Fate of the States, Meredith Whitney
Fate of the States, Meredith Whitney
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Fate of the States
The New Geography of American Prosperity

Author: Meredith Whitney

Narrator: Jo Anna Perrin

Unabridged: 6 hr 9 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 06/20/2013


Synopsis

"Forget everything you think you know about the direction of the American economy, about our growing need for foreign oil, about the rise of the service economy and the decline of American manufacturing. The story of the next thirty years will not be a repeat of the last thirty."

One of the most respected voices on Wall Street, Meredith Whitney shot to global prominence in 2007 when her warnings of a looming crisis in the financial sector proved all too prescient. Now, in her first book, she expands upon her biggest call since the financial crisis.

Whitney points out that it wasn't just consum-ers who binged on debt for the past twenty years but state and local governments too. She explains how the fiscal sins of the past are beginning to transform the U.S. economy along regional lines. And she shows how we are moving into a new era in which wealth, power, and opportunity flow away from the coasts and toward the central corridor.

The housing boom was initially great for states such as California, Nevada, and Florida. State and municipal coffers overflowed, unemployment shrank, and local governments spent their tax revenue windfalls on pay hikes and pension increases for their public employees. But when the boom dried up in those parts of the country, so too did the tax revenues, forcing tax rate hikes and cuts to essential public services—especially education and infrastructure.

In contrast to those doom and gloom head-lines, a much different trend was developing in interior states such as North Dakota, Indiana, and Texas. They survived the housing crisis relatively unscathed, avoiding mass foreclosures and bud-getary chaos. As a result they've had the money to retrain workers and offer tax incentives to companies willing to relocate. Coupled with the recent booms in natural gas and oil extraction and a resurgence in manufacturing, these states are poised to become the new powerhouses of the American economy.

Whitney offers a sobering vision of the next few decades, with the coastal states continuing to struggle while the central corridor contin-ues to thrive. She explores the consequences of roughly half the country stuck in a vicious cycle of decline while the other half enjoys a virtuous circle of growth.

Whitney also offers practical ideas to help the struggling parts of the country—before the fate of the states becomes irreversible.

About Meredith Whitney

Meredith Whitney is the founder and CEO of the investment firm Meredith Whitney Advisory Group, LLC. Before founding the Meredith Whitney Advisory Group, she was a managing director and a senior analyst for Oppenheimer & Co., where she attracted national attention for her predictions about housing prices, the mortgage industry, and the coming financial crisis. She has appeared on Fortune magazine's list of the fifty most powerful women in business for four consecutive years. In 2009 Time magazine also recognized her as one of the one hundred most influential people in the world.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Olga on June 09, 2013

Oh, the world according to Wall Street. How counter intuitive you are. Immigrants come to the US for the sole purpose of owning a home. Yet they are also completely unattached, so when housing prices drop, they instantly pack up and leave. The history of states' shifts in fortune revolves around cha......more

Goodreads review by Erik on February 15, 2021

Very sobering. Worth the read.......more

Goodreads review by Malin on November 26, 2013

The housing boom in the early 2000's was great for the sun states such as California, Nevada, Arizona, and Florida. Unemployment decreased, Real Estate prices soared, municipal tax revenue increased..and local governments splurged on pay raises for government employees and unsustainable pensions. W......more

Goodreads review by Joseph on May 14, 2015

One star for the writing style. 3 stars for the thesis. It is obvious no one edited this book. The amount of repetition is staggering--grandfather's homespun folksy wisdom, statistics that are repeated and a myriad of cliches ("A bad quarter becomes a catastrophic one on the turn of a dime if a comp......more

Goodreads review by Rebecca on September 03, 2013

I enjoyed this book but found the excitement of the boom happening in the "flyover" states to be troubling as a solution. Boom then bust is the way it goes, and I would expect those states to live in the flush of money and boom times much as the now debt ridden states have. I also don't feel privati......more