Rating: 
Summary: Missed Potential
Review: Huffington's "Pigs at the Trough" had the potential to be one of the most important books on political/corporate corruption this decade. Unfortunately, while this text is well researched, it is also loaded with obnoxious "whit," completely biased personal commentary, and a train of thought that is difficult to follow. A book on this subject matter SHOULD be better than the work Huffington has produced. It seems clear that, at least, this author is incapable of such writing.
Rating: 
Summary: Information: good; Presentation: average
Review: Huffington's book collects a laundy list of corporate-executive outrages conveniently in one location... but that's all it does.
Most of the compensation and under-the-table dealings are presented clearly and backed up with solid evidence, but it's all in the form of anecdotes. The information is packaged in 2- to 3-page mini-essays (one per corporate pig), and each paragraph follows the same pattern: a couple sentences of exposition and always a sarcastic bon mot to wrap it up.
Basically, Huffington's writing is just a transcription of spoken interview-style comments: short, pithy, and capped with a memorable sound bite. This works well on radio and TV, but it makes written prose seem choppy and unfocused.
This does not detract from the validity of her accounts, mind you; there's no doubt that CEOs are basically running the economy for their own benefit at the expense of the rest of us. The favors they do themselves and each other are fully documented here and should galvanize the working class to action.
Unfortunately, Huffington makes little effort to weave any kind of coherent theme or overarching pattern into these anecdotes. They stand alone as specific complaints, and the final section on "what action is needed" reflects this lack of deeper analysis. The call to action seems limp, consisting of little more than a generic "get involved" message and a list of grassroots-action groups you can join. These are worthy causes, beyond doubt-but Huffington doesn't really have anything new to say about economic abuses that are (by now) common knowledge.
Rating: 
Summary: Arianna at the Trough
Review: I browsed through the book and, sadly, it appears to be... incomplete. To my extreme disappointment, there was nothing on Arianna's own taking advantage of the numerous tax loopholes she is taking advantage of when filing her own taxes.I believe Arianna has at least 2 more books in her: "How to Marry THE RICH and Then Walk Away With a Lot of Their Money" and, of course, "Arianna at the Trough" or "How, Once Having Joined THE RICH, to Take Advantage of Every Single Tax Loophole Available and Perhaps Lobby for a Few More"
Rating: 
Summary: If The Good Lord Thought Money was Important,
Review: I can remember Bret Maverick observing that "My old pappy always said that 'if the Good Lord thought money was important, He would a given it to a whole better class of people.'" Well, the class of people that Arianna talks about in her book is not very good; as a matter of fact, by calling them porkers, she gives them too much credit. I believe a pig will actually stop short of eating itself to death. These jaspers evidently cannot. So maybe pigs ought to feel offended by the comparison. This book made me feel a whole lot better about being poor. I now feel smugly superior to Kenny Boy Ley, Bernie Ebbers, Dennis Kozlowski, Jeff Skilling, Gary Winnick, John Rigas and the rest of the troughateers that have helped harm our country (why aren't your carcasses all rotting in prison?). I can envision Arianna, a beautiful dance hall girl, on the arm of Bret Maverick, listening to his stories attentively then transforming into a modern woman and writing down these tales. Only they are stories from today. But they bespeak a greed that is older than Bret Maverick, even Bret's old pappy. They are stories about the crooked dealers and card sharks that rig the game so as to take the money of honest citizens and cowboys who lack the sophistication to spot their cons. Today the crooked dealer is a research analyst like Jack Grubman who tells the little guy, "yeah the game is honest and you ought buy as many chips as you can." Or it is accounting firms like Arthur Anderson who restate earnings the way a slick cheat shuffles a deck of cards, deftly inserting an ace. Often the stakes are alot more than a cowboy's pay. Often they are the pensions and life savings of honest folk who helped build this country. Always the card cheats were abetted by the sheriff, the mayor and the good people of the community who did nothing. And the cowboy's only recourse was to go for his gun. If he was lucky, he was thrown out of the saloon by the cheats minions; if he wasn't so lucky, he took a slug from a Colt and lay dead in a pool of his own blood. What we need is a good sheriff, and somebody to extoll his virtue and to make us mad at the troughateers. Arianna introduces a good sheriff, Eliot Spitzer (Guys named Eliot are good at this sort of thing. Eliot Ness did it to Al Capone but that was on another early 1960's ABC series, and I don't want to mix my metaphors). Anyway, Spitzer can't be bought, and "so far" he can't be shot. He is dong a pretty good job. He has got the card cheat Grubman, and we, the citizens, are aware the casino/saloon is crooked, or at least some of its dealers are crooked. Meanwhile, the Anderson gang has been busted up, and the troughateers run out of town (I still wish they were all in jail). But Arianna warns, and we know, that there are alot more troughateers out there. Theirs is a venality too oft replicated in the gene pool to be removed. As long as we have people, and things are run by people, it will exist. Next week there will be another episode of Maverick and perhaps Arianna or some other dance hall girl will absorb the wisdom of Bret's (or Bart's, I liked Jack Kelly too) next little soliloquy on the nature of human weakness. They will write it down, and we will be closer by an asymptote to curing this human condition.
Rating:
Summary: Waking up the American people
Review: I had heard of this book, and 'on a lark' bought it. Reading this was a real educational event. EVERY AMERICAN should read this. Mrs. Huffington, gives names of CEO's that have been convicted, ones investigated, outlines what they did to amass their fortunes. Mrs. Huffington (who is a Rhodes Scholar), explains corrupt methods, used by many of these CEO's, in a such plain terms, anyone should be able to understand. How did you lose your 401K, you pension, why did your job go overseas? Let me quote from the excellent book: [quote]
"Since the beginning of the new century [2000], over 570 public companies--including most famously Enron, Global Crossing, Adelphia, WorldCom and Kmart--have declared bankruptcy."
"Nearly $9 trillion in market value has been lost on Wall Street. But while the average American has suffered staggering losses in 401(k) and pension value, and many have struggled to stay afloat, the average CEO has added millions to his personal wealth. In corporate America, apparently, nothing succeeds like utter failure."
"At Enron, after tens of billions of dollars vanished--including over $1 billion in employees' pension funds---and over 4,000 employees had been laid off, Enron's "Kenny Boy" Lay strolled out the door with over $100 million."
" In his last three years at Tyco, Dennis Kozolwski received $466.7 million in salary, bonuses, and perks. He did such a bang-up job that since the summer of 2001, Tyco has closed or consolidated 300 plants and laid off 11,000 workers."
"When Bernie Ebbers resigned from WorldCom--claiming he didn't understand that WorldCom was defrauding investors of $7 billion--and received over $44 million in pay; His severance package promised him $1.5 million a year for the rest of his life, and the use of the WorldCom jet for 30 hours a year. And medical benefits. And life insurance. And a desktop computer."
Source-"Pigs At The Trough"-Arianna Huffington;copyright-2003; ISBN 1-4000-4771-4;-page-38-9 Do you wonder why the price of prescription drugs remain high? [quote]
"The pharmaceutical industry spent a whopping $177 million on lobbying in just the last two years. And of their 623 registered lobbyists, more than half are former members of Congress or former government employees. Which is nice, because if you're a young politician selling off your vote and your integrity, it's easier if there's a seasoned veteran involved who was once in your shoes."
"Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was formerly CEO of drug giant G.D. Searle, and White House Budget Director Mitch Daniels was a senior vice president at Eli Lilly."
Source-"Pigs At The Trough"-Arianna Huffington;copyright-2003; ISBN 1-4000-4771-4;Page-139 Everyone should read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Communist?!
Review: I just read "Pigs" on a cross country flight. I thought it was an excellent analysis of how the U.S. government no longer functions as a democracy. It works like a radio station payola scheme. Inbred corporate directors steal money from investors and workers by giving each other outrageous amounts of money despite poor performance. Some politicians try to pass laws against these abuses, but these corporate govenors fund election campaigns making it impossible to change the system. Huffington lays out the issues that need to be addressed in order to correct these problems and gives out information on groups working to fix these issues.
I find the attack of this being a communist book to be [silly]. Huffington shows ways to make us back into a democracy where our vote counts and competition is fair. Corporate welfare is a form of communism if you ask me.
In regard to the cliches. Huffington uses the same wit that you could see on the Daily Show, or Politically Incorrect. This isn't a masterpiece, but it is a very accessible and useable guide to how our government currently works.
Rating:
Summary: Not Even Great Fiction
Review: I listened to Arianna in a live interview about this book today. She refused to back her accusations with facts when asked multiple times. It sounded as though this author manufactured tripe for tabloid use and not always based in facts. The interviewer read a passage of several sentences from the book. Then asked at least five times "What crimes Jack Welch and other listed had committed." She totally sidestepped and refused to answer any part of her highly charged statements in her book. Arianna even stated that he "...was taking his statements out of context." It sounds as though if you want a conspiracy theory not based in fact this is a read for you. If you looking to find facts about the people who have committed illegal act in our current economy this is not a good read. I am certainly not a defender of the corporate goons of today, but I also have no use for creative writing passed on as facts. This is not right wing nor left wing just pure fantasy. I wanted something with some meat based upon facts. What I found was extreme disappointment while listening to the author dodge several simple questions. Such as what crime did these people commit? I will look elsewhere for the facts, I was not looking for fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Good Collection of Facts
Review: If you have some doubt as to whether and to what extent American corporate management has set new standards for heartless greed and destruction, or whether and to what extent Congress and the federal agencies meant to regulate these corporations are instead working on their behalf to transfer money, power, and protections from the people to the CEOs, this book may change your way of thinking. If you already think the pigs are pigs and the feds are a trough, and you don't want to wallow in it, you won't get as much out of this book. There's no argument for a new way of thinking here. It's just a chronicling of facts, albeit with colorful metaphors sprinkled in. So, it's not really a page-turner, but it is a fine work of reporting on a topic that is extremely hard to communicate. Huffington does as good a job as anyone of describing the mammoth gap between the unimaginably large sums of money stolen by corporate crooks and the petty sorts of crimes that our law enforcement personnel love to prosecute. Huffington names names, good and bad. But she writes, rightly, that what's needed is a popular revolt, not a single knight in shining armor. The one objection I have in this regard, is that she suggests writing your Congress Members to tell them not to pay attention to letter-writing campaigns, because they may have been solicited by lobbying firms. Yes, it's good to be aware that lobbying firms are buying misleading ads that urge people to write to Congress on some issue. But if people fall for such a ploy, they are still people. In the end, urging Congress to pay more attention to letters (and less to dollars) will have a democratic result. Huffington should be telling people to write, fax, Email, phone, and visit.
Rating:
Summary: Small-minded & mean-spirited
Review: If you want a balanced, erudite assessment of corporate corruption & it's effect on America, read David C. Korten's book "When Corporations Rule the World". It's excellent. IMHO, Huffington writes like a tabloid journalist. She's so busy being "cute" or "clever" or shooting "barbs" she fails to make cohesive points. She intersperses her facts with quasi-humble attempts to identify herself as an icon of ethics, however even she realizes that her "Republican bandwagon" years have to be accounted for. So...she mentions that while she was giving speeches from that soapbox, she had the right intentions in her heart. She actually says, "Now, at last, we've discovered the truth" or something to that effect. Korten presents facts, evidence and nicely balanced conclusions. He doesn't find personal attacks necessary to make his points. Huffy spends too much time attacking, mocking & being "superior". Those qualities are identical to the ones espoused by the arrogant CEO's she's writing about. Apparently those qualities are still making money for some people. Save your money - if you're concerned & want the facts, read Korten's book.
Rating:
Summary: A quick read. Loaded with facts and wit.
Review: If you've been reading the news lately, you surely have noticed the string of corporate scandals. What you may not have heard is that much of what the CEO's did -although certainly not all- was actually legal! That's the shameful part of the story.
Ms. Huffington uncovers the corporate/political collusion to rig the game at the direct expense of the public at large and shows the extent to which the problems exist.
It's a fascinating read! My only criticism is that she doesn't put any blame on the public for lazily sitting on the sidelines therby allowing this all to occur.... to our own detriment.
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