $20 bill actually worth $20? In the third volume of his best-selling Naked series, Charles Wheelan uses this seemingly simple question to open the door to the surprisingly colorful world of money and banking.
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This is a beautiful audiobook, and well-narrated.
- By Thirsty Mind on 11-10-18
By: Charles Wheelan
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Red Flags
- Why Xi's China Is in Jeopardy
- By: George Magnus
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Over the past four decades, China's remarkable transformation has garnered admiration but also sparked concern. George Magnus draws on his intimate knowledge of this dynamic nation to uncover the origins of its ascent and show why the economic traps it faces at home and the political challenges it faces abroad pose a serious threat to its continued rise.
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A pessimistic vision with western liberal bias
- By Jeronimo L. Jimenez on 10-23-20
By: George Magnus
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How the Other Half Banks
- Exclusion, Exploitation, and the Threat to Democracy
- By: Mehrsa Baradaran
- Narrated by: Priya Ayyar
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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The United States has two separate banking systems today - one serving the well-to-do and another exploiting everyone else. How the Other Half Banks contributes to the growing conversation on American inequality by highlighting one of its prime causes: unequal credit. Mehrsa Baradaran examines how a significant portion of the population, deserted by banks, is forced to wander through a Wild West of payday lenders and check-cashing services to cover emergency expenses and pay for necessities - all thanks to deregulation that began in the 1970s.
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The Borrowers at the Fringe
- By Darwin8u on 09-13-16
By: Mehrsa Baradaran
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After the Music Stopped
- The Financial Crisis, the Response, and the Work Ahead
- By: Alan S. Blinder
- Narrated by: Graham Vick
- Length: 15 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Alan S. Blinder - esteemed Princeton professor, Wall Street Journal columnist, and former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board under Alan Greenspan - is one of our wisest and most clear-eyed economic thinkers. In After the Music Stopped, he delivers a masterful narrative of how the worst economic crisis in postwar American history happened, what the government did to fight it, and what we must do to recover from it.
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Irresponsible, corrupt, and confused book
- By Thomas on 12-22-14
By: Alan S. Blinder
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Putinomics
- Money and Power in Resurgent Russia
- By: Chris Miller
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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In Putinomics, Chris Miller examines the making of Russian economic policy since Vladimir Putin took power in 1999. Miller argues that Putin's economic strategy has functioned far more effectively than most Westerners realize. While acknowledging that part of Putin's successes - above all, quadrupling per capita GDP in just a decade and a half - can be attributed to cashing in on high oil prices, Miller details the government policies that have also been fundamental to Russia's growth.
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Go find something better
- By Anonymous User on 08-04-21
By: Chris Miller
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Other People's Money
- The Real Business of Finance
- By: John Kay
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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The finance sector of Western economies is too large and attracts too many of the smartest college graduates. Financialization over the past three decades has created a structure that lacks resilience and supports absurd volumes of trading. The finance sector devotes too little attention to the search for new investment opportunities and the stewardship of existing ones, and far too much to secondary-market dealing in existing assets. Regulation has contributed more to the problems than the solutions.
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Listened twice. Everyone must read this.
- By Tristan on 01-18-16
By: John Kay
What listeners say about Freefall
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Alex Krall
- 11-08-17
Had liberal environmental spin
Had a liberal environmental perspective. Brought in a lot of global warming stuff without any evidence to back up the claims. Wouldn't listen to it again.
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Overall
- Dan
- 03-03-10
Terrific Book
Of the dozen are so books written about our current financial crisis, this is one of the best. The author's objective analysis sets this publication apart from the crowd. Unlike competing volumes, this book actually provides realistic solutions to our problems. If knowing more about this subject is important to you, this offering will not disappoint.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall
- D&G
- 02-19-10
aggravating narration
i've only managed to get through two chapters of the book so far, so anything said here is based on a limited sample. that said, the reason for the slow progress is bad narration. i always listen to the clips of a book before making a decision on whether to buy it because i am quite sensitive to the quality of the narration. there are a couple of books i would dearly love to have audio versions of, but the narration is so intrusive that i can't buy them (for any who are familiar, the reader Stephen Hoye is a particularly glaring example of a bad narrator). the clip provided for Freefall provides no clue of how the narrator overacts and belabors simple points. through two chapters, the book is mainly a scold, providing little to no data to support the claims, but rather giving a schematic overview, along with a number of value judgments. i happen to agree with much of Stiglitz' analysis, but so far, i've learned nothing of value. worse, the narration is like a cranky grandfather wagging his finger and slowing down ... to... make... each...significant.......point, or gesticulating (aurally) urgently about a fairly straightforward idea. it's incredibly aggravating and distracting narration. i wish narrators would stay out of the way in expository works, and let the words speak for themselves. subtle intonation is fine, but this kind of narration is not.
all that said, because of my respect for dr. stiglitz, i intend to keep slogging through the schematic opening section to try to get to the detailed analysis. i will make one critique here, though, of his position. he argues that many of the policies adopted failed to serve their stated goals. to my mind, the policies and actions that led to the financial meltdown were not failures, they were successes. they succeeded in transferring massive wealth to the financial engineers, and away from everyone else. and i believe that that was their purpose.
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12 people found this helpful
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- Kent M. Pitman
- 10-03-10
An Important and Often Overlooked Point of View
Nobel Prize Winner and former Chief Economist of the World Bank Joseph Stiglitz is a voice we don't hear enough of in modern politics. It's really unfortunate because he has a lot of really interesting perspective to offer and some very clearly articulated ideas about policy that deserve a fair hearing. He is someone who knows the ins and outs of the monetary world and yet has not lost track of the effects of policy on ordinary people. He is critical of both Bush and Obama in a way that is plainly not partisan and is more focused on measuring real effects, studying historical trends, and proposing policies that might do some good for other than just the people who've already been profiting handsomely off of others in both good times and bad. I found this book to be a real breath of fresh air and a nice solid follow-on to The Big Short, which had left me understanding pretty plainly how the financial collapse happened and ready to hear some good proposals about where to go from there.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Calco Creek
- 04-10-11
Excellent text book
Who am I to evaluate Joe Stiglitz?
Excellent text book but very dry. No humor, no anecdotes. I might be silly, but for this reason I liked "The Big Short" better.
I did the book injustice and myself disservice by reading it after a series of like books which rendered a lot of the information here redundant.
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- GenericName
- 01-30-21
Annoying unprofessional clownish narrator
Never buying another audiobook with this narrator again. This clown ruined Stigz otherwise masterful book with his out of place unprofessional and clownish performance. This is a serious and dry book and it’s read by a circus clown engaged in childish attempts at flair. A few chapters in and I’m considering returning it to buy the print edition.
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Overall
- R. Shafer
- 03-19-10
Freefall – Not the place to start
Stiglitz' treatment of the causes of the economic crisis seemed a bit superficial. His argument was unconvincing because he didn't strongly support many of his claims. He points to the crisis as a failure of the free market and of capitalism, while admitting that this situation did not operate as a free market, nor did we have a true capitalist system in place.
The most interesting - and perhaps most important - chapter of the book is not specifically about the economic crisis. In Chapter 9, Stiglitz raises several interesting questions that challenge the traditional assumptions of economists. I recommend beginning by reading/listening to Chapter Nine to get a sense of Stiglitz' theoretical underpinnings, and then read the rest of Freefall with that in mind.
I read T. Sowell's Housing Boom and Bust concurrent with this book, and found Sowell's facts and arguments more satisfying. Stiglitz' book seems to leave out a lot of details. For a more clear explanation that deals with the facts in an easier to understand, more down-to-earth way, I'd recommend Sowell's book as the place to start. FreeFall makes a good second book because it deals with different aspects of the crisis and comes from a different point of view.
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9 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Bry
- 02-16-10
Required Economic Reading
Narrator Dick Hill emotes Stiglitz' material perfectly. Stiglitz outlines the path the past three decades have led to this inevitable Great Recession commenced in 2008, pointing fingers at the culpable parties in both political parties. He also explains how to prevent it going forward by aligning business goals with social goals.
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Nicole
- 12-05-10
Horrible
My husband and I are a captive audience listening to this book as we put mud and tape over drywall in our kids new bedrooms. Drywall is time consuming and repetitive, and a decent audio book can really help make the time more pleasant. This book is not helping. Stiglitz has spent the last two hours blaming the government, the banks, and greedy Americans for the current recession without proposing one solution. He sets himself high over everyone else claiming that he saw the whole thing coming, and pointing the finger in at least a hundred different directions to everyone who was too dumb to see it or do anything about it. I wish The Great Super Cycle were in audio format, I have a feeling that would have been a lot better than this.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Michael Moore
- 05-12-10
A few bits of wheat amongst the chaff
I bought this book in hopes it would provide a comprehensive economic analysis of the 2008 financial meltdown. Instead, it turns out to be little more than the author's rant on all the things that are wrong (in his opinion) with the US economic system, schools of economic thought he disagrees with, and the policy responses of the Bush and Obama Administrations to the financial meltdown. It is more polemical than insightful, in my view. To be fair, if you stick with it, there are a few interesting observations based on the author's experience at the IMF, in conversations with foreign leaders and in the Clinton Administration.
If you are looking for insights on the 2008 financial meltdown, I recommend as much more informative and useful David Faber's book (And Then the Roof Caved In) followed by Michael Lewis's book (The Big Short).
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6 people found this helpful