Previously published as The Trillion Dollar Meltdown Now fully updated with the latest financial developments, this is the bestselling book that briefly and brilliantly explains how we got into the economic mess that is the Credit Crunch. With the housing markets unravelling daily and distress signals flying throughout the rest of the economy, there is little doubt that we are facing a fierce recession. In crisp, gripping prose, Charles R. Morris shows how got into this mess. He explains the arcane financial instruments, the chicanery, the policy misjudgments, the dogmas, and the delusions that created the greatest credit bubble in world history. Paul Volcker slew the inflation dragon in the early 1980s, and set the stage for the high performance economy of the 1980s and 1990s. But Wall Street's prosperity soon tilted into gross excess. The astronomical leverage at major banks and their hedge fund and private equity clients led to massive disruption in global markets. A quarter century of free-market zealotry that extolled asset stripping, abusive lending, and hedge fund secrecy will go down in flames with it. Continued denial and concealment could cause the crisis to stretch out for years, but financial and government leaders are still downplaying the problem. The required restructuring will be at least as painful as the very difficult period of 1979-1983. The Two Trillion-Dollar Meltdown, updated to include the latest financial developments, is indispensable to understanding how the world economy has been put on the brink.

This book examines the way science influences our understanding of ethics and values, economics, politics, culture, and nature. It then utilizes Classical American Pragmatism as a philosophy, which involves a different way of understanding science that has implications for business and its relation to these environments and well as for management and management education.

"Excellent . . . I highly recommend this book." —RON PAUL Why is the boom-and-bust cycle so persistent? Why did economists fail to predict the economic meltdown that began in 2007—or to pull us out of the crisis more quickly? And how can we prevent future calamities? Mainstream economics has no adequate answers for these pressing questions. To understand how we got here, and how we can ensure prosperity, we must turn to an alternative to the dominant approach: the Austrian School of economics. Unfortunately, few people have even a vague understanding of the Austrian School, despite the prominence of leading figures such as Nobel Prize winner F. A. Hayek, author of The Road to Serfdom. Harry C. Veryser corrects that problem in this powerful and eye-opening book. In presenting the Austrian School’s perspective, he reveals why the boom-and-bust cycle is unnatural and unnecessary. Veryser tells the fascinating (but frightening) story of how our modern economic condition developed. The most recent recession, far from being an isolated incident, was part of a larger cycle that has been the scourge of the West for a century—a cycle rooted in government manipulation of markets and currency. The lesson is clear: the devastation of the recent economic crisis—and of stagflation in the 1970s, and of the Great Depression in the 1930s—could have been avoided. It didn’t have to be this way. Too long unappreciated, the Austrian School of economics reveals the crucial conditions for a successful economy and points the way to a free, prosperous, and humane society.

Americans seem prone to create their own reality in situations that have faced them over the past several years and this arrogance cost the country dearly. Three events stand out as prime examples this arrogance. The first of these events was the war in Iraq which was based on the false reality that the country possessed weapons of mass destruction and had ties to terrorist organizations. The second example was the financial crisis of 2008 which was precipitated by the invention of new and complicated investment vehicles. The last example is the current Trump administration which was filled with falsehoods during the campaign and his first years in office, such that one could not believe anything that this administration said. This book is going to focus on religious reasons for this situation as I believe that it is the Christian religion that is largely at fault for this condition. It is religion that has set up most Americans to believe our leaders when they outright lie and claim to know things beyond what the evidence will support and create a false reality that eventually comes crashing down to disrupt American life. If our nation is ever going to be great it must quit living in a fantasy world and give up a belief in magic as far as its future is concerned. Decisions in government and business must be based on reality as it is and not on what we arrogantly think we can create. The two go together as the more we try and create our own reality the less able we are to come to grips with the reality that actually exists. The place to start is by recognizing the role the Christian religion has played in this phenomenon and letting go of the fantasies that comprise this religion and live a secular life that finds meaning and purpose in this world rather than in some hereafter. We will not successfully deal with all the problems with which we are faced and have a political and economic system that works for everyone until this happens.

We are living in the most reckless financial environment in recent history. The astronomical leverage at investment banks and their hedge fund and private equity clients virtually guarantees massive disruption in global markets.

Far from being the work of a madman, Anders Breivik's murderous rampage in Norway was the action of an extreme narcissist. As the dead lay around him, he held up a finger asking for a Band-Aid. Written with the pace of a psychological thriller, The Life of I is a compelling account of the rise of narcissism in individuals and society. Manne examines the Lance Armstrong doping scandal and the alarming rise of sexual assaults in sport and the military, as well as the vengeful killings of Elliot Rodger in California. She looks at narcissism in the pursuit of fame and our obsession with 'making it'. She goes beyond the usual suspects of social media and celebrity culture to the deeper root of the issue: how a new narcissistic character-type is being fuelled by a cult of the self and the pursuit of wealth in a hypercompetitive consumer society. The Life of I also offers insights from the latest work in psychology, looking at how narcissism develops. But Manne also shows that there is an alternative: how to transcend narcissism, to be fully alive to the presence of others; how to create a world where love and care are no longer turned inward.

This first historical study of U.S. budget policy covering the last three decades places the budget at the center of modern American politics and adds an important dimension to the understanding of recent events.