13 Bankers

[kent nickell]

This is a new book just out by Simon Johnson... here are some reviews..


"The best explanation yet for how the smart guys on Wall Street led us to the brink of collapse. In the process, Johnson and Kwak demystify our financial system, stripping it down to expose the ruthless power grab that lies at its center."
Elizabeth Warren, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School; and Chair, TARP Congressional Oversight Panel

"Too many discussions of the Great Recession present it as a purely economic phenomenon - the result of excessive leverage or errors of monetary policy or algorithms run mad. Simon Johnson was the first to point out that this was and is a crisis of political economy. His and James Kwak's analysis of the unholy intertwining of Washington and Wall Street - a cross between the Gilded Age and a banana republic - is essential reading."
Niall Ferguson, Professor of History, Harvard University; Professor, Harvard Business School; and author of 'The Ascent of Money'

"Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand what comes next for the world economy. Dangerous and reckless elements of our financial sector have become too powerful and must be reined in. If this problem is not addressed there is serious trouble in all our futures."
Nouriel Roubini, Professor of Economics, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University; and Chairman of Roubini Global Economics

"Beautifully written and powerful. Ties the current financial crisis to a cycle of politics as old as the Republic, and to a pathology in our politics that is as profound as any that our Republic has faced. Required reading for the president, and for anyone else who cares for this Republic."
Lawrence Lessig, Director of the Edmond J Safra Foundation Center for Ethics, Harvard University

 

[kent nickell]

Re: 13 Bankers

13 Bankers is a new book out by Simon Johnson (current MIT professor of entrepreneurship and past chief economist at the IMF) and James Kwak (software entrepreneur). The Huffington Post has had persistent good reporting on the economic crises.

""Prescient and powerful, 13 Bankers, provides a battle plan for the fight to ensure that America's 'too big to fail' megabanks will no longer be able to hold the global economy hostage while accumulating record profits, doling out obscene bonuses, and spending millions of dollars on lobbying to gut financial reform. Johnson and Kwak demonstrate that what is good for Wall Street is decidedly not good for Main Street, and they present a bracing - and at times frightening - analysis of how Big Finance had undermined our political system. Most important, they offer specific proposals for turning things around. Our future depends on fixing our financial system; 13 Bankers shows us how.""
-- Arianna Huffington