Money Well Spent?
The Truth behind the Trillion-Dollar Stimulus, the Biggest Economic Recovery Plan in History
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Narrated by:
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William Hughes
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By:
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Michael Grabell
About this listen
The 2012 presidential campaign will, above all else, be a referendum on the Obama administration’s handling of the financial crisis, recalling the period when Obama’s “audacity of hope” met the austerity of reality. Central to this is the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 - the largest economic recovery plan in American history. Senator Mitch McConnell gave a taste of the enormity of the money committed: if you had spent $1 million a day since Jesus was born, it still would not add up to the price tag of the stimulus package.
The story of how this almost entirely partisan piece of legislation - Democrats voted for it, Republicans against it - was passed and, more importantly, how the money was spent and to what effect, is known barely at all. Stepping outside the political fray, ProPublica’s Michael Grabell offers a perceptive, balanced, and dramatic story of what happened to the taxpayers’ money, pursuing the big question through behind-the-scenes interviews and on-the-ground reporting in more than a dozen states across the country.
MIchael Grabell has been a reporter at ProPublica since 2008, producing stories for USA Today, Salon, NPR, MSNBC, and the CBS Evening News. Before joining ProPublica, he was a reporter at the Dallas Morning News. He has twice been a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists. He lives in New Jersey.
©2012 Michael Grabell (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Contemporary History at Its Best
- By Roy on 04-19-10
By: Paul Ingrassia
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The Boom
- How Fracking Ignited the American Energy Revolution and Changed the World
- By: Russell Gold
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Russell Gold, a brilliant and dogged investigative reporter at The Wall Street Journal, has spent more than a decade reporting on one of the biggest stories of our time: the spectacular, world-changing rise of "fracking". Recognized as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and a recipient of the Gerald Loeb Award for his work, Gold has traveled along the pipelines and into the hubs of this country’s energy infrastructure; he has visited frack sites from Texas to North Dakota; and he has conducted thousands of interviews with engineers and wildcatters, CEOs and roughnecks, environmentalists and politicians.
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Somehow the author manages to stay balanced
- By Emily C on 05-28-14
By: Russell Gold
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Nothing to Fear
- FDR's Inner Circle and the Hundred Days That Created Modern America
- By: Adam Cohen
- Narrated by: Norman Dietz
- Length: 14 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Nothing to Fear brings to life a fulcrum moment in American history - the tense, feverish first 100 days of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidency, when he and his inner circle completely reinvented the role of the federal government.
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Important contribution
- By R.S. on 03-05-09
By: Adam Cohen
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Arguing with Idiots
- How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government
- By: Glenn Beck
- Narrated by: Glenn Beck, Pat Gray, Steve "Stu" Burguiere
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Idiots can't be identified through voting records, they can be found only by looking for people who hide behind stereotypes, embrace partisanship, and believe that bumper-sticker slogans are a substitute for common sense. If you know someone who fits the bill, then Arguing with Idiots will help you silence them once and for all with the ultimate weapon: the truth.
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Great Book
- By Stacy on 09-22-09
By: Glenn Beck
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Faster, Higher, Farther
- The Volkswagen Scandal
- By: Jack Ewing
- Narrated by: Joel Richards
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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A shocking exposé of Volkswagen's fraud by the New York Times reporter who covered the scandal. In mid-2015 Volkswagen proudly reached its goal of surpassing Toyota as the world's largest automaker. A few months later, the EPA disclosed that Volkswagen had installed software in 11 million cars that deceived emissions-testing mechanisms. By early 2017 VW had settled with American regulators and car owners for $20 billion, with additional lawsuits still looming.
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Excellent recap of VW, its structure and culture
- By Northern IN Mark on 05-27-17
By: Jack Ewing
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Dealing with China
- An Insider Unmasks the New Economic Superpower
- By: Henry M. Paulson
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 18 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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When Hu Jintao, China's then vice president, came to visit the New York Stock Exchange and Ground Zero in 2002, he asked Hank Paulson to be his guide. It was a testament to the pivotal role that Goldman Sachs played in helping China experiment with private enterprise. In Dealing with China, the best-selling author of On the Brink draws on his unprecedented access to both the political and business leaders of modern China to answer several key questions.
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A Valuable Book on China
- By Michael Moore on 09-04-15
By: Henry M. Paulson
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The Unwinding
- An Inner History of the New America
- By: George Packer
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 18 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Unwinding, George Packer, author of The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq, tells the story of the United States over the past three decades in an utterly original way, with his characteristically sharp eye for detail and gift for weaving together complex narratives. The Unwinding portrays a superpower in danger of coming apart at the seams, its elites no longer elite, its institutions no longer working, its ordinary people left to improvise their own schemes for success and salvation.
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Can't understand the low ratings!
- By Janet Pittman Henley on 05-27-13
By: George Packer
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New Deal or Raw Deal?
- How FDR's Economic Legacy Has Damaged America
- By: Burton Folsom Jr.
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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In this shocking and groundbreaking new book, economic historian Burton Folsom, Jr., exposes the idyllic legend of Franklin D. Roosevelt as a myth of epic proportions. With questionable moral character and a vendetta against the business elite, Roosevelt created New Deal programs marked by inconsistent planning, wasteful spending, and opportunity for political gain---ultimately elevating public opinion of his administration but falling flat in achieving the economic revitalization that America needed.
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A must listen!
- By Book and Movie Lover on 06-14-09
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The Yugo
- The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History
- By: Jason Vuic
- Narrated by: Erik Synnestvedt
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Six months after its American introduction in 1985, the Yugo was a punch line; within a year, it was a staple of late-night comedy. By 2000, NPR's Car Talk declared it "the worst car of the millennium." And for most Americans that's where the story begins and ends. Hardly. The short, unhappy life of the car, the men who built it, the men who imported it, and the decade that embraced and discarded it is rollicking and astounding, and it is one of the greatest untold business-cum-morality tales of the 1980s.
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Better Than The Car!
- By Chris Reich on 08-25-10
By: Jason Vuic
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Overhaul
- An Insider's Account of the Obama Administration's Emergency Rescue of the Auto Industry
- By: Steven Rattner
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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This first real look inside Team Obama mixes political warfare and big-business shakeups in equal proportions, and comes from a uniquely informed source. Steve Rattner is not just the man brought in by the president to save the auto industry, he is a former New York Times financial reporter who also earned a place among the top tier of Wall Street's most informed investment bankers and corporate experts.
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Overhaul - A Memoir
- By Roy on 12-05-10
By: Steven Rattner
What listeners say about Money Well Spent?
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Steven Schuster
- 03-03-12
book well researched
Michael Grabell has written a well researched book on the stimulus. The writing is good, refreshingly entertaining in portions, as opposed to some other topical economic oriented books.
The book seems well balanced as to whether it was money well spent, some wasted/ most well intentioned/ some well spent.
Don't pay attention to some negative reviews left on amazon
(white whinners) left by tea party types.
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- Richard
- 10-02-17
It Was Depressingly Honest, But Helpful
The problem with government is its often directionless form not an inherent incapacity to accomplish valuable goals. Reagan idea about government being the problem was his incapacity to be of any help to anyone but his wealthy benefactors. He saw the US as continuing the tradition of the Articles of loosy goosy Confederation not a United States of a Solid & Strong America. Reagan's vision & thinking was inside the box of states rights rather than outside the box of WeThePeople of the United States. It's the reason why Obama had to pepper every state with "something" rather than a cohesive & powerfully solid direction. We are not trapped in the partisan binge of nothing ever gets done well. High speed rail is the epitome of this problem.
Solyndra was a good play with bad follow through, it needed time to cover the gap. You saw that in its struggle against low gas prices & Chinese subsidization. That said, we should have also had 5 or 10 solyndras. And then higher fees on fossil fuels and subsidies for homeowners and businesses rather than backing one company. Then private industry would see the potential for sustained profits.
Conservatives often mix up private industry with societal needs. Yes private industry should be involved, but there are things such as flu drugs that no private industry sees enough profits in where the government must prop up to save its citizens. Relying purely on capitalism to cover all the gaps is fanciful at best, dangerous at worst. Think Climate Change.
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- ann
- 12-29-12
Dumbest Cheerleading Ever Heard!
This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?
I am so sick and tired of the Audible summary presenting a book that is not the least bit relevant to the actual topic at hand. This is my LAST attempt to stay with audible.com despite a long time loyal relationship.
What was most disappointing about Michael Grabell’s story?
This shouldn't even be categorized as non-fiction as it is nothing but a long, tedious, boring and slanted perspective on what idiots might call 'facts'.
Would you be willing to try another one of William Hughes’s performances?
no.
If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Money Well Spent??
I would never let this book see the light of day. What a waste of time, money and effort. Tell this author to learn about something called research, facts, objective dialogue and truth.
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