“Bad Money” by Kevin Phillips

Dear class,
The author who wrote Bad Money — I got his name wrong tonight in class. It’s Kevin Phillips. For those who are interested in his argument, here are a few articles on his book.

He’s a capitalism- for- the- average- people guy, formerly a republican but now independent.

In any event the stats about the great emphasis in our economy being on financial services is an acknowledged fact. What Phillips adds is the concern that we’re losing the valuable parts of capitalism (producing useful products), overemphasizing the bad (essentially gambling on economic indicators), and putting ourselves increasingly at risk.

And here is the NPR podcast interview with Michael Greenberger on the shadow market built around these derivatives. He mentions in here about how these complex instruments have now attracted more investment than stocks and bonds.