This is a review of the book, not of the author’s positions or policy recommendations. During the peak of the media frenzy over the stock market collapse, the real estate collapse, the economic collapse and the ensuing taxpayer bailouts, I picked up Meltdown to get some clarity on why it happened and how we can prevent it from happening again. The explanation is contained in this book but the writing style reads as if it were so hastily put together (Quick! while the economy is still tanking!) that at times, even clear, obvious explanations are hard to absorb. Imagine it as a speech presented as a rant at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon.
This was especially disappointing because once I unraveled his points, they made perfect sense. The author, a senior fellow at the Ludwig Von Mises Institute, points the finger of blame in the right places, and in the final chapter, suggests the policies required to restore sanity to our economy and government. Meltdown reads quickly but other books may be more useful, such as Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt.
