Aftershock

The Next Economy and America’s Future

By: Robert B. Reich

Narrated by: Robert Reich

Length: 4 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

The author of 12 acclaimed books, Robert B. Reich is a Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and has served in three national administrations.

While many blamed Wall Street for the financial meltdown, Aftershock points a finger at a national economy in which wealth is increasingly concentrated at the top - and where a grasping middle class simply does not have the resources to remain viable.

©2010 Robert B. Reich (P)2010 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"Reich's thesis is well argued and frighteningly plausible: without a return to the 'basic bargain' (that workers are also consumers), the "aftershock" of the Great Recession includes long-term high unemployment and a political backlash - a crisis, he notes with a sort of grim optimism, that just might be painful enough to encourage necessary structural reforms." ( Publishers Weekly)

Nooo…please STOP...you're making me think!!

Robert Reich I am sure gets his share of flack from the militant "Right"…and you really can’t publically show your support if you believe Dub-Yah and Reagan were “just like” having Jesus as the president…but for the rest of us…who suffer from, well actually…thinking…you might find this a good read. I give Reich a 8.5 for his presentation and 7 to 7.5 for detailed content. His target audience was the interested working American, who must live through this Investment Banker nightmare…and I appreciate his balanced explanation and suggestions to recover from the loving arms of uncontrolled Wall Street. Now, if you are really convinced that a monster, global exploiting, Wall Street controlled government will actually rebuild the middle class…well...stay away...turn up the Fox News volume...DON’T risk your mental façade!!! You have been warned.

Why Must the Details Hurt so Much?

The book argues: 1) that the ???Great Recession of 2008??? required us had to spend a lot of money to avoid a second great depression, 2) that we failed to fix the root problems so we???re vulnerable to a repeat of the problems, and 3) that inadequate wealth redistribution was one of the core problems that we need to fix.

In my review of Supercapitalism I said, ???[his ideas are great] ??? but as an intellectual statement, he fails to address the question, ???How do we do this??????. This book seems to take that criticism seriously. It???s full of details specifying exactly what he thinks we should do. But the result is unsettling. At times I felt hypocritical, at other times I thought that the proposed action was mealy one of many that could follow from the assumptions, sometimes I agreed with him but felt that he???d gone too far, and sometimes I agreed but felt that some other political justification would be required.

I personally think that most of the issues he???s dealing with are what I will call ???sweet spot issues???. For example too much wealth redistribution kills innovation in the manor of communism; too little wealth redistribution kills innovation in the manor of feudalism, but at the sweet spot innovation explodes and takes the economy through the stratosphere.

These sweet spot issues are hard to discuss without being quite a bit more quantitative than is easy to do in a political discourse. Perhaps, lack of numeracy is a core problem with American political discourse.

Excellent

An exceptional new reading of the economic crisis—and a plan for dealing with the challenge of its aftermath. Everyone from High School to those in places of power, (especially Congress) should read this treatise. Reich is brilliant.

The Problems are Obvious; the Solutions are Not

It's interesting that Reich agrees with conservative economists about the problems in the US economy (inadequate incomes and too much debt) and possible future outcomes. Even John Keynes noted that excess printing of money would accrue wealth to the wealthy and leave the remaining population in the dust. Dylan Grice recently wrote about how inflating the currency is correlated with Romans persecuting Christians, medieval Europe burning witches, the French Revolution's guillotine, and the Germans' slaughter of Jews, Gypsies, etc. Bad things happen when currencies devalue, and that has consistently been paired with inequality in wealth. So, to sum up; if you want to study US economy, many other books are superior to this. I recommend John Mauldin's Endgame, James Rickard's Currency Wars, Peter Schiff's How an Economy Grows and Why it Fails, and Reinhart and Rogoff's This Time is Different.

Reich is right that we live in a critical time; some of his solutions are unsustainable, and would make things worse, in my opinion. No solution will be easy, but ignoring our problems may be deadly.

Just what our economy needs

Robert Reich gives a smart and well reasoned assessment of what our economy needs at this moment. Looking back at what worked and what did not work through history, he details why progressive economic reforms are not only desirable, but critical to allow our economy to recover.

Listening to the book was a pleasure, as Mr. Reich's understanding of the subject matter is amplified by his enthusiasm and what seems to be explanations and storytelling instead of simply reading from a book. Very good performance and pleasurable to hear.

EXCELLENT!

I think Reich hits the nail on the head! His assessment and suggestions for having our economy get back on track is worth listening too.

Hey! Rob Reich can read his own books!!

And he didn't do a bad job either! It's probably not easy to read your own book. The recording is clear and works just fine for the ear. Reich keeps the tone conversational throughout. Kudos to the sound engineer!

Well done. Fair and balanced.

Too many books these days waiver from facts and reality due to personal and/or political reasons - this one does not. Mr Reich stays with the facts and properly places history in perspective. The times of today are not exactly like economic history, and those that hang on to those 'old' economic beliefs will be left behind. This informative book was a quick 'read' and I'll likely give it another listen.

Utopia revisited

I found Marriner Eccles ideas theories fascinating and will be studying him further. Mr. Reich held my open consideration until around Chapter 17, then he proceeded to put forth his extreme agenda. I found his ideas rather utopian, if he thinks that big business lobbyists will let any law get in the way of their power and influence he is naive. Here in Canada we found out a few weeks ago that our Prime Minister was lobbied by a company, he changed a law for that company’s benefit, and then tried to pressure our Attorney General to use the new law in that company’s interest, when she wouldn’t budge he fired her and appointed someone who would comply. Unfortunately politics goes hand-in-hand with finance, therefore the policies that Mr. Reich suggests are tied to the liberty and freedom of the people. I’m from Canada, I know what living in a socialist country is like.

fascinating and worth the time

If you could sum up Aftershock in three words, what would they be?

Fascinating, detailed perspective.

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

We will have the same problem again if tough decisions aren't made soon.

Have you listened to any of Robert Reich’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I miss his appearances on Marketplace.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

This is worth taking a break as there is so much info. He does a great job of keeping it interesting.

Any additional comments?

We need more information like this with historical perspective.