PositiveThe New York Times Book ReviewDonald Trump is not the ostensible subject of Big Dirty Money, Jennifer Taub’s polemic against America’s failure to curb the destructive criminal tendencies of the very rich. Yet the president, his friends and former Trump campaign and administration officials parade through these pages ... Taub is hardly the first author to call attention to the American justice system’s curious indifference to white-collar crime, apart from occasional spasms of attention triggered by populist indignation ... But Taub explicitly and persuasively places the breakdown of enforcement and accountability in the context of money and class ... Taub poses a simple question and a provocative thesis: Why don’t more prosecutors just lay out the facts about intent and let juries decide?
Alan Greenspan
PositiveThe New York Times Book ReviewLess a conventional history than an extended polemic, Capitalism in America: A History...explores and ultimately celebrates the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter’s concept of \'creative destruction\' ... While this approach risks oversimplifying centuries of American economic history, it provides a useful lens for analyzing America’s current polarization and for understanding the centrifugal forces that have given rise to a President Trump, on the right, or a Bernie Sanders on the left. Other than a few paragraphs arguing the case that the Fed’s easy money policy had little to no impact on the housing bubble that led to the Great Recession, Capitalism in America has almost nothing to say about Greenspan’s own role in recent economic history, and he offers no defense of his tenure as Fed chairman. But that isn’t his purpose here ... The entire book is an indictment of Trump’s stands on immigration and protectionism and his attempts to resurrect fading mining and industrial concerns—attempts that, as Capitalism in America shows repeatedly, are almost surely doomed ... Capitalism in America, in both its interpretation of economic history and its recipe for revival, is likely to offend the dominant Trump wing of the Republican Party and the resurgent left among Democrats. It’s not clear who, if anyone, will pick up the Greenspan torch.
James Andres Miller
MixedThe New York Times Book ReviewThe story has great characters, plenty of boldface names and surprising twists ... Even more impressive is Miller’s ability to get nearly everyone involved not only to talk but also to go on the record, which is remarkable given the notorious culture of secrecy in Hollywood ... Still, there are drawbacks to this approach. Few sources are naturally good storytellers, even in the entertainment business. It’s hard for Miller to build up much narrative steam, and just when he gets it going, someone rambles off on a tangent. Some sections are filled with tedious details only an insider could appreciate.
