Squandering Aimlessly: On the Road with the Host of Public Radio's "Marketplace"

by Brancaccio, David

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Simon & Schuster, 2000. Hardcover. Very Good. Great book! Mild shelf wear on dj, remainder mark on edge, no markings in text. Amazon: David Brancaccio's Squandering Aimlessly is a rare treat--an insightful look at economic matters that is also a terrific read. Through his award-winning Marketplace radio program, Brancaccio has become a popular commentator with a distinctive take on financial issues. In his first book, he smoothly transfers this perspective to the description of an entertaining literary pilgrimage designed to answer the eternal question "How should one spend an unexpected windfall?" It was, after all, a query Brancaccio felt compelled to explore. "As host of a public radio program about money, I am asked all the time about what to do with it," he writes. "I needed to answer that question for myself before I could have anything meaningful to say about other people's money."\n\nIn a journey as personal as it is universal, Brancaccio crisscrosses America to examine possible responses to a monetary bolt from the blue: "spend it on a shopping spree, do good, start a business, gamble with it, give it away, invest it in the markets, buy a house, go back to school, retire early, save it for a rainy day." Hooking up with an array of savvy individuals who are focused upon these divergent alternatives, he ultimately discovers that true fiscal fulfillment is achieved only when individual needs and wants are really understood and successfully balanced. More to the immediate point, however, he also uncovers a perfect way to judge the expenditure of any honest-to-goodness surplus: the ability to answer yes when asked if the money's use, whatever it is, will have a lasting, positive impact on your life. --Howard Rothman\n\nFrom Publishers Weekly\nBrancaccio writes like the public radio broadcaster he is (on the show Marketplace), in slow, even tones, savoring every detail of his stories, in firm control of where he is going but in no hurry to get there. This is not a book you attack, but one you surrender to. In fact, so easy is it to read that when you put it down after the last page, you will have no idea if you have painlessly learned anything or have just been entertained. The book consists of 10 travel vignettes arranged around the topic of spending money. Brancaccio wonders what he would do with a sudden windfall: save, spend, invest, retire, give it away or something else. For each answer he travels to various places to experiment and discuss the solution with people he meets. Having secured an advance for this very book, he goes to Minnesota's Mall of America to shop, to Las Vegas to gamble, to Levittown to investigate buying a house. Each story ends with morals, souvenirs and life resolutions. The author is intensely introspective and easily disoriented, so an ordinary trip to a mall seems psychedelic; Las Vegas, Silicon Valley and Wall Street seem like other galaxies. The only fixed referents in this world are eccentric individuals and attitudes toward money. Brancaccio is deliberately impressionable, and he has a knack of discovering interesting attitudes, empathizing with them completely and then analyzing them. He finds that generosity is common, as are guilt, insecurity, confusion and regret. However, there is very little of either greed or indifference. Perhaps the most important message of the book is that no one seems to have a good answer to the question of what to do with money. Neither professional money managers, professional thinkers nor gamblers have the secret. The people Brancaccio meets who are happy and secure do not worry much about money, but seem to have enough (everyone else has a problem, either financial or emotional or both)--but the cause and effect of this relation is not clear. (Feb.) \nCopyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. ISBN: 0684864983.

Book summary

In this lighthearted, but information-packed book, a public radio commentator guides readers through his personal journey to understand and manage money. As he makes a pilgrimage through American financial centers and icons, the author reconciles his developing fiscal sensibilities with his long-held views on social responsibility.

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