Charles H. Ferguson, who electrified the world with his Oscar-winning documentary Inside Job , now explains how a predator elite took over the country, step by step, and he exposes the networks of academic, financial, and political influence, in all recent administrations, that prepared the predators’ path to conquest.
Over the last several decades, the United States has undergone one of the most radical social and economic transformations in its history.
· Finance has become America’s dominant industry, while manufacturing, even for high technology industries, has nearly disappeared.
· The financial sector has become increasingly criminalized, with the widespread fraud that caused the housing bubble going completely unpunished.
· Federal tax collections as a share of GDP are at their lowest level in sixty years, with the wealthy and highly profitable corporations enjoying the greatest tax reductions.
· Most shockingly, the United States, so long the beacon of opportunity for the ambitious poor, has become one of the world’s most unequal and unfair societies.
If you’re smart and a hard worker, but your parents aren’t rich, you’re now better off being born in Munich, Germany or in Singapore than in Cleveland, Ohio or New York.
This radical shift did not happen by accident.
Ferguson shows how, since the Reagan administration in the 1980s, both major political parties have become captives of the moneyed elite. It was the Clinton administration that dismantled the regulatory controls that protected the average citizen from avaricious financiers. It was the Bush team that destroyed the federal revenue base with its grotesquely skewed tax cuts for the rich. And it is the Obama White House that has allowed financial criminals to continue to operate unchecked, even after supposed “reforms” installed after the collapse of 2008.
Predator Nation reveals how once-revered figures like Alan Greenspan and Larry Summers became mere courtiers to the elite. Based on many newly released court filings, it details the extent of the crimes—there is no other word—committed in the frenzied chase for wealth that caused the financial crisis. And, finally, it lays out a plan of action for how we might take back our country and the American dream.
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读完这本书,我感到一种近乎眩晕的迷失感,不是因为情节晦涩,而是因为作者毫不留情地撕开了某些社会表象,露出了其下潜藏的冷酷结构。这不仅仅是一部小说,更像是一份对当代权力运作方式的辛辣讽刺报告。我特别留意到作者对不同社会阶层之间那种微妙的、几乎不可见的张力是如何描绘的。那些精英阶层的生活,在作者笔下,不再是光鲜亮丽的镀金笼子,而是一个精密计算的捕猎场。语言风格上,它带着一种克制却锋利的疏离感,像一台运转精准的机器在记录着人类的悲喜剧,不带多余的煽情,却因此更具穿透力。我必须承认,看完之后,我对日常接触的一些人际交往产生了深深的怀疑,这也许就是一本好书能带来的最大价值——它重塑了你看待世界的底层逻辑。
评分我一直认为,一部优秀的文学作品,其魅力一定体现在对“瞬间”的捕捉上。这本书在这方面达到了令人咋舌的高度。那些关键的对峙场面,那些决定人物命运的沉默瞬间,被作者用极具画面感的语言凝固了下来,简直可以单独拿出来做电影分镜脚本。那种压抑到极致后,突然爆发的张力,处理得非常老练。它不像某些作品那样,需要很长的铺垫才迎来一次小高潮,而是让整个故事处于一种持续的、低频的震动之中。读起来,我的心跳频率似乎都在跟着文字的节奏变化。特别是某一章,两个角色在雨夜的对白,虽然台词不多,但那种暗流涌动的权力交换,仅靠眼神和停顿的描写,就完成了千言万语的任务。这是一种高度提炼后的文学表达。
评分不得不说,作者在构建世界观上的功力,简直可以用“鬼斧神工”来形容。它构建的这个“场域”,虽然设定上可能与我们现实世界相去甚远,但其内部的逻辑自洽性却是教科书级别的。我花了很大篇幅去研究那些复杂的规则和隐秘的社群代码,每解开一个,就仿佛在黑暗中点亮了一盏灯。更令人称道的是,作者没有沉溺于世界设定的堆砌,而是将这些规则巧妙地融入到角色命运的无可逃避之中。那些人物,他们的挣扎、他们的妥协,都源于这个结构性的限制。这种叙事手法高明之处在于,它让你在享受阅读快感的同时,也在潜移默化地学习一套新的思考体系。我甚至觉得,如果把它拆解成管理学案例来分析,也会收获颇丰。
评分这本书最让我感到意外的是其对“道德模糊地带”的探讨。它拒绝给我们一个简单的“好人”或“坏人”的标签,而是把每个人都置于一个道德的灰色地带,让他们做出艰难的选择。你很难真正去恨某个角色,因为你完全能理解他们在极端压力下为何会做出那些令人咋舌的决定。作者似乎在用一种近乎残酷的诚实,去解剖现代社会的生存哲学:在资源有限、竞争白热化的环境中,人性的底线是如何被不断试探和重塑的。我喜欢这种不给读者提供精神上的廉价安慰的做法。它要求我们直面人性中的阴影,并在故事结束时,依然在反思:如果是我,我会怎么做?这种持久的、内在的对话,才是一本真正有力量的书所能给予的礼物。
评分这本书的叙事节奏简直让人欲罢不能,作者似乎对人性的幽微之处有着异乎寻常的洞察力。那种层层递进的悬念设置,不像那些故作高深的文学作品,而是非常扎实地建立在对具体情境的精准描摹上。我读到一半的时候,几乎是屏住呼吸一口气读完的,生怕错过任何一个细微的暗示或者角色的潜台词。尤其欣赏作者在描绘城市肌理时的那种笔触,冷峻又充满细节,仿佛我能闻到那种特有的,混合着尾气和潮湿水泥的气味。每一个角色的动机都复杂得像个迷宫,你以为你已经看穿了谁的底牌,结果下一章立刻推翻你的所有判断。这种对读者智力的尊重,在当下的快餐式阅读中显得尤为珍贵。它不急于给你答案,而是让你沉浸在追寻答案的过程中,那种被引导和挑战的感觉,实在过瘾。
评分一个酝酿发酵了911和经济危机还能人见人爱的总统是有多么自然美!
评分一个酝酿发酵了911和经济危机还能人见人爱的总统是有多么自然美!
评分一个酝酿发酵了911和经济危机还能人见人爱的总统是有多么自然美!
评分一个酝酿发酵了911和经济危机还能人见人爱的总统是有多么自然美!
评分一个酝酿发酵了911和经济危机还能人见人爱的总统是有多么自然美!
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