Reviews

Wall Street: How It Works and for Whom by Doug Henwood

jacobinreads's review

challenging funny informative medium-paced

4.75

I'll be the first to admit, reading this book took me longer to read than my following comments would suggest: this book is a great read. It crackles with insightful analysis, bristles with wit, and has the savour of a resentful insider's acerbic humour. Henwood does a very good job introducing and analysing the evergreen fundamentals of financial markets and their role in American and international capitalism. He engages fairly deeply and accessibly with the foundational economic literature, and offers up insights from within the world of Wall Street, while never flinching from ravaging the social realities of the economic theories (read:self-justifications) which underpin financial trading and banking. 

An excellent book.

monk888's review

3.0

Good undergraduate-level overview of the academic literature on Wall Street and the financial services industry.

bobbytrucktricks's review

4.0

This is a tough book for me to review because while I wanted to understand finance from a critical left point of view and I enjoy Doug Henwood's writing, the actual workings of finance and financial theory I find painfully tedious. So I ultimately felt like I got the general nature of the critique that the financial industry exists to serve the ruling class and make the rich richer, which was valuable and I did appreciate the explanation of why that is and the way he exposes the financial industry's bullshit. But I did stop reading around halfway through because I'm just not that interested in the details and wanted to move on with my life.