Research Catalog

Title

The gods that failed : how blind faith in markets has cost us our future / Larry Elliott, Dan Atkinson.

Author

Elliott, Larry.

Publication

London : Bodley Head, c2008.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Atkinson, Dan.

Description

326 p.; 22 cm.

Summary

"In Britain and the United States a very strange sect has seized power. They believe that we can all reach financial paradise, if only certain sacrifices are made. There must be deregulation, there must be privatisation, and markets must be left unmolested, the better to perform their magic. Democratic governments, unions and professionals will all have to accept that there is no alternative. Meanwhile job security, affordable houses and decent public services wither away in the white heat of financial engineering." "A new class has been presiding over this wonderland - the New Olympians. Since the late forties they have been planning their next move in mountaintop meetings that would make Ian Fleming blanch. Now private jets take them where they want to go as they tell the world the good news." "In the wake of the Northern Rock collapse and the credit crunch, good news is in short supply. In this hilarious and shocking expose Elliott and Atkinson reveal the dogma that has brought us to the brink of disaster, and show us how to escape from the coils of faith-based thinking. The New Olympians have already done huge damage on both sides of the Atlantic. Miners, farmers and industrial workers have so far suffered most. But as market forces bear down on health, education and the professions, the middle classes are starting to feel the squeeze."--BOOK JACKET.

Subject

• Since 1945
• Capitalism > Evaluation
• Capitalism > Social aspects
• Economic history > 1945-
• Quality of life > Economic aspects
• Labor economics
• Economic security
• Financial crises

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Introduction. The view from Mount Olympus -- 1. Under the Volcano: 1929-1973-20?? -- 2. Northern Rock: Just like a rolling stone -- 3. Let's Go Round Again: The free-marketeers' Sixty Years' War -- 4. Sunday, Monday, Happy Days: The Goldilocks economy -- 5. The Rainy Season: Rising damp in Middle Britain -- 6. 'Never Break the Chain': Debt and delusion in the British economy -- 7. Here There be Monsters: The perils lurking in the uncharted waters of the financial markets -- 8. Last Tango on Wall Street: The fall of the American miracle' -- 9. Thunder in the West: Scanning the horizon for the perfect storm -- 10. After the Gold Rush: How the New Populism makes the financial system safer, gives ordinary people a bigger slice of the cake and puts the New Olympians back in their cage.

ISBN

• 9781847920300 (pbk.)
• 1847920306 (pbk.)

OCLC

• 222163085
• SCSB-11076372

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library