Crashed by Adam Tooze

CRASHED by Adam Tooze, an award winning Professor of History at Columba University, contains over 700 pages which explain “How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World.”  Tooze does indeed focus on the intertwined financial world: first, he reviews the immediate response to the 2008 crisis and then moves to a discussion of the impact on Europe, especially countries like Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain. Next, he looks at a shift to a more austere fiscal policy around the globe which when combined with earlier events contributed to the rise of populist politics, as evidenced by the Brexit vote and Trump election. Much more than a quick summary of a complex, challenging and continuing situation, Tooze’s detailed analysis raises numerous questions. For example, are we abandoning the view that global trade makes everyone better off in the longer term? Will governments be more willing to act in a bipartisan manner to combat market distortions? Or are we heading once again towards more deregulation? What has been the impact on Russia and China? What kind of global cooperation can we expect if a new crisis occurs? CRASHED, a fascinating and comprehensive history for students of economics and politics, includes extensive notes and received starred reviews from both Kirkus and Library Journal.

Two New York City novels ...

Here are some thoughts on two new books, both of which are set in New York … 

THE GARGOYLE HUNTERS is a debut novel by native New Yorker John Freeman Gill.  In this

story, set in mid-1970’s New York City, 13-year old Griffin tries to cope with his parents’ dysfunctional relationship and struggles with the expectations of the family’s architectural salvage business. It is fascinating to read about his adventures climbing around buildings as, per his Dad’s direction, he rescues and liberates gargoyles and other sculptures.

Gill, an expert on historic New York buildings, seamlessly educates his readers about facades and construction while cleverly raising questions of greed, decay/demolition and preservation/progress. Also, the father son dynamics will offer a potential starting point for Junior Theme students as this quote illustrates: “just standing beside Dad, the force of him, so often rendered me inarticulate.  His imminent disapproval was a weight I could never quite stop trying to push off me.” THE GARGOYLE HUNTERS is both funny and poignant; it received a starred review from Booklist which also recommended this title “for fans of Donna Tartt and Colum McCann.”

A second novel concerning New York is THE WIDOW OF WALL STREET by Randy Susan Meyers which details the development and ultimate consequences of a Ponzi scheme.  To be honest, I really liked the beginning of this novel and then it started to repeat itself seemingly incessantly (about how Jake would be certain to pay back loans and make good on other irregularities in his investment business) and I was simply not so interested. What he did was wrong and not even based on any clear motivation.  More interesting was wife Phoebe’s reaction to Jake’s betrayal, but it took a long time to really understand or feel empathy for her, also.   

While I do not think that this title will have much appeal for our students, it could work for adult book groups since there are clearly some moral issues to discuss and a spousal relationship to explore (perhaps in tandem with Ada Calhoun's recent New York Times article "To Stay Married, Embrace Change"). Other reviewers have been generally more positive (Kirkus called THE WIDOW OF WALL STREET “compelling… an engrossing emotional journey”) so if the financial industry is of interest to you, pick up a copy and let me know what you think.     

Why Wall Street Matters by William D. Cohan

WHY WALL STREET MATTERS by William D. Cohan was just released and it seems fairly apropos with the Dow surpassing 21000 earlier this week. The author, a well-regarded financial journalist, has been appearing in several interviews such as this one from CBS NEWS:

And while writing a review [“Big Bonus, Big Problem”] for Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal, Burton G. Malkiel succinctly outlined Cohan’s concerns about compensation and incentives on Wall Street. Cohan stresses that there have been excesses on Wall Street, but also argues that recent regulations have often been counterproductive.  In WHY WALL STREET MATTERS he begins by providing history, explaining what banks are, and then moves on to talk about innovations in the 1970s and later.  Cohan comments, “what Ranieri [from Salomon Brothers] and his innovation [packaging mortgages] really did was fundamentally change the ethic of Wall Street, from one where a buyer knew a seller, and vice versa, to one where the decision to buy something was separated from traditional market forces.”

Cohan writes based on his own experience and insider knowledge. Calling his book "simple, concise and clear," Cohan says he wrote it because "people need to understand [something so] essential to our way of life."  WHY WALL STREET MATTERS will be an appealing read and high interest for many of our students.