Hard Times: Inequality, Recession, Aftermath - Tapa blanda

'If you want to know about the enduring damage that recessions can do in unequal societies, then read this book.' --Thomas Piketty, author of Capital in the 21st Century

'A return to record profits is assumed to be a return to prosperity for all. But Tom Clark has taken that pretty lie and tossed it out the window. It takes an outstanding writer to look at years of data and turn it all into something understandable. Clark does it with gusto.' --Linda Tirado, author of Hand to Mouth

'A sobering examination of rising inequality.' --Lucy Fisher, New Statesman

An analysis of the enduring social costs of the post-2008 economic crisis 2008 was a watershed year for global finance. The banking system was eventually pulled back from the brink, but the world was saddled with the worst slump since the 1930s Depression, and millions were left unemployed. While numerous books have addressed the financial crisis, very little has been written about its social consequences. Journalist Tom Clark draws on the research of a transatlantic team led by Professors Anthony Heath and Robert D. Putnam to determine the great recession's toll on individuals, families, and community bonds in the United States and the United Kingdom. The ubiquitous metaphor of the crisis has been an all-encompassing "financial storm," but Clark argues that the data tracks the narrow path of a tornado-destroying some neighborhoods while leaving others largely untouched. In our vastly unequal societies, disproportionate suffering is being meted out to the poor-and the book's new analysis suggests that the scars left by unemployment and poverty will linger long after the economy recovers. Politicians on both sides of the Atlantic have shown more interest in exploiting the divisions of opinion ushered in by the slump than in grappling with these problems. But this hard-hitting analysis provides a wake-up call that all should heed.