Rating: 
Summary: Not bad, but a bit long winded.
Review: If you've never thought about corruption in corporations and the government, then read this book cover to cover. If you've already heard some cautionary tales, then this book may be a bit long winded for you. I was cheering right along with Arianna Huffington for about three quarters of the book, but then fell out of interest as it just kept *going*. I guess that's partially the fault of the subject matter -- there's just so much ground to cover.In any case, this is a great book for anyone who is a bit naive about the corporate shenanigans of late. It's also a good read for those who believe that capitalism or the trickle down effect will improve life overall. It's true that these things would work in principle...it's the practice that merits attention. Also good for anyone who needs to get really worked up about lobbyists, congressmen, and corrupt corporations.
Rating:
Summary: A book about crime, not just about money
Review: It is difficult to believe that some of the reviewers here have actually read "Pigs at the Trough." While they offer personal criticisms of the author herself, they say little about the book she's written. "Pigs at the Trough" does, stylistically, contain some cliche phrases (the counting of cliches having been mentioned by another reviewer, who has obviously taken up the practice as presented by Martin Amis in his excellent book, "The War Against Cliche"). I attribute some of the cliches, however, to the fact that Ms. Huffington's writing is more like journalism than literature, much more about frank criticism that subtle, ironic remarks (of the sort found in papers like "The Guardian," for example). Ms. Huffington's aim in "Pigs at the Trough" is to present the facts (and they are facts) on corporate crimes, and to introduce the reader to those who commit them. "Pigs at the Trough" does not, in my opinion, come across as an attack on all businessmen or on wealthy people. This book is not focused on the fact that these businessmen are wealthy so much as the criminal ways in which they've managed to obtain that wealth. Americans need to be more aware the shamelessly illegal ways in which some businessmen, often CEOs, have obtained (I cannot say "earned") their fortunes. The businessmen mentioned in "Pigs at the Trough" did not accumulate wealth through an honest work ethic, but out of exploitation, fancy accounting, and the circumvention of laws. They go unpunished for it, and Americans let them. Yes, there are - obviously - business people in America who live very comfortably and have accumulated their wealth honestly and did not commit crimes in the name of money. These people are not the focus of "Pigs at the Trough", and rightly so. This is an excellent read, especially if - like me - you have not managed to keep a running tally (and it would be such a lengthy one) of all of the corporate crimes you've heard of, or if you've not memorized all of the names of CEOs who ought to be in prison. Even the daily newspapers that bring us Enron and WorldCome scandal coverage don't often delve deeply into what exactly a CEO going before Congree has done over the years. "Pigs at the Trough" is a blunt and effective debriefing on crime for which we are all long overdue.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is fantastic will make your blood boil
Review: Look, I don't know what's up with the personal attack in the previous reviewer's review.. I had never heard of her before, but I guess some people don't like her out of the box. I can only talk about the book. This book will make your blood boil. It lays out fact after fact about HOW corporate America is destroying our Constitution and WHO is doing it: the nuts and bolts. She names names and peppers the book with side bars that make it very, very readable. This is maybe one of the three best books I've read about how America REALLY works. Normally I would just dismiss as propaganda the idea that Big Pharma conspired to let AIDS sweep through Africa.. I am just not that cynical, but she lays it out as a matter of public record how they did just that. Did you know that the average (useless) CEO makes 500 TIMES - not percent but TIMES - what the average worker at the same company makes and IF you're one of the CEOs that drove their company into the ground ala Enron it's many many times that 500 times. She makes a compelling case when she says that corporate America is determined to turn our country into a nation of haves and have nots. Have healthcare? Have a job? Have enough food in your 'fridge or maybe you're one of the 25% of all working people who LINE UP FOR FOOD AT FOOD BANKS.. it's happening people. I didn't know how bad it had gotten, but this book really radicalized me.
Rating:
Summary: Riotous
Review: Mercifully, Arianna injects enough humor into this book to keep the reader out of the inevitable funk that would come from the revelations inside. Well done.
Rating:
Summary: 8 Stars
Review: Ms Huffington is a godsend and proves that not all wealthy people are apathetic or greedy. Like Wealth and Our Commonwealth : Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes by author William H. Gates (Bill Gates Dad) , Chuck Collins she knows that corporate as well as most really rich people as individuals be they conservative or liberal are the biggest welfare pigs around. And I only hope she writes a follow up book with serious suggestions on how we as a country and as voters can get some serious changed done via Congress. This is a book any one who really cares about where this country is going will or should want to read. By a copy and donate it to your local library! Please.... Buy both books.
Rating:
Summary: What a great read!
Review: Ms. Huffington calls a spade a spade in this witty but important text. She writes courageously and passionately about a subject or great importance to the American people -- how corporate greed and crime are undermining the very structure of our nation. Every American Patriot who cares about their country should read this. Think about this book when you pay your taxes this Spring -- how many tax loopholes are you able to take advantage of compared to the millionaires described in this book? When you read about the corporate shenangigans being tolerated by our government, your blood will boil!
Rating:
Summary: BRAVO!
Review: Ms. Huffington is a God-send to a stunned, manipulated and often apathetic nation. Like maverick Senator John McCain she is trying valiantly to warn us to come to our senses before it is too late. I've heard she plans a college tour: PLEASE GO! Perhaps this next generation will do what the latest has so badly failed to do: clean up the corruption in Washington and on Wall Street, so that the rest of us get a fair shake. This woman deserves admiration and support for sharing what she has seen first hand. I admire her.
Rating:
Summary: Wake Up Call
Review: Ms. Huffington is both entertaining and thought provoking. Some of what she writes may seem outrageous, but one gets the feeling it is meant to be. It seems her intent is to shake America out of its complacency, and she hits home. For a look at hidden risks for fees in banking, hedge funds, and corporations, I recommend a book on off-balance sheet financing's hidden risks: "Credit Derivatives" by Tavakoli.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining & Important.
Review: Pigs at the Trough, by Arianna Huffington is a marvelous book. I have been following her writing for several years now and it just gets better and better. Arianna has great instincts and knows how to go straight for the kill. In this excellent book she exposes the hypocritical big corporations and their handsomely over-paid CEOs for the lying, stealing, cheating, money-grubbing turkeys that they so often are. My husband, Tom, is a writer too, most recently Safe Sex in the Garden, from Ten Speed Press, and he writes mostly about the impact of male landscapes on human health. As such he's often accused of being too political for a garden writer, but being too political is never a problem for Arianna Huffington! It would be hard to get more political than she. And more power to her too. If you consider her background (she is the former wife of the conservative Republican congressional candidate Michael Huffington) it is impressive to see how far she has come with her thinking. If you have never read any of her material I think you're in for a pleasant surprise. Her writing is chock full of solid content, liberally sprinkled with deliciously deadly tidbits and insider tips and news, and is always a total kick to read. Arianna is the ultimate insider these days and she seems to have access to more VIPs than almost any other writer I know of now. In Pigs at the Trough she really lays it to the big time creeps of corporate corpulence. She pulls no punches, names names, lets it all hang out. This is a very radical book by a highly skilled and super savvy intelligent political thinker and I hope it goes all the way to the top of the bestsellers list. The grand canyon of a divide that now exists between the rich and the rest of us, this unholy difference is terrible and getting worse. In America today there may not be a single problem we face as a nation and a people that is more important to our future than this huge difference in pay, in living standards. Perhaps most of what Pigs at the trough is about is fairness, or the lack of it. Today, as our brave soldiers fight onward in Iraq, we all ought to be thinking about what we can do to make this a country where all men (and women too!) really are equal. Shoot, forget about equal, what if we were all just in the same ballgame? Does a do-nothing CEO really need to make 20+ million dollars a year when the working poor (often working several jobs) are lucky to make 20 thousand in a year? Do these corporate con men need to own six yachts and ten humongous houses while the rest of us struggle to own our own humble homes? I don't think so. My hat is off to Arianna Huffington for this remarkable exposé book!
Rating: 
Summary: How These Pigs Fly High
Review: Prior to the 1860s only businesses that served the public could be incorporated. With diversified ownership management became separated from ownership and the scandals began. Greed arises from human nature when there is little control or regulation. The "Introduction" shows how top management can squander resources when ownership is so diluted that the owners can't control management. If a privately owned company did this, there would be no publicly owned shares that lose value. Borrowed money must be repaid; corporate bonds are preferable to shares. Today's scandals echo those from the Gilded Age. One difference is the lack of small family farms; that Frontier has been closed. The lack of a political party to represent the interests of the common people is shown by the absence of half the voters at the polls. This book does not tell why CEOs were rewarded for failures and losses (p.40). Are stock options deductible business expenses to lower taxes? Does this inflate reported earnings? The accounting scandals resulted from changed rules. The 401K plan was to provide additional retirement income, but many companies are doing away with defined benefit pensions. There is a tax avoidance scam when relocating a corporation offshore (pp.55-8). Arianna's complaints about CEOs in the Bush Administration overlooks past history going back to Washington's day. The function of "Chainsaw Al" was to purge the mistakes of past management to prevent bankruptcy; senior management keep their hands clean. "The Bloodless Coup" tells of further oppression of "low to middle-class people" (p.80). Payoffs or "lobbying" also goes back to the 1870s and the rise of corporations. Arianna suggests the "banquet of greed" is a new thing; "The Monied Metropolis" proves otherwise. "Wealth and Democracy" shows it going on since the 19th century. Closeness to government power translates to wealth and subsidies, franchises, monopolies, etc. The Glass-Steagal Act regulated investment banks and their analysts; it was gone in the mid 1990s (p.155). Doesn't the Internet stock craze echo the Railroad companies of the 1870s and their Federal Land Grants? New York residents can thank Eliot Spitzer for prosecuting crooks who rob you with a fountain pen (pp.165-7). Page 169 tells how the "pump and dump" worked at CNBC. The chart on pages 176-181 will help you to learn "new speak". "The Binge and the Reckoning" notes the consequences of prior actions. Destroying the regulations from the 1930s led to the 1990s binge (pp.213-4); are we in another Depression? Why were there no reforms passed after the ENRON scandal? The Corporations were against it (p.215)! Page 231 lists some of the likely suspects: Cheney, Corzine, Rubin, White. Their playmates are: Tom Daschle, Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy (p.234). Pages 239-246 list specific corporate reforms that are needed (not ordered by priority). But would the corporations allow their politicians to do this? Page 248 shows what an informed fund manager can accomplish. California stopped investing in corporations that have off-shore tax havens. CALPERS will not use banks that do not separate research from banking (p.253). Using tax credits, incentives, and subsidies for socially conscious companies sounds good, but who will decide (p.255)? Wouldn't this plan aggrandize an already too powerful Imperial Presidency? Two dozen groups involved in "political and corporate reform" are listed but not rated (pp.259-264).
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