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mschlat 's review for:
The Finance Curse: How Global Finance Is Making Us All Poorer
by Nicholas Shaxson
Overall, this was a sobering and somewhat depressing book. Note that I was already in agreement with Shaxson's thesis: the world economy has become far too dependent on the financial sector, which has found more and more ways to create "products" that actually harm short and long term economic well being. What Shaxson does is take that idea (which I had previously seen in a more focused form in books like [b:The Big Short|26889576|The Big Short Inside the Doomsday Machine|Michael Lewis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1446581171l/26889576._SY75_.jpg|6654434]) and shows the many different ways it has taken root (e.g. tax havens, shell corporations, businesses that inflate earnings by minimizing assets, private equity firms, and a staggering array of monopolies).
What I learned about the most from the book was the economic and political foundations of this "financialization"; Shaxson did a great job explaining the theories that led to deregulation and market solutions to government problems. His section on the origins of neoliberalism was very enlightening. However, I will admit to some confusion on the specific strategies he brings up. Shaxson has a great chapter on the dangerous precedent of perpetual trusts, but in another chapter, I got lost in his discussion of foreign capital and Eurodollars. I would have preferred a bit more emphasis on explanation throughout the book.
I also wish there was a greater emphasis on solutions. The conclusion has a great argument about what economic studies don't measure (and thus end up supporting neoliberal approaches) that could be a whole book in itself. And often, Shaxson spends so much time on the ways corporations and financial consultants evade taxes that it's hard to believe that any solution to hold them accountable could work (or even be politically feasible). But, overall, I'm glad I read the book, even if its message was hard to take.
What I learned about the most from the book was the economic and political foundations of this "financialization"; Shaxson did a great job explaining the theories that led to deregulation and market solutions to government problems. His section on the origins of neoliberalism was very enlightening. However, I will admit to some confusion on the specific strategies he brings up. Shaxson has a great chapter on the dangerous precedent of perpetual trusts, but in another chapter, I got lost in his discussion of foreign capital and Eurodollars. I would have preferred a bit more emphasis on explanation throughout the book.
I also wish there was a greater emphasis on solutions. The conclusion has a great argument about what economic studies don't measure (and thus end up supporting neoliberal approaches) that could be a whole book in itself. And often, Shaxson spends so much time on the ways corporations and financial consultants evade taxes that it's hard to believe that any solution to hold them accountable could work (or even be politically feasible). But, overall, I'm glad I read the book, even if its message was hard to take.