In the wake of the financial crisis of 2008, the largest
banks at its center have emerged bigger, more profitable,
and more resistant to regulation, even as they continue to
wield power in Washington. Without an effective government
crackdown on their deleterious, conventional practices,
these banks—“too big to fail” and holding the global economy
hostage—threaten to create yet another crippling economic
downturn. The choice that our political and economic system
faces is stark: accede to the vested interests of an
unfettered financial sector that runs up profits in good
years and dumps its losses on taxpayers in lean years, or
reform, through stringent regulation, the banking system as
an engine of economic growth.
In 13
Bankers, Simon Johnson—one of the most prominent
economists in America (former chief economist of the
International Monetary Fund, professor of entrepreneurship
at MIT, and author of the controversial and much debated
“The Quiet Coup” in The Atlantic)—and James Kwak
examine not only how Wall Street’s ideology, wealth, and
political power among policy makers in Washington led to the
financial debacle of 2008, but also what the lessons learned
portend for the future. To restore health and balance to our
economy, they argue, we must confront the political force of
big finance and reverse the inside-the-Beltway consensus
that what is good for Wall Street is good for Main Street.
Lucid, authoritative, and crucial for its
timeliness, 13 Bankers is certain to be one of the
most discussed books of the season.
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