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Stress Test
- Reflections on Financial Crises
- Narrated by: Timothy F. Geithner
- Length: 18 hrs and 23 mins
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Stress Test
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Summary
New York Times Bestseller
Washington Post Bestseller
Los Angeles Times Bestseller
Stress Test is the story of Tim Geithner’s education in financial crises. As president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and then as President Barack Obama’s secretary of the Treasury, Timothy F. Geithner helped the United States navigate the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, from boom to bust to rescue to recovery. In a candid, riveting, and historically illuminating memoir, he takes readers behind the scenes of the crisis, explaining the hard choices and politically unpalatable decisions he made to repair a broken financial system and prevent the collapse of the Main Street economy. This is the inside story of how a small group of policy makers—in a thick fog of uncertainty, with unimaginably high stakes—helped avoid a second depression but lost the American people doing it. Stress Test is also a valuable guide to how governments can better manage financial crises, because this one won’t be the last.
Stress Test reveals a side of Secretary Geithner the public has never seen, starting with his childhood as an American abroad. He recounts his early days as a young Treasury official helping to fight the international financial crises of the 1990s, then describes what he saw, what he did, and what he missed at the New York Fed before the Wall Street boom went bust. He takes readers inside the room as the crisis began, intensified, and burned out of control, discussing the most controversial episodes of his tenures at the New York Fed and the Treasury, including the rescue of Bear Stearns; the harrowing weekend when Lehman Brothers failed; the searing crucible of the AIG rescue as well as the furor over the firm’s lavish bonuses; the battles inside the Obama administration over his widely criticized but ultimately successful plan to end the crisis; and the bracing fight for the most sweeping financial reforms in more than seventy years. Secretary Geithner also describes the aftershocks of the crisis, including the administration’s efforts to address high unemployment, a series of brutal political battles over deficits and debt, and the drama over Europe’s repeated flirtations with the economic abyss.
Secretary Geithner is not a politician, but he has things to say about politics—the silliness, the nastiness, the toll it took on his family. But in the end, Stress Test is a hopeful story about public service. In this revealing memoir, Tim Geithner explains how America withstood the ultimate stress test of its political and financial systems.
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Critic reviews
A Financial Times Best Book of 2014
“He’s written a really good book — we might as well get that out of the way, as so much else about Timothy F. Geithner remains unsettled… There’s hardly a moment in Geithner’s story when the reader feels he is being anything but straightforward — a near-superhuman feat for someone who spent so much time in public life defending himself from careless and dishonest personal attacks. The decisions he made are easier to criticize than they are to improve upon. I doubt many readers will put his book down and think the man did anything but his best. On his feet he might have stammered and wavered. That in itself was always a sign he was unusually brave.” –Michael Lewis, New York Times Book Review
“An intimate take on the financial crisis… gripping… conveys in visceral terms just how precarious things were during the crisis, just how frightened many first responders were, and just what an achievement it was to avert a major depression… [Geithner] demonstrates that he can discuss economics in an accessible fashion, making the situation the country faced in 2008 and 2009 tactile, comprehensible—and harrowing—to the lay reader. Along the way, he also gives us a telling portrait of himself.” –New York Times
“A how-to manual for anyone faced with a financial crisis… Mr Geithner was known for his brutal candor, and as an author, he does not disappoint.” —The Economist
What listeners say about Stress Test
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- J D A LAING
- 14-04-23
Timothy ( Public Servant )
What a great book on the Financial crisis from a real insider. It gives a real sense of the crisis and the poltics. Sadly it also highlights that poltics may ultimately bring the Financial system down. Timothy is clearly a public servant who cares about society and the impact on ordinary people in the USA.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jyde
- 30-03-21
You're my guy!
I thoroughly enjoyed this. The gist, the narration (none other could have conveyed it better than Mr Geithner!), and the lessons. I told someone it felt like watching a thriller, only it was financial and it wasn't a movie.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- sam
- 07-02-19
made me reconsider everything
great book and tells the strory form a completly differeent perspective and how there are still flaws in the system.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Hydrazine
- 14-01-15
Fascinating insight into the Financial Crisis
The inside story of the mainly successful attempt the U.S. took to deal with the financial crisis. I ended up feeling genuinely sorry for Geithner who took enormous flack from both left and right whilst just trying to do the best he could.
Some people complain about the narration of this book but I always prefer to hear the author's own voice. While Geithner will hardly get an Oscar for his reading, his style is nonetheless pleasant enough and the story compelling enough to keep you listening.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Nemat
- 30-12-15
Worth listening
One of the best books on financial crisis 2007-2009 written by an insider of the whole process.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Derek
- 08-09-16
Great insight into a policy makers thoughts
This helps the reader understand this policy makers decision making process, and Geithner does so I'm a very straightforward and logical way. While not a great reader, this audiobook has an extra dimension as it's read by the author.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Cal C
- 25-02-15
Excellent book
Prerequisite for anyone wanting a good record of one of the most damaging financial crisis in recent times. The window into how Washington works and the politics that followed .
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
- Giuseppe
- 07-03-15
Boring
Self promoting uninteresting book. Not fun to read. Trying to justify the mistakes made in the office. Not worth buying.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- researchschoar
- 21-09-14
Grt story spoiled by dull narration style
Would you try another book written by Timothy F. Geithner or narrated by Timothy F. Geithner?
Yes
Who was your favorite character and why?
Its abt american response to economic crises
What didn’t you like about Timothy F. Geithner’s performance?
Robotic and dull narration style of the book
Any additional comments?
Narrater's skills can make or break th success of the book
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Hasnat Safder
- 22-08-19
Far too liberal and polictically biased
The book was good in substance, sharing some very good stories and ideas of 2008 financial crisis and recovery after that. However the writer was too leftist in his ideas and extremely critical of republican party.
Also Timothy Geithner criticized all the ideas that he did not agreed with, some of those actually were pretty decent and worked out well in the end.
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