Meltdown, my new book, promises in the appendix that my website will link readers to the reading lists I put together for self-education in economics and sound money. Here they are (1, 2). I’ll figure out soon where to put them as a permanent feature of the site.
Ben Smith Says:
February 10th, 2009 at 9:17 am
Good luck. Just heard you on Glenn Beck
I’m a conservative and blame Wall St/bankers 70% and the Feds 30% for this mess. Follow the money and see who actually profited from this debacle, taking home billions in bonuses for writng and peddling derivatives and CMOs and credit default swaps. Lehman and Merrill demanded sub primes from mortgage brokers. They vacuumed them up (demand pull) into their collateralized mortgage obligations
Malefactors in government like Dodd and Barney got little compensation for the chaos and damage they created. Dodd got a preferred mortgage from Angelo Mozilo. Franklin Raines got 90 million which was quite a score and worthy of Wall St. Jamie Gorelick and others got tens of millions in compensation from Fanny and Freddy
woods Says:
February 10th, 2009 at 9:22 am
I prefer not to start a long thread on this topic under a blog post on something else, but just very quickly: it’s the present system that makes these shenanigans possible. So it’s hard to say it’s X% this, X% that. It’s a symbiotic relationship. Under a sound and sane banking system, we would never have seen this insanity. Moreover, without a Fed to create the housing bubble in the first place, then if securitization existed at all, the resulting securities would not rise and fall nearly so sharply, which is the problem.
Jack Maturin Says:
February 10th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Hi Tom,
Well done on getting the book out so quickly. Here’s my attempt to plug the monkey:
=> http://angloaustria.blogspot.com/2009/02/have-you-ordered-your-copy-yet.html
Rgds,
JackM
Michael Morrison Says:
February 10th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
In a free system, of course there still might be crooks.
The difference is, in a free system crookedness is not institutionalized; crookedness is recognized as crookedness, not just political connectedness.
And we can hope it is the crooks themselves who will be institutionalized.
Keep up your very important work, Dr. Woods.
margaret Says:
February 14th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
I just read Meltdown. I always knew it was the Government goofing up the economy. I just didn’t understand all the details on how it worked. Now I do. Thank You. I will share my copy of Meltdown with friends and family to spread the word. But what do you suggest to individuals on how to survive this upcoming mess? We don’t have the power to change the government, but just surviving and not losing what we have will be tough. Margaret
John Heinbockel Says:
February 20th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
just finished murray rothbard’s history of the great depression. highly worth reading–great job going through cycle theory and all the “enlightened” clap-trap that hoover & later roosevelt foisted on us. also great at pointing fingers at the real culprits–FED ez credit/inflation. I can’t wait to read yours.
McMahon Michael Says:
I wish to thank Thomas Woods for a superb analysis of the Depression of 1920.
As a financial advisor based here in Ireland I am amazed that nobody with responsibility for economic planning either here in Ireland,UK or indeed America had studied the work of Ludwig Von Mises,Joseph Schumpeter, Hyman Minsky or the great Russian economist Nicholai Kondratieff.
Michael McMahon
Navan
Ireland
Thomas E. Woods, Jr., is the New York Times bestselling author of ten books. A senior fellow of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, Woods holds a bachelor's degree in history from Harvard and his master's, M.Phil., and Ph.D. from Columbia University. Read more »
