Books like The Man Who Knew

Great read. Actually quite accessible, even if you aren't into economics. Very well-written, Mallaby gives what I consider an accurate and fair analysis of Greenspan, Greenspan's career and policies. Bit of a tangent here, but the Rand/Greenspan friendship connection recounted in this book was new to me and fascinating. I had no idea the depth to which the Ayn Randian ideology had ensorceled Greenspan. How a grown man beyond 40 can adhere to such a naive, self-serving, selfish, cold-hearted, vacuous ideology is somewhat beyond me, especially a man as mind-blowingly brilliant and smart as Greenspan, but hey, he isn't the first nor will he be the last. I think one of the most alluring aspects of this ideology for successful people like Greenspan is the meritocratic mythology and individual great man view of life the Randian ideology caters to, great ego-stroking for the successful and powerful. I do respect that he was able to evolve his mindset and soften his hardline libertarianism, but the economy and our society have payed and continue to pay a price for how neoliberals of Greenspan's ilk recrafted our policy, society, and economy and allowed corporations to hijack the system and dictate policy. Brilliant man though, interesting person, shame that he is emblematic of those who paved the way for a lot of today's inequality problems. It's frustrating, but I do think he held many of his views in good faith, as off base as I may consider them. He is not a bad guy, he did show ability to shift positions and evolve, but his love and lionization of 19th century robber barons is a key fact in understanding his mindset, tells you all you need to know. It is a single fact that encapsulates his mindset, deeply problematic point of view and instructive to understanding this guy. It encapsulates worship at the altars of corporate power, power in general, greed, money, wealth, coupled with the magical thinking that free markets (no such thing, it's a gimmicky marketing term) solve everything, winners should take all, yadda yadda. As you can obviously tell I consider this way too simplistic, wrong, and frankly immoral, but I still can't wrap my head around how this ideology sucks in so many clearly smart thoughtful people. I guess those on the other side will say I'm ensorceled by another ideology, haha, fair enough fair enough ;)There is way more though than Greenspan connection to Randian ideology in the book, it encompasses a lot of political and economic history of the US post 50s. Even if you don't like Greenspan this book is insightful and interesting to get a deeper feel for US economic policy, history, inner-workings of government and government policy.