Trumped! A Nation on the Brink of Ruin... And How to Bring It Back

This book was full of excellent information--data that is not often found in our execrable financial media. When focused on fiscal, financial, and monetary matters, Stockman brings a serious game. He flays the Fed, the banks, Wall Street, and the USG with a former insider's surgical precision, explaining clearly why so many Americans are feeling left behind. Middle- and lower class Americans are the victims of a massive transfer of wealth to the 0.1 % via real estate and market asset bubbles inflated by the Fed's ballooning balance sheet. Stockman builds his case relentlessly, and I believe, quite successfully.There are two reasons I gave the book only four stars: 1) foremost is that his excursion into foreign policy was like fingers on the blackboard--he could have made his point about the U.S. eternal war machine without his clumsy, perforated apologia for Iran and 2) this book needs some SERIOUS editing work. Perhaps Stockman believes readers are not sharp enough to recognize a summary point that does not begin with "To wit," "Stated another way," or "And this isn't the half of it." This is a minor point, perhaps, but a book of this import really merits a better effort by an editing team.

This book is extremely informative and a snarky assessment of the Washington establishment which is quite entertaining. As a libertarian, Stockman is not always a Trump supporter but he despises Washington and thinks Trump is what it deserves. While this book is mainly economic it makes a lot of political points which are quite insightful once you think about them.The first is that we basically have a planned economy run by the unelected governors of the Federal Reserve which he describes as a "Monetary Politburo." They control money printing, debt creation, interest rates, and mandate continuing inflation with their inflation target of two percent. This constant inflation policy hinders deflationary price adjustments and keeps most prices rising. By constantly raising nominal wages, this policy also conceals the flat or declining real income of most Americans. But voters are increasingly catching on which is why they elected the outsider Trump in 2016.Another insight is that we have basically have had an unofficial permanent governing coalition in Washington since about 1983 of defense hawks, welfare liberals, and pork barrel politicians. This is why nothing ever changes in Washington. This coalition cannot tolerate the slightest suggestion of any real change. This is why it has launched the current witch hunt against Trump based on groundless hysteria about Russia.He blames Greenspan's "Bubble Finance" policy of endless money creation, still followed by the Federal Reserve, for our $20 trillion national debt, $64 trillion total debt (government, business, personal) and declining standards of living as well as real average incomes. He calls the current recovery a "Potemkin Village" which has been propped up by massive debt. He illustrates how without this debt the economy has actually shrunk. He says we have reached "Peak Debt" where consumers cannot borrow any more, so more debt to keep spending going must come from the government.He goes into foreign policy and believes the old military-industrial complex, now run by neoconservatives and recently by liberals like Hillary Clinton, is maintaining a permanent "Warfare State." His arguments for a more accommodating policy towards Iran are quite convincing.

Wonderful book to educate yourself about complex macro economic issues and the danger the 20 trillion national debt poses to our country. The facts included in this book are amazing and hard to get other places. If you are in government or finance industry this is a must read. Every thirty year old should read this book , they are the ones that will pay the bill for all the excessive spending by politicians. You want to read and re read this book as reference material in your financial planning.

Written well before the election, this book correctly identifies some of the reasons people would not (did not) embrace Mrs Clinton and then gets kinda hopey-changey about what a Trump presidency COULD mean regarding a reset and movement away from what Mr Stockman calls "TheWar Party" composed of neo-cons and neo-libs alike, and largely empowered by the "coastal elites." Good as an extended alternative discussion about what the last 30 years of political development has meant, not so good when he lapses into speculative polemic. Overall worth reading, but I won't rush out and buy more of Mr Stockman's books. I do still like to catch his interviews and articles when I can.

On balance it's a really good read. Due to the fact that it sometimes is very technical, I found myself having to read then re-read sections to ensure I was understanding the points that Stockman was making. David presents compelling evidence that supports his view that the US is in big trouble from a debt perspective. He illustrates the many reasons our citizens see the divide between those that have much and those that are struggling and highlights many other issue with US fiscal and monetary policies. David offers practical solutions, and may tough ones, to lead the US out of its current financial problems. Many good ideas presented here. Enjoy!

Already essential reading before the recent election, TRUMPED is even more important now that the country has chosen 'The Donald' to be its 45th president. As Stockman explains cogently, the country has long been on a path to economic disaster; the bipartisan, bicoastal elites have fundamentally mismanaged the country in so many profound ways and for so long that undoing the damage will be painful indeed. Having already analyzed this in exacting, exhausive detail in THE GREAT DEFORMATION, in TRUMPED Stockman devotes considerably more time to trying to show that there are some policy choices that a Trump presidency could make, if of course Congress can be persuaded to go along. These include fundamental reform of entitlements, taxes, the hugely bloated defense budget, the financial system and, most importantly, of money itself. For as Stockman explains so clearly, each and every aspect of the fundamental mismanagement of the country has been financed by the easy money policies of the Federal Reserve, which have also exacerbated inequality. Reforming the Federal Reserve and restoring sound money--perhaps by re-linking the dollar to gold--would thus in turn force a restoration of sound banking and finance; balanced government budgets; a more transparent and less burdensome tax and regulatory structure; and a more affordable (and hence sensible) foreign and defence policy. In brief, Stockman recommends that the country should go back to doing things more or less as they were done under Eisenhower, who was the last president to balance the budget, scale back defense spending and not to be a career politician. Indeed, as Stockman explains, while Trump's campaign policy rhetoric has been all over the place, his relative lack of political experience could be a huge if unknown plus when it comes to making the difficult, practical decisions required in the real world, in which governments do, eventually, have to pay their bills.

A brilliant economic kind who doesn't suffer fools. It can get a bit slow in parts but on the whole a brilliant read

A clear and concise analysis of what America needs but won't happen,sad really.

Most important financial book of the last 50 years.Should be the basis for every economics course in high school, colleges and universities in modern day North America.

This was written prior to the election of Mr Trump. We shall see how his agenda works and if Mr Stockman's predictions and advice is relevant.