Sharon D. reviewed Pigs at the Trough : How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption Are Undermining America on + 224 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
Huffington's project in this wonderfully scathing, wonderfully researched, wonderfully readable book is to rescue capitalism from the CEOs. Every player in the recent go-go market owes it to themselves to read this book and agitate for the reforms that might yet save the system.
Ray C. (ray441) -
Helpful Score: 1
Arianna Huffington is disingenuous on several fronts. 1. She does not identify herslf as a Socialist, which she proudly proclaims (only she uses the politically correct term "progressive") elsewhere. 2. While making use of emotionally based phrases such as "grossly inflated pay" for CEOs, she never gets around to explaining while Congressional pay raises have gone unchecked for years. 3. While she points her very wealthy finger at corporations for making a profit, she avoids giving any reason as to why the government runs rampant in taking money at the point of a gun from citizens. 4. Her idea that government is intrinsically good and people owe their lives to it (because it protects us from the free enterprise based corporations) is without logic. 5. She argues that corporations have hurt minorities (few Black and Hispanic CEOs) yet she rails against the smallest minority in existence--the individual. As an example, she starts off one sentence with" "Even as our country has takens steps to abolish welfare, forcing the poor to sink or swim, we've allowed the high end corporate-class to weave a giant safety net for its members" This is class warfare at it its prime. Several questions come to mind. Why doesn't she give an example of what steps have been taken ANYWHERE to abolish welfare? We still have food stamps and unemployment benefits have been EXTENDED by the feds, not shortened. Also, who exactly is in the "corporate class"? I have an LLC, am I in the corporate class? What about all the small business owners with S-corps? Who exactly are the poor? The continual throwing out of vague, nebulous statements like these leaves the reader thirsty for facts. Instead of fact based thirst quenchers, you just get more of these shadowy statements made up of liberal wispiness. Do not be fooled, part of the title may contain the words "political corruption", but this is always in connection with "corporate greed". What about government greed? What about the greed in Hollywood? Why does she not have rage for actors who make $20 million for one movie? Is that not too much money for her? She never gets around to explaining why a CEO who gets a million dollar severance package is evil, yet billionaire Oprah Winfrey is a paragon of virtue. While there is no requirement that any book present a balanced point of view, Huffington's book is so far to the left that it may as well be titled Das Kapital.
Sharon R. (hazeleyes) reviewed Pigs at the Trough : How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption Are Undermining America on + 331 more book reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Nationally syndicated columnist Huffington's greatest dilemma while writing this scathing indictment of the corporate and political culture that brought the "new economy" '90s crashing down must have been how to choose among the plethora of examples of greed, corruption, hypocrisy and political manipulation. So unsavory are the CEO villains, so unfathomable is their greed and monstrously callous is their disregard for the thousands of employees who lost jobs and savings because of them, that even the most worldly activist and most cynical political observers will be shocked by what they read here. And Huffington's indictment of the corporate culture of greed, one that she believes undermines democracy, goes far beyond the high-flying corporate figures featured in congressional investigations. Among her accusations are that U.S. drug companies allowed the African AIDS epidemic to rage in the interests of corporate profits, and that President Bush is a conspirator in the corporate disregard of the interests of the American public. This is a powerful book, brimming with wit and sulphurous satire that connects the dots among politicians, lobbyists and corporations, and demonstrates their destructive effect on the well-being of average Americans. She may well be on her way to achieving her goal of convincing readers "to join forces to storm the control room of the S.S. America."
Nationally syndicated columnist Huffington's greatest dilemma while writing this scathing indictment of the corporate and political culture that brought the "new economy" '90s crashing down must have been how to choose among the plethora of examples of greed, corruption, hypocrisy and political manipulation. So unsavory are the CEO villains, so unfathomable is their greed and monstrously callous is their disregard for the thousands of employees who lost jobs and savings because of them, that even the most worldly activist and most cynical political observers will be shocked by what they read here. And Huffington's indictment of the corporate culture of greed, one that she believes undermines democracy, goes far beyond the high-flying corporate figures featured in congressional investigations. Among her accusations are that U.S. drug companies allowed the African AIDS epidemic to rage in the interests of corporate profits, and that President Bush is a conspirator in the corporate disregard of the interests of the American public. This is a powerful book, brimming with wit and sulphurous satire that connects the dots among politicians, lobbyists and corporations, and demonstrates their destructive effect on the well-being of average Americans. She may well be on her way to achieving her goal of convincing readers "to join forces to storm the control room of the S.S. America."
John O. (buzzby) -
No pictures, but full of fun charts that you won't find in the WSJ, like "Match the CEO to the Mansion" and "Satan's Portfolio"
John O. (buzzby) -
Note - The paperback edition has the ISBN #of 0-965-75490-1, not the 1-4000-5126-6 number listed under "details".
John O. (buzzby) -
ISBN # on book listed is 0-965-75490-1, but this comes up as another book.
Leo T. reviewed Pigs at the Trough : How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption Are Undermining America on + 1775 more book reviews
I began to listen to the KCRW weekly radio program 'Left, Right, and Center' because I admired Ms. Huffington's success at making something of herself.
I read a chapter (The Binge and the Reckoning, pp. 211-256) on the bus (I'm taking the book to the old soldiers' home bookshelf) and found it to still be of interest in November 2017.
The author dismisses GB2's assertions that a little fine tuning is all that is necessary and asserts that sleazy corporate practices must be curbed.
AH's long list of reforms that were urgently needed in 2002 begin with repeal of the Financial Modernization Act of 1999 and continue through accounting reforms, bankruptcy, and much about mutual funds.
Above all find some genuine reformers! "Those currently in power have proven themselves chronically unable to bite the corporate hand that feeds and feeds them."
Elizabeth Warren, the well known 'troublemaker,' but then a Harvard Law professor, is mentioned.
I read a chapter (The Binge and the Reckoning, pp. 211-256) on the bus (I'm taking the book to the old soldiers' home bookshelf) and found it to still be of interest in November 2017.
The author dismisses GB2's assertions that a little fine tuning is all that is necessary and asserts that sleazy corporate practices must be curbed.
AH's long list of reforms that were urgently needed in 2002 begin with repeal of the Financial Modernization Act of 1999 and continue through accounting reforms, bankruptcy, and much about mutual funds.
Above all find some genuine reformers! "Those currently in power have proven themselves chronically unable to bite the corporate hand that feeds and feeds them."
Elizabeth Warren, the well known 'troublemaker,' but then a Harvard Law professor, is mentioned.
