Steve Fraser

Ponderous and bombastic, but filled with detailed history. I learned move about the first 'Gilded Age' than I thought possible from this book. I appreciated his appreciation of Henry George, but found his one sentence dismissal of George's solution to the problems of progress and poverty a bit, well, abrupt. That being said I was never able to really discern the authors solution at all - it was written before 2016 and seemed unable to get a grip on what was happening in the American show more political economy. Ah, hindsight. Nonetheless, worth a read through for the history alone. show less

A Cultural Look at America’s Wall Street Relationship

In July, 1849, the arrest of a local confidence man attracted national media attention.

It seems the con artist, one William Thompson, genteelly dressed would approach his marks discreetly flashing a handful of cash. He would confide to the mark that he intended to invest the bundle in a sure fire business deal. He offered to invest the mark’s cash in the same deal if he would demonstrate confidence in the deal by pleading his money and show more gold watch. Thompson promised to return the next day with the watch and even more cash.

Of course, he never did.

Throughout history, Americans have held ambivalent views of Wall Street. One moment they see it as one huge casino. The next, they see it as a cloister of scholarly seers who possess a mystical secret for instant success.

Steve Fraser has written a Wall Street history that explores that dilemma’s impact on the American psyche. Americans remain preoccupied with the sins and virtues of the financial markets. On one hand they remain committed to their ancestral values of hard work, play, equality, well-being and national purpose. Yet, they are still magnetically drawn to promises of instant wealth and success.

This well-written, thoroughly researched history explores this chronic tension. Through the colorful tales of confidence men and aristocrats, he offers the reader unique insights into our collective view of American Capitalism and its changing culture. show less

This is a very dense book, with lots of historical context packaged frequently in fun and creative language.
The point of the book is the comparison of the two gilded ages - the historical Gilded Age is the second part of the 19th century, leading into WWI and up to the 1929 Great Depression, marked by the US version of the industrial revolution, its dealing with labor, its oppression of women and men fighting for their rights, and it pacification of the poor through the New Deal, thus saving show more capitalism.
The second gilded age is the one we are living in right now, where the US is again leaving its people in poverty to enrich the few, using a political system that plays into the hands of the industry owners. Major differences to the first one are that today, poor people do not recognize the importance of labor organization, live on credit both to survive and to aspire, and new technologies help create a work and life of fear.
I found the book utterly depressing but also invigorating in its clarity to connect historical situations across the two centuries, showing the threads, the repetition, and not really a way for the US out of this. show less

This title probably has a different feel depending on when and where you read it. The context of 2019 in DC made the parts about corruption and regulatory capture by the most powerful industries not the least bit surprising. Some of that resonated with "Cadillac Desert," even. Anyhow, the book is really about the cycle of a wealthy elite moving toward complete deregulation, the inevitable response in which their power is somewhat diminished, and then continuing on. Maybe we'll never get out show more of it, but I suppose Fraser's point is that the popular response needs to be sustained before it wanes again. show less