The Money-less Man
Mark Boyle
With our current economy a mess, the growing realization that we as a society buy and waste a ton of stuff and the desire for a simpler lifestyle, Boyle’s book and site have garnered immense amounts of attention. By slowly paring down his life, Boyle becomes focused on what is necessary for survival and how money affects every aspect of our lives. Young, healthy and adventurous, Boyle announces he will live without buying a thing for the next year. His chronicles, while mostly upbeat, tell of an exhausting life. Barter and trade, often of work, gets some of his necessities. Other things, like much of his food, must be grown, cooked and processed by hand. Winter is particularly nasty. I had expected Boyle to tell of a monastic,...
I.O.U Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay
John Lanchester
Lanchester, a Brit and writer by trade, started his research into the current financial debacle as background for a novel he was writing. He soon found a mind-boggling story worth telling without any fictional embellishment. His description of credit markets, hedge-funds, mortgages and other financial toys are remarkably clear and easy to understand. Lanchester peppers his description of the financial meltdown with stories of the self-satisfied bankers who helped create this debacle. The book is surprisingly readable, never dry and rich with a heavy serving of British snark and a soupcon of vitriol. The British take is any additional interesting facet.
So yes, the regulators were useless, but their failures wasn’t like that of a...
Busted: Life Inside the Great Mortgage Meltdown
Edmund Andrews
New York Times financial reporter Edmund Andrews covers the sad and confusing story of an average American who was taken in by the mortgage industry and s in danger of losing his home – himself. Despite his close and continual study of the American Economy, Andrews found himself drawn into the shady world of ARM loans, flubbed financial forms and an overpriced “dream” house. Newly married with children and step-children, Andrews dreamed of providing his new family a lovely home. However, the real estate boom was at its maddest. Partnered with a wily and unscrupulous realtor, Andrews signs up for a mortgage that bore no relation to his...
Call of the Mall
Paco Underhill
What is wrong with the mall? Well, everything, according to consumer behavior specialist Underhill. And, he adds, the rise and fall of the mall has been almost entirely avoidable. Going through a standard mall visit, Underhill points out the numerous ways malls fail to satisfy the consumer. From the architecturally blank outer walls, lack of coat and package check, unreadable maps, terrible merchandise displays and bathrooms hidden down murky hallways, the average mall is designed almost on purpose to irritate the consumer. Why aren’t clothes shown on angled racks so you can see everything? Why isn’t there anything to eat that isn’t...
Maxed Out
James Scurlock
Wowza, talk about a 21st century Cassandra! Written as a companion to his movie, Maxed Out, Scurlock includes the stories and data too complex for the big screen. Published in 2007 the book was written in ’05 and ’06. Scurlock saw the storm clouds of predatory lending, easy credit and bankruptcy gathering. His interviews are often sickening. People with mental retardation being coerced into signing up for credit cards, then losing their city-provided housing; out-of-control spending hidden from the families and ending with suicide; collection agencies and their tactics. It is all here. Scurlock interviews those being beaten down by heir...
Green With Envy: A Whole New Way to Look at Financial (un)Happiness. Why Keeping up with the Joneses Is Keeping Us in Debt
Green With Envy: A Whole New Way to Look at Financial (un)Happiness. Why Keeping up with the Joneses Is Keeping Us in Debt – Shira Boss
Not to flog a dead horse or anything… Green with Envy was quoted in House Lust, so I couldn’t resist reading this book too. Boss starts her book with her personal story. She and her unemployed husband worry over bills and try to subsist in New York on her single income. New neighbors move in and the apartment scuttlebutt tells them they paid cash for their new digs. Boss jealously eyes her new neighbors’ piles of deliveries from Barneys and seethes with envy as they mention they are heading upstate to “antique” for...