"Meltdown" talks about the economic downturn, market collapse, and housing bubble which burst at the end of Bush's last term. However, Woods doesn't believe that Obama will be a better steward of the economy - quite the contrary. He faults both the Republican as well as Democratic party leaders and the mainstream economic thinkers in power during both the Bush and Obama Administrations. He makes the case that bailouts and increased government spending is not the answer to our problems. Woods subscribes to the Austrian School of Economic theory, the one school of thought which claims to NOT have been caught by surprise by the economic problems starting in 2007 and peaking in early 2009. Followers of the Austrian school claim to have predicted the current crisis, and to be able to explain the on-going boom and bust cycles of our economy. Woods discusses in laymans terms the causes of the economic downturn and and what needs to be done about it. The book also points the reader to other sources of further reading to supplement your economic "enlightenment". Since the intro was written by Ron Paul, I will assume that if you liked Paul's "End the Fed", you'll enjoy this book as well.

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The information is solid but poorly laid out for my taste. This is not to say Meltdown is a bad book. It may be perfectly written for the tastes of another reader. I found sentences unnecessarily long and quotations left without explanation.

The odds are you will learn something new if you read this book. That said, I learned more from Woods regarding the money supply than as an undergraduate taking a single elective, economics course. ( )

Good explanation of the current financial crisis from an free-market (Austrian school) perspective. ( )

Don't expect this author to hurl the blame for the nation's fiscal woes in the direction of any one political faction. Woods makes a compelling argument that there is more than enough blame to go around. The premise of this work is that government intervention -- not deregulation -- causes economic chaos. While the book's review of economic theory and monetary policy becomes necessarily dry in spots, it's highly educational. Woods makes a Herculean effort to simplify some incredibly complex issues. He lays out the tenets of Austrian Economics, then explores some of the historic economic crises the nation has weathered. The housing bubble, Woods asserts, was the result of government entities and private sector players pushing people to buy homes who simply didn't have the financial instrastructure to sustain ownership. He also argues that cheap money (artifically depressed interest rates) lures people into speculative ventures who do not belong in this arena. The author even argues that some of the New Deal policies advanced in response to the Great Depression actually prolonged the economic pain. It takes some patience and discpline to make it through "Meltdown," but the journey is worth the effort. ( )

Wow! No doubt in my mind that all herein is correct but then, I've been part of the choir for some time. The material is presented simply (which is good, right?) and the conclusions should flow like lava across the Fed's printing presses already! I have to admit, however, that I'm not left uplifted after having finished the book, the obvious next steps each seem a pill the size of an elephant and my fellow humans are risk averse and, frankly, quite a few of us are relatively comfortable in our part of the economic bell-curve trying to grasp the opportunities that present themselves right now - if not, are you a teacher? ( )