A Crisis Wasted, Reed Hundt
A Crisis Wasted, Reed Hundt
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A Crisis Wasted
Barack Obama's Defining Decisions

Author: Reed Hundt

Narrator: Jason Culp

Unabridged: 12 hr 3 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/02/2019

Synopsis

This book is the compelling story of President Obama’s domestic policy decisions made between September 2008 and his inauguration on January 20, 2009.Unlike all other presidents except Abraham Lincoln—who decided not to allow slavery to expand westward before he was sworn in—Barack Obama determined the fate of his presidency before he took office. The results of these fateful decisions led to Donald Trump, the worst person Obama could have imagined, taking his place eight years later.This book describes how and why these decisions were made, and discusses whether the outcomes could have been different. Based on dozens of interviews with actors in the Obama transition, as well as the author’s personal observations, this book provides unique commentary on those defining decisions of winter 2008–2009.A decade later, the ramifications of the Great Recession and the role of government in addressing the crisis are the reasons behind the ideological battle between progressivism and neoliberalism in the Democratic Party and the continuing struggle for direction in the Republican Party. As many seek the presidency in the November 2020 election, all candidates and of course the eventual winner will face decisions that may be as critical and difficult as those confronted by Barack Obama. This book aims to provide them guidance from history.

About Reed Hundt

Reed E. Hundt was a member of the transition teams for the Clinton and Obama presidencies. He was the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission in 1993-97. He has written two books and two e-books, taught at Yale College, Law School and School of Management, practiced law in California and Washington, D.C., started for-profit and non-profit firms, served as a board member for numerous technology and communications firms, and raised a family with his wife Betsy in Chevy Chase, Maryland. He is the author of You Say You Want a Revolution and In China’s Shadow.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Liz on March 21, 2019

This is a book that confirms a gut feeling I have had since the 2016 presidential election. I have thought Trump's victory was the result of the disillusionment of the middle class after the bright promise of Obama's election. The country was looking for transitional change and it didn't get it. It......more

Goodreads review by Philip on June 09, 2019

In the last few years I have participated in Goodreads giveaways but never had won a book. I soon started to sulk and wonder if ANYONE ever won one of these contests! . . . I finally did win a copy of "A Crisis Wasted" and I suddenly became a proponent of the old adage: "Careful what you wish for!".......more

Goodreads review by Christopher on June 15, 2019

I enjoyed this look behind the scenes. I don't often read books like this, so take that into consideration. Reading firsthand, how the Obama Administration made the decisions it did that effectively saved the elites first, the economy second, and the middle and working classes barely at all, was enl......more

Goodreads review by Joni on March 20, 2019

I will start off by saying this was a very difficult book for me to read...almost boring, in fact, because it was very academic, and very much about economics. I believe it was also a difficult book for the author to write, as he was an early Obama supporter and that his whole family campaigned for......more

Goodreads review by David on July 27, 2019

Hundt flashes some extremely literary chops, but most of the book consists of blockquotes from everyone in the early planning stages of the Obama transition, making the case that what he determined before ever taking office defined the course of his presidency. And Hundt, or actually the insiders he......more

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