Pity the billionaire : the hard times swindle and the unlikely comeback of the Right

I am not the the one to critique this book, I already agreed with the author's ideas wholeheartedly. the author points out the absurdity of today's politics_the rich need to be allowed to accumulate wealth unfettered by concerns for the society they create or the problems facing that society.

I think what saves 'Pity the billionaire' from being just an all out rant against the conservative right is the last chapter where Frank takes on the current Obama administration for being co-opted or too weak to stand against the same policies set in place by the neo liberal/conservative free

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market ideologues that have run our economy right into the ground. It is easy to pick on the Glenn Beck's of the world and Frank does a lot of that and I have to say his evisceration of Ayn Rand's fictional world was very much appreciated but the real context for me came in the last chapter because if we are truly going to turn things around--we have to see how many of the representatives of the so-called left--democrats are really wolves in sheep's clothing.

Frank does a lot of targeting of the tea partyistas--and I'm not a fan of theirs either (and they have almost become puppets of the Koch brothers) but giving credit where it's due they did at least originally have some worthy points to make. I do support most at least of what the Occupy protesters have voiced but those protests apparently came after this particular book went to the publishers. Anyway I liked the gist of most of it.

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Pity the Billionaire: a better title would be Pity the Listener. I'm not a conservative. I'm not a liberal. And I'm definitely not a fan of the whiney, mocking delivery of conservatives like Limbaugh and Beck-- or through most of this book, of Thomas Frank, who stands politically opposite and

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criticizes, but also stylistically echoes, both conservative babblers. I wish I would've researched the author a little more before jumping into this five disc book, which I almost abandoned countless times. The contents of the book I don't necessarily disagree with, and had I read this in print I probably would've had a higher opinion. The best parts of this work are at the end with Frank's critiques of the Democrat's handling of the health care negotiations and Wall Street bailouts, where he offers reasoned insight. However, the whining, mocking, "can you believe these idiots?" delivery really churned my stomach throughout. This is a book definitely pointed to a specific audience with little hope of convincing anyone on the right to a more moderate, centrist view. A pity, indeed, for a country that could use more reconciliation than mockery. Not recommended.

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This book is not enjoyable. The narrative is full of gutter-level abuse flowing from Thomas Frank's rage over the bailouts. Only in Chapter 10 I think, Frank exhibits some coherence where he observes Obama no different from Wall Street.

Some notes:

1. No mention of how oil prices started the

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crisis.

2. End times scenarios fair enough and seems to recognize lean years follow fat years naturally, but seems irked by how some escaped in the bailout.

3. Financial derivatives are truly innovations and genuine markets for these develop, succeed, or fail like any other markets, but the book doesn't seem to appreciate this.

4. Mortgage industry serves a real need in the economy and the abuses chosen are not representative of the industry, , nor does it sufficiently detail the complexity of the mortgage industry and history that justified the bailouts.

5. Why bubbles are not ordinary if caused by financial innovation? They are as legitimate and ordinary as bubbles caused by industrial innovation (fibre optic for dot.com).

6. The conservative response is not unique, it is a response to left wing excesses. There cannot be any innovation in the economy without private capital. The book doesn't make a distinction between agents or inside traders who were the main culprits, the innocent outsiders who get trapped, and genuine private capital who had no part in the abuse, as it would have been detrimental to their own wealth.

7. The non-linear dynamics and complexity of the economy escapes the author's 'straight cause and effect' logic.

8. If both republican and democrats were complacent during boom years and naturally driven to innovation, then what we can on do now is to learn from experience and bring about corrective measure to curb abuse, such as imposing automatic limits which kick in during boom times.

9. 'Financial establishment' is not one big monolithic beast but and complex set of memes and heterogeneous agents whose dynamic organization as private markets is the epitome of human civilization, productivity. Correctly, I think Hayek termed it an utopia, alluding to Marx's own utopia and Darwinian evolutionary processes.

10. If the bailouts had not been done, we would have slipped into a true depression.

- MK.

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Thomas Frank explores the ways in which the crash of 2008 and ensuing great recession failed to lead to a populist revolt against capitalists nor for greater government intervention into the economy, as it has in past recessions. In fact, we got the Tea Party instead where the government was blamed

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for over-regulating business and banking instead. Frank examines the common explanations for the rise of the Tea Party, dismisses them, and proposes the long growing movement that paints capitalists as victims of government overreach drawing from the works of neoliberal economists and Ayn Rand. It's all very interesting, and well-composed, although nothing I've not read before. My favorite part of the book turned out to be the last chapter where Thomas Frank condemns the Democratic Party for failing to have any populist ideology to counter the right, nor drawing on what made them successful in past recessions, while at the same time maintaining cozy relations with Big Business. The Democrats failure to act on the historic principles of their party makes it somewhat plausible that they can be blamed for being affiliated with the banks that bankrupted the country while at the same time too strictly regulating those banks.

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LIghtweight but probably perceptive, and sometimes entertainingly sarcastic, rant.

Harmless but redudant book. Many books have been written which deal with more substantive issues than how morons become fascinated with the ravings of the political right. There is no cure for stupidity - it's a life sentence, unforntunately. The dirt stupid are out there in significant numbers -

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they are not going away. Whenever a Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich or Glenn Beck has something absurd to say there will always be plenty of empty heads to suck up every word.

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