Meltdown Books

I have recently purchased a number of books about the meltdown and am reading through them as I follow events on CSpan and online newspapers.

Niall Ferguson's book Ascent of Money was not published until May 2008 so he had a chance to add a final section anticipating the meltdown.

Then there is the Trillion Dollar Meltdown by Charles Morris

As far back as 2002 Krugman was writing in his collected oped pieces for the NY Times in The Great Unraveling "Uncle Alan may not be able to save us single-handedly"

December 19, 2008 Krugman gave a really interesting speech about the meltdown and what might be ahead...2010 might see things getting better, but then worse....and he also favored infrastructure assistance, ideally cultural assistance, but not likely.

His talk to the National Press Club is live right now. I do not know how long it can be accessed

http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/index.php?main_page=product_video_info&products_id=282976-1

I will be able to check out Uncle Alan in his 2008 biography The Age of Turbulence Adventure's in a New World.

Curious about the backgrounds of all of our master of the universe including Paulson I have The Partnership the Making of Goldman Sachs by Charles D Ellis.

Finally I am into Chain of Blame by Paul Muolo who has been following the real estate bubble from the perspective of a trade publication.

What am I really doing this for. Of course it is all great reading, entertainment I suppose, but I am trying to decide how to structure my own life next year from retirement in a way to decide how best to handle my own economic affairs.

Ending 2008 - What is it Like Being American and Not Feeling Like You Are Number One

Over the past three months I have watched my retirement nest egg, handled by TIAA, Lincoln National, and Wachovia do the unespected, decline. Yes I am paranoid, wondering how long I will live and still have money and reading FT, NYT, Wall St Journal, watching all of those CSpan hearings with big CEOs lambasted by congressmen and commentators. I have read newspapers, bought and read a few books and am generally getting paranoid.

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/capital-commerce/2008/12/16/-the-10-dopiest-business-and-economy-leaders-of-2008.html

A blog has identified these four men as some of the worst bad guys. Ironically they are feeding back into the Obama administration.

And what am I observing locally. The Wolf Camera shops at Peachtree Mall and Underground have closed, the Dalton bookstore at Peachtree Mall is closing. One of the Peachtree office buildings on the hundredth tallest building in the world is almost empty. I wonder if my health club will hang in there.

My granddaughter says quit reading and watching all of this negative stuff. She is right, but I seem to be addicted.

This is what the grand downstairs of Macy's on Peachtree looks like now. It was sold sometime ago and fortunately they have not yet pulled down the chandaliers or removed the balcony. Its wonderful holiday windows used to be part of Atlanta's downtown Christmas. All gone, all gone. Where are we headed.