Glass House The 1% Economy and the Shattering of the All-American Town (Audible Audio Edition) Brian Alexander, Bob Souer, a Division of Recorded Books HighBridge Books
Download As PDF : Glass House The 1% Economy and the Shattering of the All-American Town (Audible Audio Edition) Brian Alexander, Bob Souer, a Division of Recorded Books HighBridge Books
The Anchor Hocking Glass Company, once the world's largest maker of glass tableware, was the base on which Lancaster's society was built. As Glass House unfolds, bankruptcy looms. With access to the company and its leaders, and Lancaster's citizens, Alexander shows how financial engineering took hold in the 1980s, accelerated in the 21st century, and wrecked the company. We follow CEO Sam Solomon, an African-American leading the nearly all-white town's biggest private employer, as he tries to rescue the company from the New York private equity firm that hired him. Meanwhile, Alexander goes behind the scenes, entwined with the lives of residents as they wrestle with heroin, politics, high-interest lenders, low wage jobs, technology, and the new demands of American life people like Brian Gossett, the fourth generation to work at Anchor Hocking; Joe Piccolo, first-time director of the annual music festival who discovers the town relies on him, and it, for salvation; Jason Roach, who police believed may have been Lancaster's biggest drug dealer; and Eric Brown, a local football hero-turned-cop who comes to realize that he can never arrest Lancaster's real problems.
Glass House The 1% Economy and the Shattering of the All-American Town (Audible Audio Edition) Brian Alexander, Bob Souer, a Division of Recorded Books HighBridge Books
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Glass House The 1% Economy and the Shattering of the All-American Town (Audible Audio Edition) Brian Alexander, Bob Souer, a Division of Recorded Books HighBridge Books Reviews
Many people have already reviewed this book, causing me to hesitate to add another. I will only point out a couple of disagreements I have with the other critics. Some of them are actually from the depressed community in which the book is set, and some of those were even approached by and/or spoke to the author. I lack the authority to question their judgments. My criticism is that the book cannot make up its mind whether it is an oral history or an indictment of the predatory capitalism of the Reagan era and beyond. Many reviewers disdained the economic analysis, but I found myself wanting more of that and less about the local citizens, or at least some of them, whose stories were not as compelling as the space devoted to them might suggest. Still, their voices are necessary and contribute something to understanding how things got as bad as the author perceives them to be. This is Trump country and, I predict, hoodwinked again by hedge fund managers and the like. "Sad," as the current occupant of the White House likes to say.
Amazing author and story. I'm a Business Econ graduate and felt I always believed in free trade etc. This story carefully lays out the disgusting evils of private equity and corporate raiders and their effect on average American communities. You will understand the why of the deindustrialization of America after reading this book.
Mr. Topper I don't think it was a fair fight when Icahn and his lawyers rode into town. I don't lay much of the blame for any of this at your father's feet. No one in the town could have gone toe to toe and come out the other side in any better shape.
This is a book that needed to be written. I lived this book in another state and in a different industry. You can't deny the facts. And the facts are that deregulation of the financial industry led to the destruction of America's industrial base for profit. For the destruction of communities and lives; what did the hedge fund and predatory capitalists get in return? Money. Short term profits.
.The America we live in today is the unintended consequences of what was perpetrated on us by greed over the last three decades. And we are poorer in every way.
Thank you Mr. Alexander for your reporting and this excellent telling of what happened to so many hard working Americans across this country.
I read this book through three lenses First and foremost, as someone who grew up in Lancaster, Ohio, and whose immediate family (siblings, nieces/nephews, parents) still live there. I visit at least three times per year. Second, I have concerns about the growing wage gap and looked for a book that, without being condescending or demeaning, showed why and how a man like Trump was elected President. Third and most personally, three immediate family members are represented in the book and I wanted to see what the author had to say about them. (He was very, and perhaps unfairly, unkind in one case.)
My review There was a great deal of financial and policy content that will lose many people – I had difficulty following along, and I’m somewhat familiar with the private equity model. Additionally, he surmises that “conservatives†are the problem, which is a generalization that will turn off anyone who believes differently. (I’m of the mindset that neither side has the best interest of people in mind, though Trump is uniquely dangerous for many reasons.) All of that said, there is a compelling case that runaway capitalism has not been good for our country. A position on which we are aligned – capitalism that does not work for the people, only for the wealthy needs to be reconsidered and given checks and balances.
The most disappointing aspect of the book was the often-one-sided view from the perspective of drug abusers. There is a rampant drug problem in Lancaster, Ohio, and the author is right to acknowledge and talk about it. However, he missed any stories of the remaining middle class residents who are raising their children here. As someone noted, the story eventually felt like it should be titled, “Mark and his friends.â€
Overall it was interesting to read and I walked away with some new knowledge. There are stories I would like to see told about my home town and its people, so that readers with no experience in Lancaster will still see its richer fabric of stories; but even without this I would recommend the book.
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