A Piece of the Action: How the Middle Class Joined the Money ClassNow with a new introduction describing the fallout of America's consumer credit boom, 1994's wildly acclaimed bestseller "A Piece of the Action" tells the story of how millions of middle class Americans went from being savers to borrowers and investors through the invention of credit cards, mutual funds, and IRAs--resulting in profound societal change. Tracing the invention of products like credit cards, mutual funds, and individual retirement accounts, "A Piece of the Action" tells the stories of a handful of men who transformed the way Americans think about and deal with their money: men like Charles Merrill, the flamboyant founder of Merrill Lynch; Peter Lynch, the investing guru who managed the Fidelity Magellan Fund; and Charles Schwab, who transformed his eponymous company into the nation's biggest discount broker. These innovations produced a genuine revolution--the democratization of money--in which the middle class became financial players. Author Joe Nocera's 2013 introduction describes where this revolution took those who embraced it, that is, practically all of us. We have gone into debt, made dicey investments, and lived through many bursting bubbles. We used the financial tools we now had at our disposal to act on bets and dares we didn't yet understand. We bet on the Internet, borrowed on our homes, and compromised our retirements in pursuit of the American dream. "A Piece of the Action" is an important piece of financial and social history, and Nocera's 2013 critique of the uses of the revolution is a powerful warning and admonition to understand what is at stake before we act. |
Contents
The Money Revolution | 9 |
Part I | 13 |
The Drop September 1958 | 15 |
8 | 30 |
The Man with the Golden Touch February 1966 | 34 |
Delusions and the Madness of Bankers November 1966 | 53 |
The Great Wall of Q February 1970 | 70 |
Here Come the Revolutionaries July 1970 | 89 |
Mr Regan Goes to Washington September 1981 | 207 |
Part III | 229 |
The Maestro of Magellan August 1982 | 231 |
Socks n Stocks November 1982 | 250 |
The Peoples Nest Egg April 1984 | 275 |
The Pleasure Palace in the Sky May 1984 | 297 |
The Bulls Last Stampede January 1987 | 325 |
This Is a War over Here October 1987 | 346 |
The Luckiest Entrepreneur May 1975 | 106 |
The Worlds Most Hated Bank August 1977 | 126 |
The Discreet Charms of the CMA September 1977 | 149 |
Part II | 165 |
The Great Inflation July 1979 | 167 |
Please Dont Take It Away March 1981 | 187 |