The Soul of Capitalism
Opening Paths to a Moral Economy
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearc...684862190&itm=1
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This is a partial (and granted a very brief) review, since I have not finished reading the entire book yet. I am halfway through it.
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OK, so this is not as sexy as books on sahajayaism, but nonetheless the subject matter is almost as controversial.
So far I have found it to be quite an eye-opening account of the shell game known as the financial markets. Greider shows in no uncertain terms how unbalanced the whole system has been and continues to be, with the scales tipped in favor of the tiny handful that possess most of the wealth in America. Its not a very democratic money machine. His critique of 'wage slavery', which is the plight of most workers that get a regular paycheck is damning in the extreme.
What I like most of what he describes in the first four chapters is how the constituents that are the largest block of shareholders in corporations are no longer the wealthy families but rather the institutions, which include pension funds. There is an inherent conflict of interest, because the managers of those funds are compelled to demonstrate shareholder value by investing in whatever has the most favorable impact on the bottom line, even if that is detrimental to the employees of those corporations who are the ultimate beneficiaries of those pension funds.
He lays out some alternative approaches to finance that are actually democratic in the first half of the book. I am curious to see how he further develops that concept in the second half. More to come as I read on...