Federal Government Books

I've read all the previous Woodward books - have to wonder how author maintains his access for the interviews. Mostly, this book validates information from other authors; particularly those who were on-scene participants in Iraq or imbeds on missions. A total disconnect from
policy makers and boots on the ground. Years from now, when history
is evaluated, this book will be a primary source.

This book contains old news .
However,the material was and is very timly and insightful.
A fast and must read !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you

Mr.Woodward takes us through a very painful journey of war during the last two years. From his accounts it is very apparent that there were no easy answers to the problems US was facing in IRAQ. Al Queda, Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahidi Army & Sunny insurgents were all fighting coalition forces while the later two were fighting against each other in a sectarian struggle. A really messed up place. In the middle of all this, the President has to fight his own generals (Cassey & Abiziad) who were doing the same things but expect different results. I am no Bush fan. I disagree with him on many issues. But in this war Bush's struggles reminds me of President Lincoln's who had to go through a lot of pain finally to find Ulysses Grant. For Bush it is Gen. Petreaus.

Our decision to go to war with Iraq needs to be understood by all of us. This book sheds much light on how we got into and managed the effort.

This is a beautifully written book from one of America's great heros, and the quality of construction is seldom seen in books today. In addition to being fascinating reading, it is delightful to the eye and touch.

We are about to elect a president that played a role in the root cause of our financial predicament. Obama was in league with a group called acorn whose primary goal was to get funding for low income homeowners. Calling upon his egalitarian God and disciples, he was able to arouse his almighty spirit of compassion no official dares cross. Anyone tempted would be labeled racist, bigot, etc. Obama stands to gain his reparations either way. I said it years ago and I'll say it again, the egalitarian god trumps all Gods, laws, traditions, and reason.

Yes the fed started the mess in the early 90s by gerrymandering the rate. But Greenspan knew this was the only way to avert recession since inflation now devoured the two income wage earner. Wall street pigs knew this would be the last sloping hence the feeding frenzy. There is no turning back from this one unless housing takes a dramatic dive which will also cause unimaginable pain. We might do well to study Argentina. But this country had a hedge. Where is Amercias?

REQUIRED READING: This book reveals the lies every American suspects of their government. Other than the Constitution which is being destroyed, this book is an education of protecting our liberties.

Mr. Paul is undeniably one of the rare rational voices from Washington. He was extremely effective in this presidential race and created a stir due to the innovative and sensible solutions he had to offer. His ideas about freedom and liberty resonate with many Americans. And he explains very effectively and coherently that these are the very ideals espoused by the founding fathers and the framers of the Constitution, but have been repeatedly ignored to the extent that the US has lost its strategic advantage as one of the greatest nations in the world. Even though one might not endorse all of Mr. Paul's ideals he has to be given credit for offering fresh insight and unique/creative solutions to the challenges that the US faces at home and abroad. He is one of the very few in the Congress, who take the government head-on with regard to the interventionist foreign policy. This book offers the most impressive analysis of the factors that have led to the recent economic meltdown. It was written before the current crisis, but it raises the red flag. I am not sure that I would go as far as calling him the `Thomas Jefferson of our day', but he surely does come close!

Warning this book is the equivalent of waking from "The Matrix" (1999), and seeing the true nature of reality. From the prolog forward to the very end Ron Paul holds nothing back and for those few folk being introduced to this reality and how we have strayed from the constitution, can be a real eye opener.

The message is simple but it is the implantation that can get a bit complex as there are no two sides to this story as those that manufacture politics today.

The real strength of the book is that even though one day the details may be dated that we go beyond theory and point to real situations and existing people instead of just theories and what ifs.

I bought the book; I also bought the CD's as they help enforce the book during my daily commute. We also use them for discussions at work.

This book has many truths that are not just for the radical or inspired and will be a useful reference for your library in the years to come.

A few related and complimentary ideas can be found in:

The Constitution of the United States of America, with the Bill of Rights and all of the Amendments; The Declaration of Independence; and the Articles of Confederation by Thomas Jefferson, Second Continental Congress, and Constitutional Convention

For a New Liberty by Murray N. Rothbard

The Capitalist Manifesto by Louis O. Kelso and Mortimer J. Adler

The Constitution of the United States of America, with the Bill of Rights and all of the Amendments; The Declaration of Independence; and the Articles of Confederation

For a New Liberty

The Capitalist Manifesto

Ron Paul is unique in American politics - honest, incorruptible, principled. His book succeeds on two fronts.

First, providing a readable account of the problems that we face as the ruling elite shred our Constitution, destroy our economy, and drag us bleating into a police state.

Second, giving us a blueprint for stopping the decline and taking back our lives and freedom from those who would rule.

Dr. Paul has shown the way. The next step - actually voting out the corrupt politicians, turning away from the single-party Republicrat institution - is up to us.

It may be the plethora of books about Cheney and the Bush administration in recent years that puts this book in the shadows, but author Barton Gellman at least has offered a good look at what the Cheney years have meant to the United States. That those years continue to this day, is left out in the analysis.

Gellman gives a decent picture of Cheney, but nothing much new emerges in his assessment which the avid reader doesn't already know. Cheney, true to form, is genuinely concerned about the American people after 9/11. It all goes downhill from there. One comes to understand Gellman's description of Cheney's determination and, indeed, the author's own description of the chapter entitled "U-turn on Constitution Avenue" is one of his best. But the final few pages in which Gellman mawkishly spews Cheney out as a feeling guy...well, that's too much to take.

"Angler" has some points but there are better books on this subject out there.

As is evident from the other reviews here on Amazon, this book provides a history of Vice President Cheney's vice presidency into the start of 2008. Gellman has excellent sources, and was therefore able to get impressive detail of some events not previously told - - most notably the Alberto Gonzalez hospital bed confrontation over domestic surveillance.

The overarching theme of the book is that Cheney was too clever by half. He was too uncompromising, or "principled," early on, and smart enough to get what he wanted much of the time. As a result, Cheney created a backlash against himself. By 2008, he was worse off than he would have been had he been more compromising early on. That theme emerges only gradually, however, and I would have liked to see it presented more forcefully throughout the book.

The first part of the book, in which Cheney uses his knowledge of how bureaucracies work, is the most interesting and important. Gellman documents how a talented player can get his way, and how Cheney kept important decisions away from President Bush without Bush's knowledge. This part of the book should be required reading for presidents and other high officials - - how do you make sure that you're getting the information that you want? Bush clearly failed this task until about 2006 or so.

I found the middle part a bit uneven, with some stories focused on minor details instead of the bigger picture. Fortunately, the narrative picks up again as the backlash against Cheney begins to trim his sails.

Overall, this is an impressive "first draft of history," as some people call journalism. A little more time to reflect, and to strengthen the overall arch of the story, would have served Gellman well. But who am I to complain? He won the Pulitzer Prize for this book, after all.

Dick Chaney, perhaps the most powerful man ever to hold the office of Vice President, began as President Bush's personal shield, confidant, mentor and ideological soul mate. However, this tidy arrangement, predictably, was to go horribly awry. As this timely book reports, Cheney's experience as a master wheeler-dealer of behind the scene backroom bureaucratic negotiations and Machiavellian manipulations, proved overtime to be more a liability than an asset to the Bush Presidency and appears especially likely to leave an indelible if not a very ugly stain on the 43rd president's legacy.

The book, well written and skilfully organized, began as a series of Washington Post Articles. It gives a careful account of Cheney's rise to power, and then captures in almost overly melodramatic terms the best and the worst of Cheney's role as VP: Undoubtedly the best of times was during the early days of the Bush's presidency when Cheney's role throughout the first campaign was heavily relied upon and was then both respectful and circumscribed; a time in which Bush relied on Cheney's political instincts as well as his policy advice. The crescendo of the book is when the worse came: toward the end of the Bush Presidency, in a series of vice presidential missteps best exemplified in the "shootout" at justice over the wireless wire taps, in which Cheney all but arrogated Presidential power unto himself, keeping the President in the dark and "single-handedly" precipitating a revolt by Justice Department lawyers.

The upshot of the book is that Cheney, remains a truly scary figure in the annals of American Presidential history, not just because of his Svengali like influence over our "not too bright President," but also because he was in his own right a devious spin-miester and die-heart ideologue who lacked no compunction are moral restraints about end-running the President, and then manufacturing "after-the-fact" rationalizations and justifications to cover his machinations and to cover-up even the most excessive and improper of his actions - such as his hidden hand in the Valery Plame incident. His utter lack of sensitivity to the meaning of the Constitution and the notion of a balance of powers among co-equal branches of the government is so aberrant as to border on being treasonous.

In the run up to the 2008 election, where questions about the current VP selections has caused the U.S. electorate to collectively hold its breathe, the Dick Cheney experience is a cautionary tale about the possible harm a weak selection of a VP can have in undermining the political process and American political institutions. Bart Gellman, in not taking sides, or completely "throwing Dick Cheney under the bus," when it would have been so easy to do so, has done this nation proud. Five Stars.

As a reader with advanced degrees in Political Science and Public Policy, and 20 years of employment in senior government service, this is the best expose with the required restraint and research that I have read in 30 years. A MASTERPIECE.

Prior to 2002 I used to have a great deal of respect for Dick Cheney. He did a great job of running the 1991 war with Iraq. His 2001 energy plan was well researched and professional even thought some people (including myself) felt it should have been more oriented to renewable energy.

However, since September 11, 2001 Dick Cheney has strongly promoted some totally disastrous policies such as the decision to go to war with Iraq.

This book contains some truly stunning accusations. It suggests that Cheney's role in picking himself as Bush's running mate when he was in charge of finding a running mate for Bush in 2000 had serious ethical breaches. There is a suggestion that Cheney was less than candid about his health problems.

The author suggests that Cheney knowingly lied to Dick Armey (House Majority Leader) about intelligence concerning the (nonexistent) relationship between 9/11 terrorists and Saddam Hussein.

There is more disturbing material concerning Cheney's alleged role in encouraging the use of torture against terrorism suspects and the use of domestic wiretapping.

It is interesting that Gelman knocks down one of the most popular accusations against Cheney, the notion that he wanted to use his office for private financial gain or the benefit of the oil industry or his previous employer, Halliburton. In a recent interview with Harper's magazine, Gellman states, "There's no venality here. Cheney was not trying to aggrandize himself, to steer money to friends, or to set himself up for higher office. He simply believed that the stakes were high and he was more capable than others. He saw the world, he believed, as it truly is and was prepared to do the "unpleasant" things that had to be done to safeguard us. Cheney is a rare combination: a zealot in principle and a subtle, skillful tactician in practice."

I can't vouch for the accuracy of all that's in this book. It may be true. It may not be - although the reporter is a very professional journalist.

What I can say is that this is a serious book that should be read and considered by American citizens. This is a book that should be read and debated by Amazon readers.

This whole situation is very depressing story about a talented man who did a lot of good in the past but went in a truly disastrous direction since 9/11/2001.

As someone who is left-leaning I tried to read this book without any preconceived notions. Mr. McLellan's book is an extremely well written history of what happened during his time working for George W. Bush. When there are facts to be presented, he presents them as neutral as possible. When he gives his own opinion, he clearly states that it is his opinion, and shouldn't be taken as fact.

The first half of the book was basically praising Bush and explains why Scott joined him in the first place. The second half explains, in detail, what went wrong.

This book actually gave me a little bit more respect for Bush, as the mistakes he made could have been made by many people, myself included. However, we expect more out of the President of the United States, and he should not be excused for what he did.

Whether you're a hard-core conservative, a hard-core liberal, or some where in between, I highly recommend this book.

Scott McClellan's White House memoir is a somewhat erratic telling of his years working for President Bush. On the one hand, McClellan criticizes the mindset of the permanent campaign with its distortions and manipulations.

On the other hand, those same principles are okay with McClellan when it comes to elections. That distinction may sound great on the surface, but given midterm elections and even off year elections that occur in states like Virginia and Mississippi, where President Bush was happy to involve himself when he was popular, when is it not an election?

McClellan is also deeply torn on how responsible President Bush himself is for the problems that have plagued his presidency. With candor, McClellan admits that President Bush was not intellectually curious enough at times. He also admits that President Bush told him to do things that were incorrect, like speak up for Karl Rove during the Valerie Plame leak investigation. But at other times McClellan talks about President Bush's abilities honesty, how he would not intentionally mislead him, and so on.

The former press secretary has some blinders when it comes to President Bush. He says that he truly believed President Bush could unite the country as President. McClellan must have been watching a different guy then over half the voters were in November of 2000. McClellan also blames the media for not doing its due diligence in questioning the Iraq war, which is ironic since it was his own press operation that stifled the media. McClellan also likes to treat the Bush Administration's permanent campaign mentality as an extension of the Clinton Administration, basically failing to acknowledge how much more pervasive the take no prisoners political operation was in the Bush White House. For example, McClellan talks about the need for a more bipartisan cabinet, noting that Norm Mineta, President Bush's first Transportation Secretary, was too much of a token appointment. McClellan talks about the need for a Secretary of State, Defense, or Treasury from the other party. Which is exactly what Clinton did when he appointed Maine Republican Senator Bill Cohen as his third and final Secretary of Defense.

Unlike many partisan Democrats who praised McClellan for speaking out when the book was released, I give him no credit. Had he really felt strongly about the issues raised in the book, he should have resigned the first time he was asked to lie, or mislead. In fact, McClellan never quit but was fired. He makes some statements in the book that he had planned to resign in the coming months anyway, but these internal thoughts probably went through his mind throughout his years in the White House and I give them no credence. It is easy to see why McClellan was fired. He was press secretary during some of the Administration's roughest events and did not come off well on television. Ari Fleischer was abrasive, but effective. The late Tony Snow and Dana Perino have been press secretaries during periods of time when President Bush was less popular and more ineffective, but that has served to lower the stakes on their role. McClellan was there at a crucial time and did not serve the President, or the people, well. His book just confirms that.

One coda there is an excellent story in the book about President Bush calling McClellan's wife after McClellan was fired. It is a human moment for the President and makes you understand why McClellan has blinders for him.

BOUGHT THIS BOOK FOR MY HUSBAND. HE WANTED TO READ ABOUT THE INSIDE DIRT IN DC. THIS BOOK SHOULD DO IT!

If you're looking for a scathing critique of the Bush administration from an embittered turncoat, this ain't it. Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan comes off as merely disillusioned about Washington -- maybe a little peeved at Karl Rove, distrustful of Dick Cheney, and certainly disappointed in his one-time idol, George W. Bush -- but that's about all. He picks over the minutiae of the cooked pre-war intelligence on Iraq and the Valerie Plame scandal--his main bugbear as he was forced to lie conspicuously about it--without really denouncing them. His writing is as cautious as it is bland.

McClellan says he wrote this book to try to set the record straight, to recapture some of the personal integrity he feels the job cost him. Yet he seems unwilling to blame or condemn much beyond repeating how the "perpetual campaign mentality" and Washinton's deepening partisan schism makes for less effective government. He adds little to the public discourse on derisive partisan politics, nor does he make it interesting with pointed insider detail. McClellan seems reluctant to make enemies, so he spends 300 pages exorcizing his own small demons instead of fighting the big dragons.

The moments in this book I found most enlightening are the small personal observations he makes about Bush. His mean-spirited sense of humor. The way he belittles dissenters. His refusal to re-think any decision. His capacity for self-delusion. These bits of insight McClellan makes almost inadvertently -- remember, he claims to like and admire Bush for the most part -- speak volumes. Otherwise, this book -- like the career of McClellan itself -- is just a footnote to the great Machiavellian machinery of the Bush administration. History will forgive and forget mild-mannered Scott McClellan. The Bush-Cheney-Rove trinity will not likely get off so easy when at last the full account of "what happened" is written.

- mattmchugh.com

I really dislike tell all books, and tell all books concerning politics in particular. After reading this one, my opinion of this genre has not changed all that much. I will state from the start though, that I am probably one of the most apolitical humans on the face of the earth. My only interest in our current political process, as opposed to our history in this area, is that I hold both the extreme right and the extreme left in extreme contempt. My opinions of George Bush, his administration, et al, are of little consequence here, and I certainly am not going to bore you with my pontifications in that area. That being said....

I did find this book interesting in that it gives a good view on one man's view, and I emphasize, "one man" of the political process in our nations capital at this time. I found the workings of the Bush administration, congress, the press and all those associated with the entire process fascinating. There was interesting bits and pieces scattered throughout the book. I am certainly not going to summarize the happenings of this entire affair. If you don't know what happened, and where it led, and is possibly leading, then you have probably been living under a rock. If you believe ever word McClellan has written, well then, you have a problem. On the other hand, I do get the feeling that the author tried his best to come across in a truthful manner, addressing the situation as he saw it. I feel he is sincere in his personal assessment of the situation.

The book is rather poorly crafted and is so repetitive throughout that it makes you want to scream at times. Scott McClellan portrays himself as misled Boy Scout, and perhaps he was. I find it difficult to fully believe that a man that can reach his high position was as blind and naïve as he claims. Perhaps this is true though. There again, on the other hand, he does not cast full blame on anyone but himself in this area. In some eyes he is certainly a little turn coat weasel, but I feel an honest weasel, never the less.

I actually enjoyed this read despite the poor writing, which does become rather boring at a certain point. Overall this is a pretty light weight read and I personally doubt if it is going to be used as a source document my many historians in the future when picking this particular era apart.

For a quick read of one man's perceptions, for some political tidbits and some insight this is a good read. I of course feel in has to be countered with other works that are sure to come out in the near future, but fear that we will have to wait at least fifty years or so to be able to truly evaluate just "what happened. I am giving this one four stars because it did have some value as to information but knocking off at least one star due to poor quality of the writing. Where were this man's editors?

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

This guy breathes economics and shares several thoughtful insights into how the global economy is affecting American politics. Pair this book with The Power of Productivity and you'll definitely have a better picture of how the world works.

I'm about halfway through the book and find it fascinating. I am not an economist nor a policy wonk, but his interfaces with administrations from Nixon to the present, make for a deeper understanding of why the economy functions the way it does.

A must read for anyone interested in economics in general especially economics at the macro level. Especially with current economic crisis changing rules and shaking faith in 'laissez faire' capitalism.

People now blame him for the crisis, I think it is not the individual but the ideology that did us in to this mess. History will judge him for years but this is a must glimpse in the life and mind of an intellectual who played a towering role as world's central banker.

In the end, free markets don't work with proper legal framework put in place. One would argue US has the best legal framework to support free markets but I would say it was the loopholes which created absence of it and then it was free for all take what you can get looting. I would think Mr. Chairman will agree with this, although what level of regulation can we put in place and who will decide when is the right time to put a brake is debatable. The party lasted long on the street after easy fed money was gone but the liquidity in the global market allowed the party to continue. Potentially he could have ended the carry trade party earlier but again all this can be said with benefit of hindsight.

The book is a great auto biography of an important intellectual of our times written in very accessible style language and representation. A necessary read in our times and may be for future generations to avoid the similar if I may "Irrational Exuberance!".

What amazed me about this book was how little the book talked about economic policy and its underpinnings. Why did the fed do what it did during Greenspan's tenure? If you are looking for answers to that sort of questions, you will get nothing from this book. In fact, it is not clear if Greenspan even has a framework for monetary policy. For instance, he does not have great regard for Keynes' work, but almost everything he did would appear to be Keynesian. No explanations are offered. I found Alan Blinder's book a lot more illuminating on substantive issues.

What you will get from this book is a lot of commentary on personalities of powerful politicians---a subject for which the author demonstrates more passion than any other. This is perhaps the book's redeeming feature: it is admittedly somewhat interesting and perhaps gives us a glimpse into why really Greenspan was one of the most powerful people in Washington for such a long tenure.

It did get me thinking very differently about fedspeak though: I was constantly reminded of Peter Sellers in "Being there", as I read the book. Perhaps for that insight alone, my money was well spent on the book.

People who are very knowledgeable about a subject seldom have the skill to communicate their knowledge to the general public. The ex Federal Reserve Bank chairman Mr. Alan Greenspan is one of those rare individuals. No doubt he has great wisdom , theoretical and practical knowledge of world economics, business, investment , finance and politics. But more important he very clearly explains these topics in his masterpiece called The Age of Turbulence not only to the general public not specialized in these subjects but also to professionals and experts. That's right even students and professors of economics and business, investment counselors, businessman, investors etc. have a lot to gain from reading or listening to the CD of The Age of Turbulence. The reader does not have to agree with everything Mr. Greenspan says and that does not reduce the benefit to be derived from reading the book or listening to the CD.

In the Age of Turbulence the author explains very clearly and in a non boring way without using too much technical jargon the economic, political, social, business, financial and technological developments in major countries in the world, not just in the USA, from the end of the 19th century until 2007 and the likely prospects until the year 2030, not like a clairvoyant but different scenarios depending on various conditions. He places these developments within the context of various economic ideologies and analyzes how they compare in explaining world socioeconomic and political developments. Subjects he covers are very wide and encompass just about every major socioeconomic and political issue that have shaped the world history and are likely to impact the near future. His approach is not a doomsday prediction ; he doesn't just talk about the problems. He criticizes applications where necessary but also presents his opinion about what should be or should have been done or not done to prevent or solve specific socioeconomic crises.

The narrator in the CD,Robertson Davis, also deserves credit, because he speaks very clearly. So if you are involved in economics, business, finance, investment, politics and consumption in anyway anywhere in the world, not just in the USA, and that means just about everybody, you can not afford to not read / listen to The Age of Turbulence.

I listened to this CD and I was writing this review in September 2008 just as the financial hurricane that was taking place at that time in the USA had swallowed several famous investment banks and its effects rippled across the world. The crisis was still continuing as I was writing this review. This is a time when we all really need to digest Mr. Alan Greenspan's wisdom from his book.

i just got this so i'll just tell you what i noticed so far.

1) the pages aren't all numbered. so you can find something in the index and not find the page. not sure what the rational is for this but it's not helpful. a few pages numbered, then nothing, then a few more numbered, again nothing and so on.

2) on page 23 (i assume) the following sentence appears:
"The first ten Amendments collectively are commonly known as the Bill of Rights. History"

i find this confusing. the word "History" is not part of a sentense, has no punctuation, and it is followed by nothing. the rest of the page is blank. this looks to me like an obvious misprint.

so i'm not exactly confident in the book. and yes it is more like a pamphlet.

Of course this is an awesome book b/c it is about the documents that this great country is based upon! I do believe that the size and type of binding should be advertised more. This is more of a pamphlet than a book!

I think every American citizen should read this. Our government has drifted so far from what the Constitution originally intended, and most people haven't got a clue about it. This is a very handy booklet to have around! Get it, read it, and form YOUR OWN beliefs about government and stop listening to everyone else trying to give you their version!

Read it, know it, live it. If things keep going they they have with people not caring about the Constitution, we won't have. You know the adage, ignore it and it will go away, it's very true for the constitution. The 2008 RNC is a standout example of this where the police were not only suppressing the free speech of the demonstrators but also beating and arresting registered members of the press with press credentials clearly displayed. This was not just here and there accidents or misunderstandings. This was an organized act of suppressing the media. They threatened them with drawn weapons and beat them. The only way to stop the rise of fascism is to step up and protect your rights and the rights of your neighbors. Make know mistake, fascism is here. It's not just starting, it is well entrenched. Are you going to stand by, like the citizens of Nazi Germany, and do nothing. How long until dissidents start disappearing? We already have prison camps. Don't think your citizenship will protect you from being sent off somewhere. Just as soon as the government thinks you're apathetic enough, they will declare martial law and you will be required to have travel papers to go from city to city. This is deadly serious stuff. It makes me cringe whenever our government criticizes another government for suppressing their citizens rights. I didn't used to feel that way. I used to be proud of our government now our government is an embarrassment. If you think Obama's going to fix it, think again. The guys already sold out, just examine his recent voting record.

I bought this print of the U.S. Constitution at first because my pocket Constitution had almost fallen apart.
When I got it in the mail I thought it was very pretty, but I was a little surprised at how large the print was. The print IS very large - so I guess it would be helpful for those who have bad vision, it isn't a BAD characteristic of the layout of the book, I was just surprised.
It is also very helpful because it holds The Constitution, The Declaration of Independence and The Articles of Confederation.
I am very pleased with it!
And I thought it was very humorous when amazon emailed me asking if I would give a review of the U.S. Constitution. HAHA!

This is a truly invaluable book. Fleckenstein shows,beyond any doubt, that Alan Greenspan has been a disaster for the country and the economy. Even before becoming Fed chairman, Greenspan had demonstrated his incompetence (Read the beginning where Greenspan's predictions as one of President Ford's advisers would drastically miss the mark). Unfortunately, Greenspan would be confirmed as Fed chairman and begin a nearly twenty year career of gross mismanagement.

Fleckenstein quotes Greenspan repeatedly, demonstrating the Fed Chairman's inability to predict the stock market or housing bubble (or anything else for that matter). Greenspan comes off as completely incompetent in Greenspan's Bubbles. Perhaps some day the Federal Reserve will be abolished and the economy will not be subject to the whims of mediocre men like Greenspan and Bernanke. If that day comes, it will be because of thoughtful experts like this book's author. I also recommend Ron Paul's analysis of Greenspan in his recent book--Paul points out that Greenspan once supported sound money but changed his views as the lure of great power as a central planner seduced him.

Greenspan will be forever linked to the global financial meltdown of 2008. History will not be kind to the Bubble Boy.

The author attacks Alan Greenspan for setting interest rates too low and thus causing all out economic problems. Why did Greenspan do this? He did not see the bubbles (that he himself created) because he was blinded by the "concept of technological driven productivity miracles." The author repeats this idea many many times. But from reading the first five pages you might wonder if Mr. Fleckenstein is the best person to launch a bubble attack like this. On page 3 the author leads you to note 2 (page 189) where he writes: "Determining that a bubble exists is somewhat subjective, though not terribly difficult." A couple of pages later on page 5, the author admits: "I saw the stock market bubble building and concluded it would end in disaster -- about four years too soon!" Should Fleckenstein not have disqualified himself from documenting forecasting failures at the Fed at this point? Taking strong action to stop a bubble based on the author's forecast could have driven us into a deep recession. In these first pages Fleckenstein proves with personal experience the validity of Greenspan's statement on page 99: "I don't think we can know there's a bubble until after the fact. To assume we know it presupposes that we have the capacity to forecast a imminent decline in prices." On page 162 in a confusing paragraph Fleckenstein seems to agree with this by writing: "What would be correct to say is that one can't exactly know what action might be required to stop a bubble." This not say that Mr. Greenspan is blameless.
The author quotes his column from 1999 to judge Greenspan without the benefit of hindsight. In this column he writes that the increases in stock prices are "breathtaking" but never uses the word, bubble, before it burst. He uses the word, bubble, in column on September 17, 2001 after it is bust. Even I did better than that. In my book, "How to Invest in Condominiums" I use bubble twice and tell my readers how to to avoid them (I finished writing the book in 1999). Yet Fleckenstein is the one who has the nerve to attack the FOMC for not using the word often enough. This book is all about criticism with the benefit of hindsight. There are no lessons learned. We have to take it on faith that tighter money applied here and there would have been better. He does not attempt to demonstrate his forecasting ability and help Chairman Ben Bernanke by telling him how big the bursting real estate bubble is and when it will hit bottom, so that the Fed can set the "correct" rate. But no, on page 184 the author indicates that Ben Bernanke would make the same decisions as Greenspan. When we finally know how big and bad the real estate bubble was, say in 2013, Ben Bernanke (if he is still there) and the FOMC are sure to get flack from Fleckenstein for allowing the bubble to end so badly. The FOMC will be unaware of this incoming flack or wisely ignore it. This negative evaluvation (or well documented rant) deserves three stars for providing an insight into how difficult the task the FOMC has is and why in the long run the value of our paper money will always erode.

A friend at work turned me on to Fleckenstien's articles during the peaks of the housing bubble, and all along he predicted the housing market crash. The only thing he had wrong was the timing as thought it would happen sooner. This book sheds light on Greenspans role in two ecenomic bubbles and does so with Felckenstien's unique sense of humor. It is tough to make subjects like this interesting, but this book is a good read. Felckenstien predicted both "bubble bursts" in his columns when everyone else was screaming about the next tech stock that was going to take over the world or talking about how "real estate never goes down." If he says the sh-t is going to hit the fan and you are standing in front of the fan, you should probably move.

In this fascinating book, financial journalist William Fleckenstein studies the record of Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006.

Between 1937 and 1987 there were no bubbles, but Greenspan helped to create two bubbles in ten years - in stocks and then in real estate - by holding interest rates too low, punishing savers. He helped to make the American people worse off by redistributing wealth to the rich, the bubbles' boosters and sponsors.

Greenspan viewed new technology expenses as assets. So he thought that productivity and profits were higher than they really were, that inflation was overstated and that stocks were understated. In 1998 firms spent $95 billion on computers. After Greenspan's `hedonic adjustment', this came out as $352 billion, adding 2% to US GDP.

Governments want to understate inflation and overstate growth, productivity and incomes. So now, most price rises seem to be way above the rate of inflation.

Greenspan's rate cut of 15 October 1998 triggered the stock market bubble. By 1999 the stock market was valued at 180% of US GDP. (In the last bubble, in 1929, it was 85% of GDP.) In 2000-01 this bubble burst - the new technology miracle proved to be a mirage. In 1992-99 there was zero productivity growth in 99% of the US economy, and growth only in 1%, computer hardware.

In 2001-03, housing `saved' the US economy from the aftershock of the stock bubble. De-regulation led to lower lending standards with more `creative' financial instruments, like the $500 trillion worth of derivatives, which Warren Buffett described as `financial instruments of mass destruction'.

So from 2003 to 2007 there was a real estate bubble, based on huge debts. Mortgage-equity withdrawals created half US GDP growth between 2001 and 2007. By 2006, household debt was 97% of GDP: mortgage debt was $13.3 trillion. Total US debt in 2007 was 325% of GDP.

This ocean of debts rested on a falling real estate market, a sinking economy and a weak currency. Where could the next economic rebound come from? Capitalism has destroyed production and destroyed the housing market: it is running out of options.

This book is a great place to start for learning about the long-term crisis the federal government is facing. It is entertaining, with a great narrative style, some fun stories, and tons of informative graphs. Further, it is thoroughly researched, with helpful citations addressing the critical arguments our nation's leaders will face as they try to solve this. It is scrupulously non-partisan and fact-based, a real breath of fresh air. This is THE book to start with. It dovetails nicely with the new movie, I.O. U.S.A. I've bought a half-dozen copies of this book and given them to others interesting in public policy. HIGHLY recommended.

The awful truth is that we have been fooling ourselves and we have let ourselves be fooled, both voters and politicians themselves. Fooled ourselves into thinking that the finances of the United States are just fine.

This book tells us what a financial disaster awaits us the next few decades. The worst thing is, apparently it is not even a major theme in the current presidential election, because we have picked presidential candidates that are not strong in economics. Another four years from now, we will pick someone who is strong on economics, and then start doing something about it.

The book is mainly making us aware of roughly what are the issues. That is accomplished in the very beginning, and after that the authors keep repeating the same points in different words, which I thought was somewhat boring. Yet, it is nicely written, it's got nice anecdotes here and there, and in the end there is more information on what our options are. It would have been nice if they went a little bit deeper into the matter, to explain even more about how things work, etc. But the authors kept it simple and easy to understand, and maybe, as voters, we only need to know a simple thing that the government needs to do, and we already knew this for ourselves: When in debt, you need to get more money and spend less!

The most difficult thing will be to actually vote for a candidate who dares to talk about tough financial issues, as opposed to most candidates who seem to be all charisma and vague promises, and when elected, let the next president clean up the mess.

Even as a CPA, I had never really thought about what the country's national debt (over $9 trillion and climbing) meant to me and future generations.

You don't have to be a CPA to get something out of this book; it is written in a manner that provides nice summaries of complicated issues. Even better, it provides references so you can learn more. The book is balanced and does not appear to have a political slant.

As increasing Federal deficits affect every American, I can't recommend this book enough, especially in an election year.

This is an excellent book which describes in understandable terms the problems with the federal budget deficits and growing national debt

This book makes these very complex topics easy reading. As other reviewers here mention, the book spends a disproportionate amount of time on SS and Medicare, and almost no time on Defense. (My guess is because this a bi-partisan effort, and people on opposite sides of the fence tend to disagree strongly in the area of defense.) Regardless, this is a wonderful book and helped me to better understand how a lot of this stuff works. I especially enjoyed the chapter on "pork" spending -- and how it amounts to perhaps 4% of the federal budget. READ THIS BOOK before the presidential debates begin! Educate yourself so you can decide which candidates actually know what they're talking about, and which ones are blowing smoke. Our country is facing serious fiscal problems and they are not going to just magically go away.

David Ray Griffin exceed expectations again with his new book. It revisits his first book on the subject of 9/11 and shows how the case against the 'official' story has gotten stronger. This is the final nail in the official stories' coffin. There is no doubt now that the events of 9/11/2001 were an inside job, planned and perpetrated by treasonous people inside our own government. This is one of the most important books of our lifetime, since it exposes the biggest lie and fraud against the American people. David Ray Griffin is a true American Patriot and deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for his work. Keep it up!

I've seen just to many documentaries and read to many articles about
9/11 that by the time I received this book that I honestly just didn't read it. What is more important about 9/11 in my opinion is what our response was to it.

"There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting." -- Buddha

At some point the body politic of the Western world will realize that both oil and war over oil are not only unnecessary, but are absolutely detrimental to our continued survival as a species.

This realization will grow in direct proportion to the number of people who come to understand the truth which underlies the current occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq.

This truth, in turn, will only be accepted through a definitive, irrefutable analysis of the evidence underlying the events of September 11, 2001, which triggered the war on terror and the resulting invasions of the oil-rich Middle East.

The definitive analysis is now at hand. Incorporating seven years of carefully assembled information, Dr. David Ray Griffin's "The New Pearl Harbor Revisited" (NPHR) provides the first encyclopedic guide to the evidence surrounding the September 11th attacks.

Its format is a chapter-by-chapter updating of his 2004 "The New Pearl Harbor" (NPH), generally regarded as the most thorough and objective introduction to 9/11. The new book, however, blends the major developments reported in Griffin's five intervening books with recent technical objections to the official story contributed by a host of new researchers, including architects, engineers, pilots, and military officials.

NPHR already bears the attributes of a classic work:

1. Attention to Detail: The extraordinary image of Muslim-hijacked airliners hurtling into iconic US targets has been indelibly imprinted upon the public mind---yet it breaks down when confronted by this vast array of carefully researched and scrutinized details. Griffin has amassed hundreds of eyewitness statements and official reports which directly challenge our interpretation of the attacks, and the collective illusion they have spawned.

Griffin charts a course through the miraculously appearing hijacker passports and red bandanas; the spliced undated airport security videos; the hopelessly inept Muslim pilots performing ace flying maneuvers; the advance warnings of air attacks using hijacked planes; the molten steel running under the towers for weeks after the attacks; the inexplicable behaviors of Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld on the morning of 9/11; the failure of FAA and NORAD to intercept the flights; the failure of all eight pilots to squawk the hijack code; and the massive explosions in the lobbies and sub-basements of the towers before their collapses---to name but a few.

It all points to internal complicity, manufactured evidence, and a planned cover-up of something far more ominous than a group of devout young Muslim fanatics, who according to press reports, frequented bars and prostitutes.

For those who believe that such conspiracies cannot be pulled off without detection, Griffin provides ample evidence of false flag operations which have occurred throughout history.

2. Documentation: It is not generally understood that what is documented and known about 9/11 has grown enormously over the past four years. As a librarian I am truly staggered by the amount of new information which has come to light through such sources as the oral histories of the Fire Department of New York; the prosecution files from the Moussaoui trial; the emergence of early video footage mounted from home collections on Youtube and Google Video; the release of government files and reports through FOIA requests; the archiving of early newspaper interviews on dozens of websites displaying out-of-print press articles; the various and conflicting flight manifests which have surfaced from the four flights; the seismic reports which reflect the time and intensity of the crashes; the press revelations showing torture was used by the CIA to extract evidence from al Qaeda operatives; and new historical accounts such as New York Times reporter Philip Shenon's 2008 "The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation."

Meanwhile, the government and media have consistently sought to dispel this body of emerging "conspiracy" evidence. Griffin devotes two full chapters to White House interference and manipulation of the 9/11 Commission, and the resulting lies and deficiencies in its 2004 Report. Widespread criticism of the Report (most prominent of which was Griffin's book "The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions") led to tweaking of the official account through inconclusive federal documents from NIST, semi-official articles in the popular press (Popular Mechanics and Vanity Fair), and TV dramatizations.

With unfailing vigilance, Professor Griffin, in both NPHR and his earlier books, has methodically kept pace with the subtly shifting sands of the official story, always maintaining the upper hand through his unique blend of knowledge, logic, and accountability.

3. Comprehensiveness: When NPH was written in 2003-04, the 9/11 Commission Report had not yet been published, and there was only a handful of serious researchers looking into 9/11. Now, hundreds of architects, engineers, pilots, retired FBI, CIA, military and government officials are providing expert testimony regarding unexplained phenomena such as the pulverized concrete dust from the "gravitational" building collapses, the E-4B mystery plane flying above the White House while the Pentagon was hit, Project Able Danger, the performance of cell phones at high altitude, and a host of other technical issues which challenge the official account.

Public knowledge of this expert online information was demonstrated in 2006, when two authoritative opinion polls revealed that about 40% of the American people doubt the official story about 9/11. In the minds of nearly half the US population, therefore, 9/11 and the war on terror (which prompted the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and the deaths of 1.2 million Iraqis and even more Afghanis) are fundamentally suspect events.

That the nation and the world are living in superficial denial of this extraordinary common knowledge is intolerable to Griffin, who has spent five years writing seven books to bring this truth into open view for all to see.

4. Relevance: Griffin has said elsewhere that our failure to address the truly calamitous problem of climate change has been due to a significant degree to our preoccupation with the so-called war on terror, which, in a closed loop, is being waged to increase access to oil.

It is thus essential that we all understand at once, at a collective level, that the quest for Middle East oil has driven a rogue element within the United States power structure to the false flag attacks of 9/11.

And this seminal book offers proof beyond doubt. It is as clear as a mountain stream.

Such clarity is enormously powerful because it unifies human understanding as a basis for action. This is the exposé that can tip the scales of public demand towards the truth and accountability the world so desperately needs.
______________________

Reviewer's Note: With this book, Dr. Griffin has made a huge contribution to our knowledge base on a matter of crucial importance. It is up to others to get it into circulation. Here's how: Ask for it in bookstores. Write reviews. Add it to reading lists. Discuss it in book clubs. Give copies to professors. Phone reporters about it. Talk about it at coffee. Explain its relation to climate change. Give it to friends. Join your local 9/11 group, where you will find superlative people.

When The New Pearl Harbor first appeared in 2004, it opened many eyes to the problems with the official story concerning the events of 9/11, and fostered the birth of a research movement known as "9/11 Truth". David Ray Griffin's now eighth book on the subject is, as its title indicates, an updated look -- specifically at the material in his groundbreaking first one.

The four years between the two have brought to light so many contradictions and impossibilities in the official story, and so much new incriminating evidence, that most 9/11 researchers now believe there was no way for the events to have occurred without active planning and execution by members of the United States Government. Over the course of his eight books, Griffin has traced the evolution of his own thought in this direction. The New Pearl Harbor Revisited provides further weight for such conviction.

The two books are meant to be read as a set, with the second referring to the contents of the first, and picking up from where the first left off. Still, for the newcomer, this book alone, with its eighty pages of small-print notes, makes a rich introduction to this crucial, but intractably controversial subject, and will bring the reader up to date on many of the latest arguments and findings.

But no single book can provide the information available in the videos, photographs, diagrams, lectures, and articles on the web. The interested beginner may go online to open portals to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of significant links and websites. 911truth.org might be a good general place to start. Scholarly papers are available at stj911.org, and 911scholars.org, while pilots give their opinions at pilotsfor911truth.org, and architects and engineers their analyses at ae911truth.org. Griffin has good company in his analyses and opinions about the events that day, and in his demand for a new, independent investigation to look into the still-unanswered questions.

David Ray Griffin has probably done more than any person living to articulate the failure of the `official' conspiracy theory of what happened on 9/11. In his latest book, 'The New Pearl Harbor Revisited', Griffin has added yet another nail to a coffin that already contains more metal than wood.

Griffin's output of books on the greatest crime in United States history and its appalling and ongoing international consequences is matched by their quality. Such is the force of his arguments and the wealth of evidence he marshals that it is simply not possible for anyone with an open mind to fail to be convinced that the official explanation for the events of 9/11 is without a shred of credibility. Indeed, one continues to be astounded at the effrontery of the Bush Administration in arrogating to itself the title of moral leader among nations.

The sheer wickedness of the perpetrators has been matched by the equally amoral corporate media which have been actively complicit in the subsequent cover-up. Decades of selective reporting and the absence of any investigative journalism have promoted the myth of American 'goodness' to the extent that there is a deep reluctance to look under this particular stone. It is testimony of the power of Griffin's writing that cracks are beginning to appear in this wall of denial.

Bob Woodward drew heavy criticism for his purported 'death bed' conversation with Bill Casey (which Casey's own wife denies.) Woodward deserves more criticsm for his patronizing "criticism" of the Bush administration's post-Iraq war failures.

Woodward has long been held in high regard by the conservative elitists as he has long traded inside access for less-than-scathing stories about the corruption and ineptitude of our various political leaders.

Very little within this book comes as "news," let alone as shocking as very little was reported that wasn't covered within the various 'evening news' programs. Furthermore, Woodward does little to corroborate the testimonies of the various interviewees (such as cite documents or statistical analysis.)

Truth be told, there is a much more sinister story to be told and Woodward never attempted to broach such controversy, instead relaying on the well publicized and unobtrusive truth that was known the world over.

I cannot fathom the beautification and brilliance that Woodward must have bestowed on the Bush White House in his previous accounts of the decision making of this embarrassment and dangerous power base. However, to his credit, most of those who are positioned to know may still have their informative hands bound behind their backs out of fear of violating their individual confidentiality contracts.

Obviously, Bob Woodward mcuh prefers to maintain his inside connections rather than telling the American people the entire truth of the corruption that led to the 2003 Iraq war.

I sought a truly insightful and informative book, instead, I read every passage feeling as though Bob Woodward is concerned more about his own status rather than telling the world of the truth within.

Bob Woodward does a good job of presenting a selection of the day-to-day functions of the Bush Administration in getting the US into Iraq, for good or ill. He doesn't present the reader with heroes or villains, nor does he draw any moral/ethical conclusions about any of the players. He does draw conclusions about what happened and why, but the conclusions are based on solid evidence and interviews, often with people whose names have seldom or never been in the news. The picture that materializes out of this book is of a chief executive who, once he was elected, really didn't know or care how anything got done, and who surrounded himself with other religious-right neoconservatives who were equally determined to do it. There are key points in the book where suggestions or decisions are made, or deceptions are presented as truth, and in most cases, Bush is not present. he just wasn't around. If the book has a protagonist, it is Donald Rumsfeld, who is determined to control every last detail of the War, and who is allowed, by a cowed and frightened bureaucracy, to get away with that, with the results we have before us now.

Bob Woodward once again shows his ablity as a writer. His book is not partisan and clearly states the background regardin Bush' decision to take the country to war. It is easy to read and quite informaive regardless of your political ideology. I would highly recommend it to those who don't feel they get the facts from the newspapers or the Sunday morning tald shows.

Either Woodward is making this book up as he goes along or he feels the best way to communicate Bush's character is to tell as many lies as he possibly can. Beginning in the prologue (xiii), we are told that in the mid 1970's, the CIA fresh from turning most of Latin America into military dictatorships, "was at perhaps its lowest point." On page 3, we are told that although George W. Bush is not known to have shown up for duty with the Texas Air National Guard (all the records of this Congressman's son's service, if there were any, having mysteriously disappeared) he learned to fly the F-102 jet (and why not, many a movie has shown us that a child can do it first time out of the box.)

I'd relay more lies had I not stopped reading.

This is an excellent study of how bureaucratic politics can deform the foreign policy process. You don't have to agree with Woodward's conclusions to benefit from this book.