13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown

Simon Johnson · James Kwak

Mar 2010 · Vintage

About this ebook

In spite of its key role in creating the ruinous financial crisis of 2008, the American banking industry has grown bigger, more profitable, and more resistant to regulation than ever. Anchored by six megabanks whose assets amount to more than 60 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, this oligarchy proved it could first hold the global economy hostage and then use its political muscle to fight off meaningful reform. 13 Bankers brilliantly charts the rise to power of the financial sector and forcefully argues that we must break up the big banks if we want to avoid future financial catastrophes.
 
Updated, with additional analysis of the government’s recent attempt to reform the banking industry, this is a timely and expert account of our troubled political economy.

Ratings and reviews

It seems clear since Congress, Fed approving, and Treasury assisting, all gave the okay for banks to grow beyond the cap of 4% of GDP for commercial banks and 2% of GDP for investment banks that the banks are being assisted in becoming too big to fail. I also agree that Paul Krugman had it exactly correct when he said that this is a plan to socialize the losses while privatizing the profits.

About the author

Simon Johnson is Ronald A. Kurtz Professor of Entrepreneurship at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and a senior fellow of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He is coauthor, with James Kwak, of The Baseline Scenario, a leading economic blog, described by Paul Krugman as “a must-read” and by Bill Moyers as “one of the most informative news sites in the blogosphere.”
 
James Kwak is an Associate Professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law. He previously co-founded Guidewire Software.
 
Visit the authors' blog at baselinescenario.com.