About this ebook
How come bankers take the profits while we take the risks?
Checking the Banks is an easy-to-read primer on how a bank—and the banking system—works. Complex ideas, like what is a bank’s capital, along with leverage, risk-weighting, and repo transactions are explained and made simple.
Want to understand how banks work?
Want to know what’s wrong with the banking system?
“Tom Sgouros offers a sorely-needed set of recipes for building financial institutions that respond to the needs of our economy and the desires of our citizens—from credit unions to cooperatives, and from special-purpose municipal authorities to full-fledged public banking institutions.”
There has never been a more important time for people to understand how the financial system works… and why it doesn’t.
"Checking the Banks really teaches - in a clear and straightforward way - what the banking system is and how it works. Readers learn without impenetrable academic jargon or patronizing assurances that all is well in your friendly bankers' hands. A financial system that serves the system's growing inequalities is exposed for those who want to understand what so badly needs change."
—Richard D. Wolff, Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Visiting Professor, New School University, New York
“This is a marvelous book! Well-written—even enjoyable to read—about local banking! Packed with important information, not only for the expert, but for anyone, activist or public official, Put it on top of your reading pile!”
— Gar Alperovitz, author of What Then Must We Do?
“A clear, accessible, practical, grounded, and authoritative intro- duction to how banks account for their use of your money.”
— David Korten, author of Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth
What do they think they’re doing?
The global network of banks, brokers, funds, dealers, servicers, and all the rest is a marvel of the 21st century—for better and frequently worse. In the aftermath of the worst financial crisis in a generation, there has never been a more important time to understand how the system works... and why it doesn’t.
Checking the Banks is an easy-to-read primer on how a bank—and the banking system—works. Complex ideas, like bank capital, leverage, risk-weighting, and repo transactions are explained in clear, understandable language.
This is a book for:
People who want to understand banks Activists determined to change them Reformers seeking to build alternatives
Ratings and reviews
About the author
Tom Sgouros is a freelance researcher and writer about
public policy, statistics, software and assorted other technical topics.
His clients range from candidates for office, to advocacy groups and
Fortune 500 companies. In Rhode Island, he has done policy work with
Ocean State Action, Working Rhode Island, and the Sierra Club, among
several others. He edits the Rhode Island Policy Reporter, and writes a
newspaper column that appears regularly in ten newspapers around the
state, and irregularly in several others. He has also worked as an an
engineer, videographer, fire-eater, circus producer, and robot
impresario. He lives with his wife and two daughters, by the seashore,
on RIPTA’s number 14 bus line.
