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Makers and Takers: The Rise of Finance and the Fall of American Business
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Eight years on from the biggest market meltdown since the Great Depression, the key lessons of the crisis of 2008 still remain unlearned—and our financial system is just as vulnerable as ever. Many of us know that our government failed to fix the banking system after the subprime mortgage crisis. But what few of us realize is how the misguided financial practices and philo
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Hardcover, 400 pages
Published
May 17th 2016
by Crown Business
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Financial Times/McKinsey(2014+)/Goldman Sachs (to 2013) Business Book of the Year
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The Ideology of Corporate Finance
Around the turn of the 20th century the economic power of the world shifted from capitalists who made things to capitalists who made money. The source of the change was the mid-19th century discovery of limited liability and its rapid dissemination into the corporate legal systems of Europe and North America.
Limited liability, the obligation of corporate shareholders only for their investment in a company and not for further debts of the company, is the foundatio ...more
Around the turn of the 20th century the economic power of the world shifted from capitalists who made things to capitalists who made money. The source of the change was the mid-19th century discovery of limited liability and its rapid dissemination into the corporate legal systems of Europe and North America.
Limited liability, the obligation of corporate shareholders only for their investment in a company and not for further debts of the company, is the foundatio ...more

I was really looking forward to reading a good analysis of the perils of financialization, how it came to pass and what can be done about it. Unfortunately, "Makers and Takers" is not that book. Rana Foroohar, who is a long time financial journalist, has written a book that is filled with both factual errors (no, mutual funds were not invented in the 1970s nor did our debacle in Vietnam stem largely from Robert McNamara's background in system and data analysis) and shoddy, shoddy thinking.
Her ...more
Her ...more

What "Dark Money" was to political realities in 2016 - "Makers and Takers" is to the economic reality of the USA in 2016. Foroohar traces the 2008 crises, causes, loopholes remaining, tax advantages to corporations, examples of corporate "welfare," and assorted other Wall Street advantages and power over Congress and US economy as a whole.
Bankers and financialization of our economy is the driving force behind sluggish recovery, stagnant wages and growing income inequality that will not and cann ...more
Bankers and financialization of our economy is the driving force behind sluggish recovery, stagnant wages and growing income inequality that will not and cann ...more

There are 2 types of CEOs, the short term greedy vs long term innovator. It must take balls to not please your shareholders in the short term. Financialization is a company culture and political disease. It destroys a productive company or manufacturer. And the American MBA education is breeding this greedy thought process.
Two ways that people will think about financial engineering, either it's good business because you are growing the stock price, making money, and pleasing Wall Street, or, it' ...more
Two ways that people will think about financial engineering, either it's good business because you are growing the stock price, making money, and pleasing Wall Street, or, it' ...more

Makers and Takers: The Rise of Finance and the Fall of American Business, by Rana Foroohar, is an interesting look at the changing landscape of American Business and macroconomic finance. The book examines the post-2008 economic crisis economy in the United States, and examines what the author terms as the "financialization" of the American economy. This means the movement toward financial products and rentier behaviour by corporate and government entities. Corporations appear to be seeking mone
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Imprisoned inside this book is a good book screaming to get out. Buried alive, like the Man in the Iron Mask, this Hidden Book offers worthwhile insights into, and criticism of, the crony capitalism that has choked the free market out of our finance system. But the Hidden Book has disappeared from view under the crushing weight of authorial ignorance and an idol of, or rather an entire marble temple erected to, Elizabeth Warren. So each time the author of “Makers and Takers,” Rana Foroohar, yet
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It is quite obvious that there is something fundamentally wrong with our economic system, a system in which the CEO of a corporation is paid several hundred times the wage of its average worker. A system in which the wages of workers have remained flat despite decades of productivity growth. A system in which well over half the wealth of the nation is held by 1% its people. A system in which (as the author tells us) "the top twenty-five hedge fund managers in America make more than all of the co
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I'm not an expert on any of the things that Foroohar covers. I've taken basic (i.e. High School/A.P. level) economics, taught a semester or two at that level, and try to follow what I can of what's happening at the intersection of business and politics--especially banking and politics. I've found Foroohar's columns in Time well-balanced and well-argued and was excited to see she'd written a book.
I don't know enough to challenge this book or to really read it critically. Okay, not true--I'm an E ...more
I don't know enough to challenge this book or to really read it critically. Okay, not true--I'm an E ...more

I always enjoy Rana Foroohar's columns. I find them concise and insightful. This book is in that same tradition. She sets the Paul Ryan analysis of "makers and takers" on its head, identifying the financialization industry as the true takers and those enterprises contributing to society's progress as the makers. Along the way, she even-handedly addresses issues critical to our capitalist system - the financialization of our businesses, the failures of American business education, the problems wi
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Holy crap! This book really scared me. At times it seemed contradictory, e.g. privately financed firms do better because they are not beholden to increasing short-term shareholder value, but firms not going public is bad because then we don't know what they're up to. I think this is because stats and opinions were thrown about in a simplified way to make particular points. In any case, if you want something to freak you out, try this book. It will do so very methodically.
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Rich in footnotes, but devoid of logic. Takes non-sequitur to a whole other level, but hey, it's backed up with stats. As a reporter, Foroohar is great at collecting stories, but is clueless about what's actually going on. And when the details get too complicated, like any good journalist she falls back on evocative adjectives to get you enraged, but not actually understand the roots of the problem, never mind the appropriate solutions.
Some examples:
Page 2, paragraph, paragraph starting with "Wh ...more
Some examples:
Page 2, paragraph, paragraph starting with "Wh ...more

This is one of the three best books of the year for me. Rana Foroohar traces the change that has overcome both main street and wall street in the past 30 years. A full 20 per cent of the text is references, so it is definitely not just another political diatribe.
It is difficult to summarize a book of this complexity, but let me use Apple computer and how it has changed from the technical powerhouse it was under Steve Jobs to the poster child of current CEOs , Tim Cook. Jobs' vision was to make ...more
It is difficult to summarize a book of this complexity, but let me use Apple computer and how it has changed from the technical powerhouse it was under Steve Jobs to the poster child of current CEOs , Tim Cook. Jobs' vision was to make ...more

There is a concept in statistics called “overfitting a model” where instead of having mostly good split on your data, you try to account for every single outlier and data point that you have. Rana Foroohar overfits financilization to just about every political and business problem in the past 50 years. Apparently the crash of 2008 is Henry Ford’s fault. Or perhaps we could blame Fra Luca Pacioli and Leonardo da Vinci for inventing double entry bookkeeping. Or perhaps the ancient Egyptians for th
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Objective, politics-free & well-researched look into the scary place the U.S. economy has become.
The author walks through the causes & origins, they why, the how, and finally her recommended fixes as to how to reverse course from a first-world economy that once was a bastion and in many ways has gotten worse and slowed to a crawl, tech innovation aside.
For economic/finance novices she does well in walking through easy-to-understand examples of the core topics.
I've been in both industries -- tha ...more
The author walks through the causes & origins, they why, the how, and finally her recommended fixes as to how to reverse course from a first-world economy that once was a bastion and in many ways has gotten worse and slowed to a crawl, tech innovation aside.
For economic/finance novices she does well in walking through easy-to-understand examples of the core topics.
I've been in both industries -- tha ...more

This is likely the most important & informative book I’ve read this year.
It think the title may intimidate some readers as it suggests financial wonkiness- but please don’t let it deter you.
It’s extremely readable, and the use of anecdotes to illustrate points gives it a Macolm Gladwellian tone.
I genuinely could not put this book down… I was hoping for train delays and rainy days in, just so I could get through more if it.
I’ll re-read this and gift this many, many times. Everyone should read ...more
It think the title may intimidate some readers as it suggests financial wonkiness- but please don’t let it deter you.
It’s extremely readable, and the use of anecdotes to illustrate points gives it a Macolm Gladwellian tone.
I genuinely could not put this book down… I was hoping for train delays and rainy days in, just so I could get through more if it.
I’ll re-read this and gift this many, many times. Everyone should read ...more

A frightening and illuminating analysis of the apocalypse that occurs when a wafer-thin stratum of humans finds out that making money is easier than making things. This sort of thing is not widely reported for a variety of reasons (e.g. our media is owned by the very financial interests this book investigates), so establishment journalist Faroohar often comes across as extremely radical -- which I suppose she is.

A disappointingly superficial look at an important topic. Full of overstatements ("Apple puts more effort into financial engineering than their core business"). Short on any new insights or suggested remedies. Don't waste your time.
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This book will scare the reader as it explains many things about the performance of the American economy, specifically the nature of the recovery since the financial collapse of 2008. Unemployment is down, tightening the pool of available workers, yet with the exception of the top few percent wages are stagnant. Furthermore, most of the people are not rebuilding the wealth that they lost in 2008 and 2009, saving rates remain low and few are building up their financial cushion.
The problem that ...more
The problem that ...more

We're overdue for a thoughtful, comprehensive and well-documented examination into the ways in which the modern financial sector has undermined and hampered actual business and economic progress. This book is almost that. It has a methodical structure and highlights crucial (and crippling) flaws in our attitudes towards corporate governance, market regulation, asset management and more. Nevertheless, Faroohar arrives at some of her conclusions prematurely. A reader with an academic or profession
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Wow. I was not aware of much of what was in this book. I must say it has changed my perspective on a number of things when it comes to finance, and corporate America. The history that this book goes into is particularly illuminating.
This book is probably not for everyone, but if you are even a little interested by the title, or the topic matter I can easily recommend,
This book is probably not for everyone, but if you are even a little interested by the title, or the topic matter I can easily recommend,

Intensely aggravating and informative. Most of us do not have much say in how our pensions are invested, but after reading this I am supposing it is some legislator's favorite lobbyist. We really do need some transparent, accountable change to the system. People who just shuffle money around look like shell-gamers for a reason.
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I feel like I've been in an extended conversation with someone on the conservative end of Elizabeth Warren's policy team for too long after reading this. There's certainly some good explainer information on various and sundry elements of the finance industry here, as well as a couple of good proposed solutions - but the whole time, I wanted to yell through the book at Foroohar "don't you see where this expansion of profit-seeking and greed comes from? It's inherent in the system!!". Unfortunatel
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Everyone should read this book.
Foroohar explains the economy we live in--a form of capitalism that has developed into an entity that is eating itself.
It all began sometime back around the time of the Reagan administration and developed as bankers and others realized that money could be made by moving money around. No need to fret about making anything when this easier way to get rich existed. But then there were all those pesky regulations. Those rules were keeping the economy from being the be ...more
Foroohar explains the economy we live in--a form of capitalism that has developed into an entity that is eating itself.
It all began sometime back around the time of the Reagan administration and developed as bankers and others realized that money could be made by moving money around. No need to fret about making anything when this easier way to get rich existed. But then there were all those pesky regulations. Those rules were keeping the economy from being the be ...more

A one-sided, ill-informed narrative that force fits data to suit the author's views, often bordering blatant misrepresentation. Some representative points that I found to be skewed are:
- The treasury earned an 8.5% return on the TARP program, which the author conveniently omits.
- Financial services is not one big blob of service providers that need to be "slaves to businesses". Financial services include real services such as banking and lending, but also services such as financing, which inher ...more
- The treasury earned an 8.5% return on the TARP program, which the author conveniently omits.
- Financial services is not one big blob of service providers that need to be "slaves to businesses". Financial services include real services such as banking and lending, but also services such as financing, which inher ...more

This is a very insightful book that talks about "financialization" of our economy and how Wall Street has really been taking more of its share of the GDP than it deserves and how Main Street is the loser. Her hope in writing it is that once we get clear on this phenomenon we can then take action to ensure the finance gets back to serving what she calls the real economy instead of vice-versa. One small example: the mortgage interest deduction. This first encourages taking on debt (good for financ
...more

Maybe it was a failure to translate journalistic writing into a book, or maybe Foorhar was just overly excited about her subject, but reading this book felt like being whacked over the head every few minutes with her thesis. Instead of letting each vignette tell its story, she spelled out exactly how evil these financiers were at every turn. I started reading Glass House instead, and it's much more enjoyable.
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Rana Foroohar is a Iranian-American assistant managing editor for Time magazine. In the past, she was an economics and foreign editor at Newsweek, where she had previously worked as a London-based correspondent covering Europe and the Middle East. For this reporting, she received the German Marshall Fund's Peter R. Weitz Prize for transatlantic reporting.
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“Today financial capitalism is fraught with special interests, corporate monopolies, and an opacity that would have boggled Smith’s mind. Let me be clear: despite my criticism of our existing model of financial capitalism, this book isn’t anticapitalist. I am not in favor of a planned economy or a turn away from a market system. I simply don’t think that the system we have now is a properly functioning market system.”
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