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Pigs at the Trough: How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption Are Undermining America
by
Who filled the trough? Who set the table at the banquet of greed? How has it been possible for corporate pigs to gorge themselves on grossly inflated pay packages and heaping helpings of stock options while the average American struggles to make do with their leftovers?
Provocative political commentator Arianna Huffington yanks back the curtain on the unholy alliance of CEO ...more
Provocative political commentator Arianna Huffington yanks back the curtain on the unholy alliance of CEO ...more
Paperback, 304 pages
Published
January 27th 2004
by Broadway Books
(first published January 14th 2003)
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Showing 1-30
Is this book written to make a point? You bet! Call it propaganda, I don't care. Now that this is clear, let's move on. Truth is where you you find it, and she looks even more like a Prophet since this last corporate meltdown in 2007/2008. Actually, you don't need to be a Prophet, you just need to understand human behavior, and not be easily suckered in by rhetoric. If you want proof that she is telling the truth, consider this. She lists a thousand examples of exploitation, and or criminal beh
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An important topic that deserves a good book. Unfortunately, this is not a good book. The writing is poor, and the organization is non-existent. Information is thrown in randomly - without any logical order, so it's impossible to remember and impossible to find later. The authors tone is sarcastic and mocking through the whole book, with more space given to jokes and mocking metaphors than to relevant facts about a serious problem. I was disappointed.
Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington is a book that points out a major economical issue in the United states. Throughout this novel the author shows countless examples of overlooked economic flaw. Her target being big corporate business owners and how they influence politics to keep themselves reaping all of the benefits. With great use of real world statistics she shows how unfair things have been to try and open the eyes of people who are not getting as much out of life because of extreme
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caveat: this style of book is well outside of my "comfort zone" or normal reading material and thus I find it a challenge, in a way, to review, but-
While I am certainly gung ho on a corporate watchdog mentality, I couldn't relate to Huffington's detailing of some of the presumably empirical data of what this crooked CEO paid for their 2nd beach house etc., for the same reason I don't watch E television. Ultimately, I just don't give a fuck and look cynically at those entire worlds. In theory, I ...more
While I am certainly gung ho on a corporate watchdog mentality, I couldn't relate to Huffington's detailing of some of the presumably empirical data of what this crooked CEO paid for their 2nd beach house etc., for the same reason I don't watch E television. Ultimately, I just don't give a fuck and look cynically at those entire worlds. In theory, I ...more
I got this as a gift for my step-dad a while back since he likes these sorts of books, and he suggested I read it. Even though it was depressing I really liked it. Now when I hear friends tell me they haven't gotten a raise in years, they're being switched from full-time to part-time and their benefits are being cut, I'll know it's so some asshat can have a $6,000 gold shower curtain!
While I share some of Huffington's social and political opinions her snarky asides and exertions to drill a lame joke home (sometimes dedicating a short paragraph to making fun of someone) really grow tiresome quickly. She knows her business but is better off in explaining economics and corporate malfeasance to retards like me than she is trying to entertain anyone.
I don't understand this woman. I wish she would stop writing. She's not good at it.
This is full of great information but the writing isn't very good and it's very slow reading.
Not an easy read, but a necessary one. I'm glad I read this book because I feel more knowledgeable about how we as a country ended up in this financial crisis that we are now in today. The author keeps her story interesting by making a lot of smart remarks while at the same time having tons of facts that I'm amazed that she was privy of knowing. From immoral CEOs to untrustworthy & questionable lawmakers, this book gets down and dirty when exposing them all. It's so depressing to find out in
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Ms. Huffington clearly seeks to take no prisoners in her expose of corporate/legislative malfeasance: She names names, she gives dates, she states exact amounts of money. (Eg.: "If you paid $1 in taxes last year, you paid more than Dow Chemical.") In a truly bipartisan castigation of government corruption, she squeals (pun not intended) on Republicans and Democrats alike, making a strong case that the "military/industrial complex" that President Eisenhower warned about has become a military/indu
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Jun 04, 2008
Maureen
rated it
really liked it
Recommends it for:
everyone
Recommended to Maureen by:
UMW
Shelves:
umw-booklist,
muckraking
This is the kind of topic Ariana Huffington can really sink her teeth into, and she does so with gusto and relish. She is a very engaging writer, and since this book came out at the height of the Enron scandal, it really uses Kenneth Lay as a springboard to pounce on a variety of CEOs, CPAs, and lots of other people with jobs described by their initials. Huffington knows how to rant and holler - and there is nothing better in my view than a good rant - but she backs her indignation with facts an
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With a grasp of analogy rivaling Matt Taibbi's, and a depth and scope to her research (including, one would have to guess, first-hand contacts) matched by none, Arianna Huffington draws for you outsized diagrams of power and influence, sort-of like those Mercator projections we all learned about in 6th grade, but of the Real World. Her wit makes the bitter pill go down easier, but, sad to say, the situation seemed to be delineated thus: " Although the ties that bind corporate directors and CEOs
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A wonderful account of capitalist greed and the politics that drives us there. Huffington does an excellent job of detailing many of the failings of some of the major corporate collapses of late, from the infamous Enron, to WorldCom and down to the lesser mentioned Adelphia. She educates the reader on the specifics of each collapse along with the nasty details of the insiders of each of the companies and their failings to work in the interest of the shareholders. She, goes on to detail Washingto
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I've been on this kick, reading books about the housing crisis, tax evasion amongst the wealthy, and just general skullduggery. It's been pretty depressing. I think that Ms. Huffington's tone as she talks about the ultra rich taking advantage of their wealth and access to power and government support is satisfying in some ways. She doesn't hesitate to call out these folks for what they are, but it's also a bit too glib for me. I suppose what else did I expect, given the title of the book. Still,
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Although Arianna Huffington is a well-known liberal, this book is extremely balanced from a political perspective. It covers corporate CEOs, lobbyists, boards of directors, politicians, Wall Street analysts/auditors, and others who feed these greedy pigs. This book should be required reading for all Americans.
Disclaimer: I was in the middle of reading this when it was announced that The Huffington Post would be sold to AOL for $315M. It did put a damper on the sincerity of her writing this book ...more
Disclaimer: I was in the middle of reading this when it was announced that The Huffington Post would be sold to AOL for $315M. It did put a damper on the sincerity of her writing this book ...more
The problems with corporate greed are still with us and the book feels both dated and timely in 2018, dated because Bush is long gone, but timely because nothing makes these examples of corporate greed any less relevant today than they were then. The 8 years of Obama did nothing, really, to set things right and the pigs are still at the trough. Perhaps if more people had read this book, American would not have been gullible enough to turn to business people for answers to our national problems.
Eh, I haven't even finished it. Not my kind of book.
Bit of a struggle to read to be brutally honest. Adding a great amount of detail to what many people already know deep down.
This book was a bit of a challenge to read. Took me about 5 months to get it done and it wasn't that enjoyable but it was interesting. It's about the corruption of big corporations and how the government lets them stay in the shadows with all the shady shit they are doing. It's not one I would recommend to everyone but it has a bit of humor to it and it is informational.
To me there are better books dealing with this subject, but I still enjoyed the author's perspective and writing.
I appreciated Arianna's sass, sarcasm and wit and the fact that someone who is by all accounts definitely part of the people she is talking about is so cynical of the 1%. This is a great book if you like facts and figures about the economy but I don't know nor do I have time to check which are actually accurate. At the same time, she used countless brutal analogies and had an extremely pessimistic, polarizing and almost verging on misanthropic attitude toward pretty much anyone in business who i
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Wish it had good references as opposed to what reads more as an ongoing rant divided into sections. I liked the information, disgusted at the unfairness of things but still ended up reading the first half of the book then skip reading the rest as things just seem to keep repeating themselves. Without references though its much harder to check on the facts or to see if there is another side to the story. Would love to read a similar "documentary" on Australian corporate/political troughs.
This is one of the most disheartening books I’ve ever read. It’s well written, wry and incisive and made a subject I mostly avoid and loathe, something I could grasp. And I can admire that she has experienced a transformation as a former conservative mouthpiece to now one of G.W. Bush’s most severe critics – those little digs at ‘W’ were the parts I most enjoyed. But I also now understand how much President Clinton let slip by on his watch and for that I’ve lowered my regard for him. What’s so d
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Clearly I am in the wrong business.
As a non-boardroom employee people tend to take a dim view of my personal enrichment at the expense of the company, investors, and the public in general.
This book is easy to read but hard to believe, as Huffington documents the warm-ups and practice rounds that lead to our current economic woes.
Is worse yet to come?
As a non-boardroom employee people tend to take a dim view of my personal enrichment at the expense of the company, investors, and the public in general.
This book is easy to read but hard to believe, as Huffington documents the warm-ups and practice rounds that lead to our current economic woes.
Is worse yet to come?
Book printed in 2003 but still applicable now with our poor economy. The GREED monster is alive and well in America and won't allow us lowly citizens to destroy it. Everyone lies and everyone is a crook ... especially politicians, lobbyists, and corporate CEO's!
Note: donated this book to my local library after reading.
Note: donated this book to my local library after reading.
A good read, especially if you want a broad overview of how business has co-opted politics (in detail) and you enjoy some humor to leaven your outrage. Arianna is a gifted writer and the book is well researched.
Huffington starts strong and does not lose momentum in this scathing report of corporate irresponsibility. Funny yet very disturbing--it is unbelievable to read about the extent of these scandals and crimes.
It was interesting to read this now because it compares to the current financial crisis. Many CEO's and businesses acted in the same manner as the organizations mentioned in this book. Also, it was witty.
This five-year-old book should be required reading. The concepts the author discusses directly led us to the economic crisis in which we now find ourselves.
Wow...ONLY read this if you want to be disappointed about our system of business!!
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Arianna Huffington is the chair, president, and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group, a nationally syndicated columnist, and author of fourteen books.
In May 2005, she launched The Huffington Post, a news and blog site that quickly became one of the most widely-read, linked to, and frequently-cited media brands on the Internet. In 2012, the site won a Pulitzer Prize for national repor ...more
In May 2005, she launched The Huffington Post, a news and blog site that quickly became one of the most widely-read, linked to, and frequently-cited media brands on the Internet. In 2012, the site won a Pulitzer Prize for national repor ...more
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