Meltdown

I just finished reading Meltdown by Thomas Woods. It's a look at the causes of the current economic crisis. It's written for the layperson, so anyone should be able to pick up and find out more about why we got into the mess we're currently in.

Unlike most of what you hear in the media or from the government, Woods doesn't offer up the flimsy arguments that point the blame at the unregulated free market. He first outlines the various government interventions into the economy, and then shows how each of them contributed to the crisis. He puts particular blame on the current system of banking including the Federal Reserve system. He makes a compelling argument that the right way forward is not to increase taxes, spending and regulation, but to reduce them.

Woods backs all of this up with well-reasoned arguments and historical examples. He spends extra time discussing Keynesian economics, which is the system of economics that has been guiding the federal government since the 1920's. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the causes and solutions of the current economic crisis.