Rating: 
Summary: Clean the sty!
Review: Arianna Huffington's "Pigs at the Trough" is a scathing indictment of the corporate, accounting and investment "pigs" who have gotten fat at the public's expense. The author makes clear that this feeding frenzy has been made possible by their sold-out lackeys in Washington who seem more than willing to pass any laws that the pigs might ask for. While Huffington's profiles of the corporate CEOs who have been the biggest beneficiaries of this rigged game are at turns hilarious and disgusting, her analysis of what this all means for ordinary workers and citizens are sobering.After reading how the pigs perpetrated many of their scams, the reforms suggested by Huffington appear to be logical. You might think that the business community would want to implement like changes in the wake of the stock market implosion in order to restore investor confidence, but it appears not to be the case. Huffington shows how politicians from both parties are skilled at creating legislative loopholes while simultaneously giving lip service to the need for "corporate responsibility". All this suggests that the inability of our nation's institutions to police themselves could lead to even worse abuses in the future. Fortunately, Huffington includes a list of worthy activist organizations in the appendix. Since our elected officials are clearly not willing to clean the sty, it is up to the people to make sure that their voices are heard. To that end, "Pigs at the Trough" will inform, entertain and inspire you to do what needs to be done. Highly recommended!
Rating: 
Summary: Maybe Ms. Huffington should direct her anger elsewhere
Review: Arianna Huffington, the failed gubernatorial candidate in the 2003 California recall campaign, attempts to write a subject to which she has very little actual experience. First, Ms. Huffington's premise is that most corporate executives are greedy and therefore laws need to be enacted to hamstring our managers who wish to exercise the best interest of their shareholders. She does not emphasize how any of her so-called "reforms" will actually benefit long-term shareholders who wish for chief executives to take risks to earn a decent return on their investment. Further, Ms. Huffington fails to emphasize how there are already laws on the books to punish chief executives who have abused the trust positions to which they have been appointed. It is the executive branch's duty to punish those who engange in fraud, something the Bush Administration is already doing. However, we would not hear about that in Ms. Huffington's book, because that would hurt her premise, which is that Bush is in on the fraud too. Most of the research contained in Ms. Huffington's book is related to stories she has read about, not people or companies she has actually chosen to research on her own. As such, practically anyone who has a modicum of research experience could write a similar book of her type -- without having any documentary evidence to prove the assertions made therein. One thing that is most lacking in Ms. Huffington's book is the notion that honest chief executives are able to work on behalf of their shareholders and employees. There is a sense that the position of chief executive necessarily entails a sense of greed that will infect the entire operations of the company. In a sense, by stating that all chief executives are guilty, Ms. Huffington is too leniant towards those truly guilty of malefensense. In truth, the system does work: witness the convictions the U.S. Department of Justice has been able to secure on crooked corporate executives. But the capitalistic system itself--a markedly effecient system where sharehoulders can exercise their disapproval of managers at any time--will carry on despite Ms. Huffington's heckling. One could hope the same could be said about our so-called "great" governmental institutions such as Social Security, the public schools, and the post office.
Rating:
Summary: Maybe Ms. Huffington should direct her anger elsewhere
Review: Arianna Huffington, the failed gubernatorial candidate in the 2003 California recall campaign, attempts to write a subject to which she has very little actual experience. First, Ms. Huffington's premise is that most corporate executives are greedy and therefore laws need to be enacted to hamstring our managers who wish to exercise the best interest of their shareholders. She does not emphasize how any of her so-called "reforms" will actually benefit long-term shareholders who wish for chief executives to take risks to earn a decent return on their investment. Further, Ms. Huffington fails to emphasize how there are already laws on the books to punish chief executives who have abused the trust positions to which they have been appointed. It is the executive branch's duty to punish those who engange in fraud, something the Bush Administration is already doing. However, we would not hear about that in Ms. Huffington's book, because that would hurt her premise, which is that Bush is in on the fraud too. Most of the research contained in Ms. Huffington's book is related to stories she has read about, not people or companies she has actually chosen to research on her own. As such, practically anyone who has a modicum of research experience could write a similar book of her type -- without having any documentary evidence to prove the assertions made therein. One thing that is most lacking in Ms. Huffington's book is the notion that honest chief executives are able to work on behalf of their shareholders and employees. There is a sense that the position of chief executive necessarily entails a sense of greed that will infect the entire operations of the company. In a sense, by stating that all chief executives are guilty, Ms. Huffington is too leniant towards those truly guilty of malefensense. In truth, the system does work: witness the convictions the U.S. Department of Justice has been able to secure on crooked corporate executives. But the capitalistic system itself--a markedly effecient system where sharehoulders can exercise their disapproval of managers at any time--will carry on despite Ms. Huffington's heckling. One could hope the same could be said about our so-called "great" governmental institutions such as Social Security, the public schools, and the post office.
Rating:
Summary: Do we really need to be told this?
Review: Does anybody out there need a book to tell them that CEO's, CFO's etc. are greedy? If you do then this book is for you. For the other 99% let me save you some money. I purchased this book knowing Arianna Huffington to be an ecomomist as the cover points out, however the tone of this book is one of a socialist rather than that of a free market capitalist. She continually gives us news accounts (secondhand none the less) of executives who greedily abuse their power for profit, without any solution other than government regulation. I bought this book hoping to find some insight as to what can be done, and found nothing but news, with the exception of her continued demand for goverment regulation in this arena. It seems that her solution to corporate corruption is to have government regulation to "fix" it. Not somthing an American economist would write, well Mrs. Huffington, went to Cambridge. Perhaps she feels we should model ourselves after the stagnant European economy we passed 25+ years ago as a 200 year old country.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent read that obviously scares the pigs!
Review: Don't let the few negative reviews keep you from this book because the lowest rated reviews for Pigs are coming some seeming real partisan lowlifes. Let's attack her accent, lie about her payment of taxes, lie about her divorce settlement, etc. Don't refute what she's saying, make fun of her. I guess it's more difficult for those with an 8th grade reading capacity to understand these complex issues made easy by Ms. Huffington. For you, there's always the simple thoughts of ann coulter. This book names names and facts. How one reviewer could bag on her for attacking "the successful" is beyond me. It is not hard work that drives someone to take out millions in loans from their company without having to pay them back. it's thievery. Buy this book and enjoy a witty and sharp author who has an economics masters from cambridge, was a part of several think tanks, authored 10 other books, and lays waste to morons like arnold Kindergarten Cop in debates. Beware! you will get mad and want to throw your copy against the wall at the redoubtable corporate greed and excess that we the taxpayer will often bear the burden of. You might want to try the paperback.
Rating: 
Summary: good read but not as invigorating as I expected
Review: Enjoying Huffington's columns, I figured I would really find this book one that I couldn't put down, however it failed to live up to my expectations. The book is 'chock full of facts which are oftentimes very outrageous and raise blood pressure just to discover. Unfortunately, more often than not, Huffington skips a few steps in building the reader up to outrage and how she reached her conclusions weren't obvious and consequently I wasn't as riled up as I felt like I should be. Other reviewers have commented on the introduction of lots of Ariannaisms that are distracting and they're definately there,
but I think that's part of the charm of one of her books. While I wouldn't point someone at this book to try to sway them to Huffington's views, if you're inclined to agree with everything she's saying, I find this to be a worthwhile read, just one with entered into with the correct expectations...
Rating: 
Summary: too little details, too much sarcasm
Review: First of all, 20% of the words in this book seem to be devoted to sarcasm- it was funny at first but then became tiresome. The book follows the pattern of telling you what's wrong, who's guilty, and how much money that person sucked from the American taxpayer. Personally I'm more interested in the details of the loopholes. How do offshore tax havens work? How do corporate lobbyists operate in Washington? These details aren't available in Pigs at the Trough.
Rating:
Summary: good intentions, but came up short
Review: First of all, a description of the mess that numerous corporations have gotten this country in to needed to be written. For all of the people that complain about social programs hurting the economy, American based companies that can get out of paying their taxes hurts it a lot more. The author does a good job letting the reader know what these companies have done to us and our economy. She's taking a potentially dry subject and trying to liven it up a little bit. I certainly don't fault her for that, but she doesn't cite any sources in the entire book except for one tiny section of it. There is a lot of specific information and data throughout the book and if she took the time to verify it, she should have included some sort of bibliography or references list. I didn't catch anyone on this list mentioning it, but this is a serious problem that could be used to discredit the book. I really enjoy this woman's insights, but it would have been so easy to say where she got all of the information. I don't understand why she didn't.
Rating:
Summary: Eye opening and depressing
Review: Great information in it. I'm left wondering what anyone can do about it. It's depressing because the citizens of the US can't do a thing to bring about change.
Rating: 
Summary: Scathing Report on Corporate Greed-Well Done!
Review: Huffington starts strong and does not lose momentum in this scathing report of corporate irresponsibility. She definitely did her research for this book, she got down to the nitty-gritty details of the crimes committed by Lay, Kozlowski, and their gang of corrupt CEOs. Huffington's style is very witty, very acerbic, and always makes you think. The little sidebars were very funny: Match the CEO to his yacht, quizzes on the corrupt CEOs, etc. Very funny yet very disturbing--it is unbelievable to read about the extent of these scandals and crimes. Thank you Ms. Huffington for telling everyone what happened!
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