Makers and Takers

The Rise of Finance and the Fall of American Business

By: Rana Foroohar

Narrated by: Rachel Fulginiti

Is Wall Street bad for Main Street America?

"A well-told exploration of why our current economy is leaving too many behind." (The New York Times)

In looking at the forces that shaped the 2016 presidential election, one thing is clear: Much of the population believes that our economic system is rigged to enrich the privileged elites at the expense of hard-working Americans.

This is a belief held equally on both sides of political spectrum, and it seems only to be gaining momentum. A key reason, says Financial Times columnist Rana Foroohar, is the fact that Wall Street is no longer supporting Main Street businesses that create the jobs for the middle and working class. She draws on in-depth reporting and interviews at the highest rungs of business and government to show how the “financialization of America” - the phenomenon by which finance and its way of thinking have come to dominate every corner of business - is threatening the American Dream.

Now updated with new material explaining how our corrupted financial sys­tem propelled Donald Trump to power, Makers and Takers explores the confluence of forces that has led American businesses to favor balance-sheet engineering over the actual kind, greed over growth, and short-term profits over putting people to work. From the cozy relationship between Wall Street and Washington, to a tax code designed to benefit wealthy individuals and corporations, to 40 years of bad policy decisions, she shows why so many Americans have lost trust in the sys­tem, and why it matters urgently to us all.

Through colorful stories of both “Takers”, those stifling job creation while lining their own pockets, and “Makers”, businesses serving the real economy, Foroohar shows how we can reverse these trends for a better path forward.

©2016 Rana Foroohar (P)2016 Random House Audio

Overly biased against finance as a profession and an academic field

The author, I'm afraid to say, is overly biased against finance as a profession and an academic field. I won't blame her for not knowing the current academic understanding of the problems given her background. But she seems to let anti-finance rhetoric get the better of her.

snarky critique of Apple, self-promotion distract

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Makers and Takers?

I suggest that all the self-referential comments by the author, and all comments about Apple be removed. Criticizing Apple for acting according to current laws and in its own self-interest is not helpful. I suggest that the focus be on policy suggestions and a storyline, rather than snark.

Enlightening

Good analysis of the impacts of financializing our businesses, government and beliefs as well as the impacts on our society. Our politicians are talking about the wrong reasons we have a middle class that is struggling financially.

Required reading for all

Excellent accounting of how we got into the dangerous mess we are in. Written and narrated with calm aplomb. Very important book, which I intend to read again. Thank you!

One of my favorites!

Overall the content was good and the narration was good. When I was searching for a new audiobook I stumbled upon it expecting to disagree with the author on certain points. Her arguments were well laid out and persuasive and caused me to become a believer.

Fantastic

Essential in my opinion to be a well-informed American. The book is never dull and its scope is very wide.

Financialization Laid Out in Detail

What did you love best about Makers and Takers?

I was happy to hear this topic lay out in a coherent and detailed narrative. The author does a good job piecing together separate but related topics concerning fictionalization. Topics like changes in American corporate governance, MBA programs extreme focus on finance, Wall Street creating short term investment emphasis for public companies, the disappearance of R&D, big banks allocation of capital, government policy and incentives toward debt are usually separate books. But this does a great job linking them to show how America is at a tipping point and needs common sense bipartisan reform.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The point that finance and business administration are not the same thing. In my own experience I feel this is lost on many MBA grads

Any additional comments?

As someone who works on Wall Street and has a degree in Economics I feel I can say firsthand this current system is unsustainable. You really just have to follow the money and truly find out why it got there.

This is a book that puts most of it together with detail and ideas to fix it. It's a great starting point and will lead to further analysis for those interested. It cites tons of other authors and books so we can all educate ourselves on who and what drives our capitalist society.

Important to understand how finance has hijacked our economy and nation.

This is a very clearly written and researched book that helps us to understand the outsized influence of finance on our lives. I strongly recommend it for anyone who wants to appear under the hood, so to speak.

Excellent, well researched and well presented

This is an excellent book. It takes an incredibly complex storyline and simplifies it so we can understand The myriad contributors to our financial and societal challenges.

I found myself looking forward to a summary of what could be done to solve these issues: summary that was provided in the last chapter. I wish the author had presented her recommendations in A more concise and concrete summary. Because we need concise and understandable solutions if we are going to have a chance of seeing them executed.

Overall a great book

Not completely factual

for some reason this author is attributing the 2007 crisis to how the Obama admin handled the situation. I am not sure why everyone is forgetting it actually occurred under the Bush administration. if you would like to read a great book about how this happened read To Big To Fail.