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Predator Nation: Corporate criminals, political corruption, and the hijacking of America
Charles H. Ferguson, who electrified the world with his Oscar-winning documentary Inside Job, now explains how a predator elite took over the country, step by step, and he exposes the networks of academic, financial, and political influence, in all recent administrations, that prepared the predators’ path to conquest.
Over the last several decades, the United States has undergone one of the most radical social and economic transformations in its history.
· Finance has become America’s dominant industry, while manufacturing, even for high technology industries, has nearly disappeared.
· The financial sector has become increasingly criminalized, with the widespread fraud that caused the housing bubble going completely unpunished.
· Federal tax collections as a share of GDP are at their lowest level in sixty years, with the wealthy and highly profitable corporations enjoying the greatest tax reductions.
· Most shockingly, the United States, so long the beacon of opportunity for the ambitious poor, has become one of the world’s most unequal and unfair societies.
If you’re smart and a hard worker, but your parents aren’t rich, you’re now better off being born in Munich, Germany or in Singapore than in Cleveland, Ohio or New York.
This radical shift did not happen by accident.
Over the last several decades, the United States has undergone one of the most radical social and economic transformations in its history.
· Finance has become America’s dominant industry, while manufacturing, even for high technology industries, has nearly disappeared.
· The financial sector has become increasingly criminalized, with the widespread fraud that caused the housing bubble going completely unpunished.
· Federal tax collections as a share of GDP are at their lowest level in sixty years, with the wealthy and highly profitable corporations enjoying the greatest tax reductions.
· Most shockingly, the United States, so long the beacon of opportunity for the ambitious poor, has become one of the world’s most unequal and unfair societies.
If you’re smart and a hard worker, but your parents aren’t rich, you’re now better off being born in Munich, Germany or in Singapore than in Cleveland, Ohio or New York.
This radical shift did not happen by accident.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2012
36 people are currently reading
1191 people want to read
About the author
Charles Ferguson
7 books23 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Charles Ferguson if a film director and producer, software entrepreneur, writer and authority in technology policy. He won an Oscar in 2011 for Inside Job, his documentary on the financial crisis, and was an Oscar nominee for his first documentary, No End in Sight, on the war in Iraq. He has written four books, and is a life member of the Council of Foreign Relations and a director of the French-American Foundation.
Charles Ferguson if a film director and producer, software entrepreneur, writer and authority in technology policy. He won an Oscar in 2011 for Inside Job, his documentary on the financial crisis, and was an Oscar nominee for his first documentary, No End in Sight, on the war in Iraq. He has written four books, and is a life member of the Council of Foreign Relations and a director of the French-American Foundation.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews
April 8, 2013
This outraged screech of fury can now be seen at Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud!
May 20, 2019
Just like the movie Inside Job, this is a really shallow indictment of finance and the financial crisis. Ferguson seems obsessed with a few sellout academics and the bankers that should have gone to jail. I was hoping the book would span out and offer new information, but there was nothing new in here. In fact, a lot of his indictments are not really aimed at the right targets. I think the best explanation for why people were not prosecuted can be found in the legal and regulatory system--read Chickenshit club or the Divide.
June 17, 2013
Predator Nation is the companion book to the Academy Award winning film Inside Job. Both document events that led to the 2007 global economic collapse pinning the blame squarely on deregulation and corrupt and likely criminal behavior by leading financial institutions who:
- Lobbied for (and received) deregulation
- Initiated “liar” loans
- Bundled them into “shitty” tranches
- Colluded with ratings agencies to have them labeled as AAA securities
- Sold them to suckers then bet that they would fail
They took wild risks, leveraging themselves to the hilt, then when the house of cards fell and the global economy was at the point of collapse, they expected and received taxpayer bailouts only to turn around and pay out huge bonuses to the very individuals who instigated the disaster.
Ferguson takes great pains to document the immoral and illegal activity that occurred within financial institutions at every step of the process, yet despite widespread fraud the Obama administration has failed to pursue criminal prosecution and, in fact, has failed to enact meaningful regulatory reform that would prohibit the activities that created the meltdown from occurring again. And in a bitter irony, while the administration pumped billions of dollars to prop up the financial sector, individual home owners who were the victims of predatory lenders were left to be foreclosed upon.
Anyone who still thinks that an unregulated market provides the best means to distribute capital to where it is most effectively utilized after reading this book should have their heads examined. While some small efficiencies are realized through deregulation and the growth of monopolies, these gains are offset many times over by the lack of transparency and the massive corruption that results. In fact, while the financial industry has become highly profitable, most of these profits are made from skimming, taking advantage of market inefficiencies, creation of tax shelters and the charging exorbitant fees. Activities that provide little to no benefit to society. Much of what the financial industry does is parasitic and serves as a boat anchor to true economic growth.
Of course these behaviors are abetted by politicians and academics who accept large cash donations and speaking/consulting fees to parrot industry talking points, write op-ed pieces (which rarely disclose their financial ties) and enact legislation to benefit their corporate paymasters. One doesn’t have to look any further than this to understand the dysfunctional at the heart of our democratic form of governance. And given the fact that the only people who can solve the problem (lawmakers) are the paid lackeys of moneyed interests, it’s difficult to see how it can ever be repaired. Obama, Geithner, Bernanke and the rest blew the single best chance for banking reform, so now we wait for the inevitable next financial crisis (and bailout) while the too-big-to-fail institutions continue to solidify their privileged position and the income inequality gap between the 1% and the 99% continues to rise.
- Lobbied for (and received) deregulation
- Initiated “liar” loans
- Bundled them into “shitty” tranches
- Colluded with ratings agencies to have them labeled as AAA securities
- Sold them to suckers then bet that they would fail
They took wild risks, leveraging themselves to the hilt, then when the house of cards fell and the global economy was at the point of collapse, they expected and received taxpayer bailouts only to turn around and pay out huge bonuses to the very individuals who instigated the disaster.
Ferguson takes great pains to document the immoral and illegal activity that occurred within financial institutions at every step of the process, yet despite widespread fraud the Obama administration has failed to pursue criminal prosecution and, in fact, has failed to enact meaningful regulatory reform that would prohibit the activities that created the meltdown from occurring again. And in a bitter irony, while the administration pumped billions of dollars to prop up the financial sector, individual home owners who were the victims of predatory lenders were left to be foreclosed upon.
Anyone who still thinks that an unregulated market provides the best means to distribute capital to where it is most effectively utilized after reading this book should have their heads examined. While some small efficiencies are realized through deregulation and the growth of monopolies, these gains are offset many times over by the lack of transparency and the massive corruption that results. In fact, while the financial industry has become highly profitable, most of these profits are made from skimming, taking advantage of market inefficiencies, creation of tax shelters and the charging exorbitant fees. Activities that provide little to no benefit to society. Much of what the financial industry does is parasitic and serves as a boat anchor to true economic growth.
Of course these behaviors are abetted by politicians and academics who accept large cash donations and speaking/consulting fees to parrot industry talking points, write op-ed pieces (which rarely disclose their financial ties) and enact legislation to benefit their corporate paymasters. One doesn’t have to look any further than this to understand the dysfunctional at the heart of our democratic form of governance. And given the fact that the only people who can solve the problem (lawmakers) are the paid lackeys of moneyed interests, it’s difficult to see how it can ever be repaired. Obama, Geithner, Bernanke and the rest blew the single best chance for banking reform, so now we wait for the inevitable next financial crisis (and bailout) while the too-big-to-fail institutions continue to solidify their privileged position and the income inequality gap between the 1% and the 99% continues to rise.
December 16, 2015
"Forgive me," Charles Ferguson said when presented with an Oscar for Inside Job. "I must start by pointing out that three years after our horrific financial crisis caused by financial fraud, not a single financial executive has gone to jail, and that's wrong."
When Ferguson said those words I wanted him to name names. Who deserves jail time, and how is he sure of it? In Predator Nation Ferguson answers those questions. Here are two names, just as a teaser: Angelo Mozilo, who cut special loans for Congressmen to win support for his company, Countrywide, and Jimmy Cayne, former CEO of Bear Stearns, who, among other things, is a known pot chain smoker. (Go ahead and type Jimmy Cayne in the search bar and the second suggestion shows "Jimmy Cayne pot." And yet we arrest low-class pot smokers?)
I agree with Ferguson's premise that if we could jail some of the obviously corrupt individuals we would prevent some of the future disasters headed our way. The 2008 crash just proved that they can cheat and get away with it, which will certainly leave a blight on our future.
I'll include Ferguson's final lines here (spoiler alert!), because it has stuck with me. I share his hope:
"America is a remarkable and beautiful country in so many ways. I hope that somewhere in the United States is a courageous young leader in the making, someone who can persuade the American people to rise up and throw the rascals out."
When Ferguson said those words I wanted him to name names. Who deserves jail time, and how is he sure of it? In Predator Nation Ferguson answers those questions. Here are two names, just as a teaser: Angelo Mozilo, who cut special loans for Congressmen to win support for his company, Countrywide, and Jimmy Cayne, former CEO of Bear Stearns, who, among other things, is a known pot chain smoker. (Go ahead and type Jimmy Cayne in the search bar and the second suggestion shows "Jimmy Cayne pot." And yet we arrest low-class pot smokers?)
I agree with Ferguson's premise that if we could jail some of the obviously corrupt individuals we would prevent some of the future disasters headed our way. The 2008 crash just proved that they can cheat and get away with it, which will certainly leave a blight on our future.
I'll include Ferguson's final lines here (spoiler alert!), because it has stuck with me. I share his hope:
"America is a remarkable and beautiful country in so many ways. I hope that somewhere in the United States is a courageous young leader in the making, someone who can persuade the American people to rise up and throw the rascals out."
August 27, 2012
If you're looking for a book that will leave you infuriated and wanting to make changes to this country, then this is definitely it. Ferguson talks about issues that I never thought I would be able to understand (like credit default swaps), but uses language that is simple and concise. I came out not only with a better understanding of economics and present day financial practices, but a more thorough understanding of why the US economy is where it is today. Rather than coming across as some erudite and pretentious scholar, it feels like Ferguson is just your slightly more knowledgeable friend trying to help you wrap your head around the financial crisis. A must read!
July 8, 2012
A very important--and disturbing--book about the corruption of our financial services industry and American decline. Everybody should read this book.
August 24, 2012
This book is a must read for anyone who cares about America and what has happened to it over the last 30 odd years or so. I picked up this book after seeing Charles Ferguson's documentary film Inside Job. I would recommend that you watch that film before reading this book as it is a sort of prequel to the book and it will also allow you to get to know some of the main players in the book. While it is not a prerequisite as the book can, and does, stand alone, I am glad I saw the movie first.
While most books of this nature tend to have a partisan bias I found Mr. Ferguson to be equally critical and disgusted by not only Democrats and Republicans, but also by corporate America, Wall Street, academia, lobbyists, etc. The list could go on but you get the idea. He also, to his credit, blames us, the American people, for not only allowing this to happen by either our apathy or our own self-interest.
Ferguson also is not afraid to name names and to call out the people that he feels are responsible for the mess that we are in right now. Some of these people are, or at least were, friends or associates of his. He also credits individuals who tried to do the right things, to warn us, or the people in power, about what was, and is still, going on. Alas, most of these brave individuals were either ignored, demeaned or marginalized by what can be best described as criminal enterprises (including our government).
Do not read this book right before going to bed as you will not sleep due to your anger and disgust.
While most books of this nature tend to have a partisan bias I found Mr. Ferguson to be equally critical and disgusted by not only Democrats and Republicans, but also by corporate America, Wall Street, academia, lobbyists, etc. The list could go on but you get the idea. He also, to his credit, blames us, the American people, for not only allowing this to happen by either our apathy or our own self-interest.
Ferguson also is not afraid to name names and to call out the people that he feels are responsible for the mess that we are in right now. Some of these people are, or at least were, friends or associates of his. He also credits individuals who tried to do the right things, to warn us, or the people in power, about what was, and is still, going on. Alas, most of these brave individuals were either ignored, demeaned or marginalized by what can be best described as criminal enterprises (including our government).
Do not read this book right before going to bed as you will not sleep due to your anger and disgust.
July 12, 2017
Nonfiction usually annoys me, because all too often I find that the author constantly finds ways to draw attention to themselves at the expense of their point. Ferguson doesn't do this. Far from being annoying, PN is an impassioned, well-researched account of the financial crisis and its accoutrements, and, even more impressively, it managed to get me riled up about and invested in financial policy for the first time ever. I truly do feel more informed and empowered now that I can hold my own on this vitally important and woefully overlooked issue. Really, just thinking about what happened gets me all pissed off and ready to argue to change it for the future. 4/5 for going right over my head with a lot of the financial processes and agencies described in the nitty-gritty sections, but overall a first-rate, worthwhile read.
May 10, 2015
This book gave me cancer... but it's not the author's fault. It's the fault of the selfish, entitled, punk-ass bitches that drove my country down a shithole and are getting away with it. This is a book everyone needs to read STAT, and then get livid, grab some torches and pitchforks, and start a revolution. Both mainstream parties in this nation are worth precisely less than nothing. The lesser of two evils is *still* evil. When will we ever learn? As the author states, let's hope it doesn't take another disaster for people to wake up (God only knows if you or I will actually live through the next one!) Read this book, get PISSED, and then do something about it.
December 5, 2014
Skip chapters 1 & 2 and 9 & 10 and this is an informative book that should be read. The analysis of the parasitic of the financial industry is spot-on. I was a bit put-off by the author's protectionist bent and his nostalgic glorification of pre-1970s USA as a fair and ideal nation. Bullshit. People have always sucked, even in the USA, they just suck in different ways at different times. The framers recognized that people suck, hence the system of checks and balances. I absolutely agree there's a problem, but the solution isn't to hearken back to a time that never existed.
January 25, 2020
Not quite a 2008 Finanical Crisis for Dummies, this is something of a quasi-introductory text, along with a non-attorney's indictment of numerous persons, public and private.
Makes the case that the crisis was caused by numerous defects, including the decades' long process of deregulation, insane incentives in finance, and so on. Conclusively, but briefly, refutes the rightwing mythology that the crisis was caused by too much regulation and the Community Reinvestment Act.
Details involvement in the crisis of mortgage lenders & brokers, old school investment banks, commercial banks, money market funds, private equity funds, hedge funds, the securities ratings firms, the regulators, and the Federal Reserve.
Initially seems to throw the designation criminal around a bit too casually, but the text that follows puts paid to this allegation--there appears to be massive frauds involved, including the upsidedown practice of knowingly selling securities that included defaulted subprime housing notes, but then immediately turning around and investing in abstract securities that relied on predictions that the housing notes aforesaid would in fact default and the securities based thereupon would fail--without notifying their investor clients, the banks, or regulators--and even while putting those same securities up as collateral for money market short-term lending--and even while further allowing the AAA fiction of the captive ratings firms to be published as propaganda in support of the securities aforesaid.
The fact that the financiers responsible paid themselves deferred compensation and bonuses out of federal assistance moneys is simply a punchline and a coda to the enormity of all of it--and, as is usual, the bourgeois press missed the real problems here, pooh-poohing the low-hanging fruit of golden parachutes to the exclusion of more complicated, but more significant issues. Hell, the journalist lays out a moral position by interrogating billion-dollar bonuses; why not get into the meat a bit, then?
Overall, thick like a Kevin Phillips book. As it is not quite an intermediate-level text on the subject, persons with more knowledge than me might find it dull. (Attorneys will be sometimes annoyed by sloppiness within the scope of their balliwick--but this is not intrinsic; the narrative and history of deregulation is what counts here.) Marked by an unnecessary jingoism at times (as the title might indicate), but otherwise generally sympathetic to the OWS movement.
Lotsa data and corporate histories laid down. Critiques both Bush and Obama, while reaching back to Clinton and Reagan. Definitely does not present a fake bilateralism; there's hardly another side to be shown--except to state that everything that occurred was completely lawful. I can live with that, as that transforms crony capitalism into capitalism proper, reserving, of course, the marxist objection that we're not really talking about capitalism, but about speculative trading, which is ancient, even if the abstract derivatives at issue are novelties.
Recommended.
Makes the case that the crisis was caused by numerous defects, including the decades' long process of deregulation, insane incentives in finance, and so on. Conclusively, but briefly, refutes the rightwing mythology that the crisis was caused by too much regulation and the Community Reinvestment Act.
Details involvement in the crisis of mortgage lenders & brokers, old school investment banks, commercial banks, money market funds, private equity funds, hedge funds, the securities ratings firms, the regulators, and the Federal Reserve.
Initially seems to throw the designation criminal around a bit too casually, but the text that follows puts paid to this allegation--there appears to be massive frauds involved, including the upsidedown practice of knowingly selling securities that included defaulted subprime housing notes, but then immediately turning around and investing in abstract securities that relied on predictions that the housing notes aforesaid would in fact default and the securities based thereupon would fail--without notifying their investor clients, the banks, or regulators--and even while putting those same securities up as collateral for money market short-term lending--and even while further allowing the AAA fiction of the captive ratings firms to be published as propaganda in support of the securities aforesaid.
The fact that the financiers responsible paid themselves deferred compensation and bonuses out of federal assistance moneys is simply a punchline and a coda to the enormity of all of it--and, as is usual, the bourgeois press missed the real problems here, pooh-poohing the low-hanging fruit of golden parachutes to the exclusion of more complicated, but more significant issues. Hell, the journalist lays out a moral position by interrogating billion-dollar bonuses; why not get into the meat a bit, then?
Overall, thick like a Kevin Phillips book. As it is not quite an intermediate-level text on the subject, persons with more knowledge than me might find it dull. (Attorneys will be sometimes annoyed by sloppiness within the scope of their balliwick--but this is not intrinsic; the narrative and history of deregulation is what counts here.) Marked by an unnecessary jingoism at times (as the title might indicate), but otherwise generally sympathetic to the OWS movement.
Lotsa data and corporate histories laid down. Critiques both Bush and Obama, while reaching back to Clinton and Reagan. Definitely does not present a fake bilateralism; there's hardly another side to be shown--except to state that everything that occurred was completely lawful. I can live with that, as that transforms crony capitalism into capitalism proper, reserving, of course, the marxist objection that we're not really talking about capitalism, but about speculative trading, which is ancient, even if the abstract derivatives at issue are novelties.
Recommended.
November 20, 2021
I listened to the audio book narrated by Rob Shapiro who is an excellent book narrator and was a great choice for this book.
This is probably the 3rd or 4th book I have read about the 2008 economic collapse and probably the last as they are mostly all the same, e.g. discuss the history that led up to the crash, how certain countries were negatively impacted by the crash, how specific companies like Goldman-Sachs, Countrywide, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, Deutsche Bank, Lehman Brothers et. al., caused the debacle and some even bet against their own clients or owned or purchased both sides of the market while also acting as market maker (house of the casino, Goldman-Sachs being the most egregious one), and making BILLIONS from their clients, and that essentially not a single person was prosecuted, except the one that blew the whistle early about the fraud AND how the political ruling class did nothing to bring anyone to justice. Instead the politicians rewarded those that collapsed the global economy with a bailout which led to the 99% movement which died out quickly.
What I like about this book is that Ferguson calls out the political duopoly that now exists and continues to do everything to extract money from corporations, by mere mention of a new law or regulation which results in campaign and PAC donations AND lobbying dollars to be spent to prevent such new rules, so that the elected officials have money to run their next campaign and smear any challengers to the status quo, rather sickening to most who get it. I disagree with Ferguson about appointing Paul Krugman to any economic policy positions as his solution to the collapse was for the government to print and pump more money into the system which just creates inflation.
What is needed is more regulation and accountability and criminal prosecution of perpetrators, serious jail time, and forfeiture of all wealth not just a few million dollar fine to billionaires that don’t feel it. That money should then be used to pay down the federal deficit and once paid be returned to the tax payers.
While I recommend this book it will likely make any reader or listener angry and disillusioned by the system that is set up to favor Wall Street, big banks, and the new political ruling class/tyrants.
This is probably the 3rd or 4th book I have read about the 2008 economic collapse and probably the last as they are mostly all the same, e.g. discuss the history that led up to the crash, how certain countries were negatively impacted by the crash, how specific companies like Goldman-Sachs, Countrywide, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, Deutsche Bank, Lehman Brothers et. al., caused the debacle and some even bet against their own clients or owned or purchased both sides of the market while also acting as market maker (house of the casino, Goldman-Sachs being the most egregious one), and making BILLIONS from their clients, and that essentially not a single person was prosecuted, except the one that blew the whistle early about the fraud AND how the political ruling class did nothing to bring anyone to justice. Instead the politicians rewarded those that collapsed the global economy with a bailout which led to the 99% movement which died out quickly.
What I like about this book is that Ferguson calls out the political duopoly that now exists and continues to do everything to extract money from corporations, by mere mention of a new law or regulation which results in campaign and PAC donations AND lobbying dollars to be spent to prevent such new rules, so that the elected officials have money to run their next campaign and smear any challengers to the status quo, rather sickening to most who get it. I disagree with Ferguson about appointing Paul Krugman to any economic policy positions as his solution to the collapse was for the government to print and pump more money into the system which just creates inflation.
What is needed is more regulation and accountability and criminal prosecution of perpetrators, serious jail time, and forfeiture of all wealth not just a few million dollar fine to billionaires that don’t feel it. That money should then be used to pay down the federal deficit and once paid be returned to the tax payers.
While I recommend this book it will likely make any reader or listener angry and disillusioned by the system that is set up to favor Wall Street, big banks, and the new political ruling class/tyrants.
May 18, 2015
my blood was boiling, i feel like ranting but all for a good reason: This book speaks volumes about what is happening with the US financialcrisis and the curroption in the wall street, corporation, and even politics. I not only recommend this book, but i demand that everyone reads this book and get angry. We need to get this book in every hand and get them to start demanding a change this time and do a new occupy movement and this time get serious and make our voice be heard. This is not a book that someone should just go, "Heh, cool story bro." This is serious and too many people in the US are homeless and unable to have a job. Those who do have a job cannot make enough to afford even the cheapest apartment much less pay for food, clothes, bills, and few other necessities while CEOs and Wall Street are raking in tens of millions by frauds, cheats and lies. Enough is enough and people should get pissed off!!
November 2, 2012
I would have given this book a much higher rating if it hadn't been for its very uneven presentation. The author has a great deal to say and a great deal of facts to back it up, but he also has a ton of just plain verbage. The beginning is especially verbose, full of chest beating, and evangelist-on-the-street-corner shouting, but he eventually gets to the evidence to support his positions and extremely compelling arguments for following his proposed course of action. His biggest rant is about Big Finance (my term, not his) and the "1%". But you would be wrong to assume from this and other positions that he is a big supporter of Obama and the Democrats. He eventually proposes a course of action for the country and for individuals, but like climate change, there is ample evidence that we are already past a point of no return and have only future catastrophes to look forward to.
May 26, 2012
By now there are so many books out on the origins and aftermath of the Great Recession it can be hard to say why one stands out over another. But as anyone who's seen his Academy Award-winning "Inside Job" knows, Ferguson has a knack for telling a compelling story. His real contribution here is laying out in strong detail the pervasive, systemic nature of criminality in the financial industry - alongside the continuing disgrace that not one of the dangerous psychopaths responsible has been brought to justice by the Obama Administration. (The latter portion of the book - on income/wealth inequality, money & politics, etc. - has been told fairly well elsewhere and is less compelling.)
October 8, 2015
Thorough review of the appalling corruption and collusion in the financial, politcal and academic sectors. We will never be able to round these criminals up and send them to jail where they belong. Even more sadly, we are not even trying. A shameful disregard for the values that made America great.
June 26, 2012
incredible expose. makes you want to rage, then cry.
July 31, 2012
Deserves 5 stars for its importance but is pretty wonkish, which doesn't bother me but doesn't make it a page turner either.
April 24, 2021
What a relief that we fixed all of this problems in the years since this book was written. What’s that? It’s only gotten worse? Whoops.
November 27, 2022
Rotting America.
POSTED AT AMAZON 2014
Terrifying overview of America's corporate doings since the last 35 years. Charles Ferguson is not some kind of raving leftist, he is rich, educated, outspoken and no doubt a patriot. He pours his mind, soul, heart and writing skills into this excellent book (and movie "Inside Job" as well).
He educates efficiently about dirty' tools' developed by financial industry (read: criminal bankers) in order to create $$ out of the thin air. And there is a whole chapter about corruption among the academia society.
It is devastating that this model of parasitic society comprised mostly of the small fraction of population, infests corporations and banks all over the world. It spreads like a virus, affecting millions of citizens and choking economies.
As we read news this month:
-"The Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations found that Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase assumed a role of such significance in the commodities markets that it became possible for the banks to influence the prices that consumers pay while also securing inside information about the markets that could be used by their own traders".
-"LONDON -- U.S., British and Swiss regulators fined five global banks (Citibank, JPMorgan Chase Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC Bank and UBS) more than $3 billion for attempting to manipulate foreign exchange markets -- the latest penalties for an industry previously criticized for rigging interest rates and for their role in triggering the global financial crisis"
-"Many scandals..have plagued the financial industry in the last decade," Ernst Fehr, a researcher at the University of Zurich who co-led the study, told reporters in a telephone briefing. "These scandals raise the question whether the business culture in the banking industry is favoring, or at least tolerating, fraudulent or unethical behaviors."
We approach the end of 2014, and in the light of the above, I see clearly that nothing much has changed since Mr. Ferguson writing. There is no question whether the business culture in deregulated banking industry tolerates and creates fraudulent/unethical behaviors.
This scares me even more. Thank you to the author for this chilling warning...trust nobody.
We are in 2022 now..still the same goes on !
POSTED AT AMAZON 2014
Terrifying overview of America's corporate doings since the last 35 years. Charles Ferguson is not some kind of raving leftist, he is rich, educated, outspoken and no doubt a patriot. He pours his mind, soul, heart and writing skills into this excellent book (and movie "Inside Job" as well).
He educates efficiently about dirty' tools' developed by financial industry (read: criminal bankers) in order to create $$ out of the thin air. And there is a whole chapter about corruption among the academia society.
It is devastating that this model of parasitic society comprised mostly of the small fraction of population, infests corporations and banks all over the world. It spreads like a virus, affecting millions of citizens and choking economies.
As we read news this month:
-"The Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations found that Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase assumed a role of such significance in the commodities markets that it became possible for the banks to influence the prices that consumers pay while also securing inside information about the markets that could be used by their own traders".
-"LONDON -- U.S., British and Swiss regulators fined five global banks (Citibank, JPMorgan Chase Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC Bank and UBS) more than $3 billion for attempting to manipulate foreign exchange markets -- the latest penalties for an industry previously criticized for rigging interest rates and for their role in triggering the global financial crisis"
-"Many scandals..have plagued the financial industry in the last decade," Ernst Fehr, a researcher at the University of Zurich who co-led the study, told reporters in a telephone briefing. "These scandals raise the question whether the business culture in the banking industry is favoring, or at least tolerating, fraudulent or unethical behaviors."
We approach the end of 2014, and in the light of the above, I see clearly that nothing much has changed since Mr. Ferguson writing. There is no question whether the business culture in deregulated banking industry tolerates and creates fraudulent/unethical behaviors.
This scares me even more. Thank you to the author for this chilling warning...trust nobody.
We are in 2022 now..still the same goes on !
April 12, 2024
I think this is a book that should be read by everyone. Not only does it spell out the calamitous behavior of the financial world leading up to the 2007-2008 financial collapse, but it also indites our political representatives for their role in allowing it to happen, and in fact encouraging it. It then shows how it's still happening, and how most politicians from both parties still do not want to hold anyone accountable, or pass legislation that would re-regulate much of this behavior. It should make us all furious and demanding change from our leaders.
June 8, 2019
This is single best source confirming criminal and/or deeply unethical behavior in U.S. financial services since the 1990's through today. It is easy to follow and supports it's claims with extensive evidence. How we the people of the United States have allowed our country to condone this level of criminal and civil fraud is very concerning for our future. Hundreds of financial services executives should be in Federal prison but have never been prosecuted. Why?
November 30, 2023
it’s unfortunate that this book will be read predominantly by people who understand and agree with the cause of the housing crisis as he lays it out because the last quarter of this book (especially reading it now, ten years on) does such a good job of describing the new state of affairs in America and how they will progress and what we need to do to fix it.
Read
May 30, 2012Charles H. Ferguson, who electrified the world with his Oscar-winning documentary Inside Job, now explains how a predator elite took over the country, step by step, and he exposes the networks of academic, financial, and political influence, in all recent administrations, that prepared the predators’ path to conquest.
Over the last several decades, the United States has undergone one of the most radical social and economic transformations in its history.
·Finance has become America’s dominant industry, while manufacturing, even for high technology industries, has nearly disappeared.
·The financial sector has become increasingly criminalized, with the widespread fraud that caused the housing bubble going completely unpunished.
·Federal tax collections as a share of GDP are at their lowest level in sixty years, with the wealthy and highly profitable corporations enjoying the greatest tax reductions.
·Most shockingly, the United States, so long the beacon of opportunity for the ambitious poor, has become one of the world’s most unequal and unfair societies.
If you’re smart and a hard worker, but your parents aren’t rich, you’re now better off being born in Munich, Germany or in Singapore than in Cleveland, Ohio or New York.
This radical shift did not happen by accident.
Ferguson shows how, since the Reagan administration in the 1980s, both major political parties have become captives of the moneyed elite. It was the Clinton administration that dismantled the regulatory controls that protected the average citizen from avaricious financiers. It was the Bush team that destroyed the federal revenue base with its grotesquely skewed tax cuts for the rich. And it is the Obama White House that has allowed financial criminals to continue to operate unchecked, even after supposed “reforms” installed after the collapse of 2008.
Predator Nation reveals how once-revered figures like Alan Greenspan and Larry Summers became mere courtiers to the elite. Based on many newly released court filings, it details the extent of the crimes—there is no other word—committed in the frenzied chase for wealth that caused the financial crisis. And, finally, it lays out a plan of action for how we might take back our country and the American dream.
Over the last several decades, the United States has undergone one of the most radical social and economic transformations in its history.
·Finance has become America’s dominant industry, while manufacturing, even for high technology industries, has nearly disappeared.
·The financial sector has become increasingly criminalized, with the widespread fraud that caused the housing bubble going completely unpunished.
·Federal tax collections as a share of GDP are at their lowest level in sixty years, with the wealthy and highly profitable corporations enjoying the greatest tax reductions.
·Most shockingly, the United States, so long the beacon of opportunity for the ambitious poor, has become one of the world’s most unequal and unfair societies.
If you’re smart and a hard worker, but your parents aren’t rich, you’re now better off being born in Munich, Germany or in Singapore than in Cleveland, Ohio or New York.
This radical shift did not happen by accident.
Ferguson shows how, since the Reagan administration in the 1980s, both major political parties have become captives of the moneyed elite. It was the Clinton administration that dismantled the regulatory controls that protected the average citizen from avaricious financiers. It was the Bush team that destroyed the federal revenue base with its grotesquely skewed tax cuts for the rich. And it is the Obama White House that has allowed financial criminals to continue to operate unchecked, even after supposed “reforms” installed after the collapse of 2008.
Predator Nation reveals how once-revered figures like Alan Greenspan and Larry Summers became mere courtiers to the elite. Based on many newly released court filings, it details the extent of the crimes—there is no other word—committed in the frenzied chase for wealth that caused the financial crisis. And, finally, it lays out a plan of action for how we might take back our country and the American dream.
December 4, 2014
Finishing this book just reinforces my initial reaction: where are the Red Brigades when our country and the world needs them?
Obviously those political delinquents have long ago gone to jail or grown up, and the subsequent generations have had better sense (or a more realistic sense of how ineffective violence is in the long run) than to perpetrate knee-cappings or worse up to our own times. But the crimes detailed in this book, and they are crimes, call out for more than civil prosecutions; more than fines viewed by the corporations who own their regulators as "the cost of doing business." This shit calls for Occupy Wall Street, Tarir Square, Red Guards , and even the sort of violence by our country's mentally deranged who are currently shooting innocents in schools and theaters. Most everybody deplores violence, and rightly. But if we have to have a country running red with NRA sponsored terrorism, couldn't that terrorism be put to more socially beneficial use?
And for the record, this reaction is coming from somebody who is normally a pacifist. Where's the reactions from the crazies who lack restraint?
Ann Coulter... you own guns don't you? Aren't you po'd? Tea Partiers, seriously what's the point of complaining about Obama's birth certificate and Atty General Holder's proven uselessness when there are some much more deserving targets for your craziness. It should be open season on each and every Wolf of Wall Street.
Sorry to those looking for an intelligent and reasoned review, though there's plenty of those on Good Reads. Just the same, maybe there is some value in at least imagining justice and retribution done to ALL THOSE PREDATORS that have screwed our nation and the world, not to mention our 401k's. Ok, so we can't throw bombs, but would somebody in DC please throw a few thousand subpoenas? Even Reagan prosecuted the perps of the S&L scandals.
Obviously those political delinquents have long ago gone to jail or grown up, and the subsequent generations have had better sense (or a more realistic sense of how ineffective violence is in the long run) than to perpetrate knee-cappings or worse up to our own times. But the crimes detailed in this book, and they are crimes, call out for more than civil prosecutions; more than fines viewed by the corporations who own their regulators as "the cost of doing business." This shit calls for Occupy Wall Street, Tarir Square, Red Guards , and even the sort of violence by our country's mentally deranged who are currently shooting innocents in schools and theaters. Most everybody deplores violence, and rightly. But if we have to have a country running red with NRA sponsored terrorism, couldn't that terrorism be put to more socially beneficial use?
And for the record, this reaction is coming from somebody who is normally a pacifist. Where's the reactions from the crazies who lack restraint?
Ann Coulter... you own guns don't you? Aren't you po'd? Tea Partiers, seriously what's the point of complaining about Obama's birth certificate and Atty General Holder's proven uselessness when there are some much more deserving targets for your craziness. It should be open season on each and every Wolf of Wall Street.
Sorry to those looking for an intelligent and reasoned review, though there's plenty of those on Good Reads. Just the same, maybe there is some value in at least imagining justice and retribution done to ALL THOSE PREDATORS that have screwed our nation and the world, not to mention our 401k's. Ok, so we can't throw bombs, but would somebody in DC please throw a few thousand subpoenas? Even Reagan prosecuted the perps of the S&L scandals.
March 14, 2013
This is a must read for anyone who wants to know what really happened during the financial crisis. This is the writer of "Inside Job" which is the top documentary describing the financial crisis. The book fills in the details to give the reader solid examples of exactly what happened and it helps the reader to visualize the true nature of the financial crisis. For instance, the description of how the major banks sold their clients products they knew would fail in order to short those products and make money on both sides of the trade at the expense of their own customers. It wasn't an isolated phenomenon done by outsiders as described in The Big Short. This was happening on a large scale at most of the main investment banks. Another interesting set of details is the behavior of the CEOs. For instance, Jimmy Cayne the CEO of Bear Stearns the first bank to fail was described as playing golf, bridge, or getting high all the time, and acting like he was already retired. This was the type of guy managing these too big to fail banks which had the power to put the US into a recession. The author does a good job of describing the big picture too. He says that the fundamental problem is that the system rewards fraud and dishonesty, while honesty and integrity is strongly penalized. The whistleblowers are the ones who went to jail and the people trying to hold the financial system accountable made 1/50 as much money as the corresponding executives responsible for the bad behavior. Also anyone who bucks the system severs any connections which would advance their careers. Even more generally, this is a symptom of America's overall decline. People in the US are finding it harder and harder to make money in legitimate industries and out of desperation only corruption is being rewarded today.
March 2, 2013
One would hope that a vague idea of the argument made within this book was within a majority of Americans minds already. However, I have to accept that this just isn't the case. Most are happily clueless about the massive corruption within the banking and finance industries. They most likely are also clueless at how hopeless and bought over are the current two political parties in this country. Why read this book? This book gives an exhaustive account of what lead up to the crash of 08, what our and our political leaders reactions to it were, and what we need to fix or improve upon if we are to recover and change things. It's hard to imagine how one can present the case that this book does without ending negatively, as I personally see no signs of things changing. But, Charles Ferguson was able to muster what was clearly a small overview post 2012 elections, while showing that we will still be waiting a little while longer to the real change we need. Barack Obama was and will not be the change we need. Regardless if he campaigned on "change", change is the last thing we've received. Given the choices laid upon us in the 2012 elections, it was best to "hold your noise" and go with Obama, the clear lesser of evils.
If this book isn't "new" information for you, hopefully it awakens an interest to drive the point home to people who don't know about it yet.
If this book isn't "new" information for you, hopefully it awakens an interest to drive the point home to people who don't know about it yet.
October 12, 2015
Charles Ferguson delivers a scathing account of the financial crisis and thoughts on how to move on to a more productive and more equal society. The film "Inside Job" (2010 was the Academy Award winning documentary that brought about the genesis of "Predator Nation: Corruption Criminals, Political Corruption, and the Hijacking of America" so Ferguson has spent years researching the crisis and confronting many of the key players involved. The author is angry and wants to deeply understand the past 30 years of deregulation and drunken capitalism which made stock markets resemble casinos and the brokers act like degenerate gamblers with no moral compass between the lot of them. Although plenty of historical context is provided about the financial crisis, Ferguson asks important questions along the way and focuses on particular players with their conflicts of interest that are abundant. The revolving door policies of Washington, the pathetic regulations and regulators due to the gutting of any real power by the Reagan - Bush - Clinton - Bush administrations and finally Obama's motley crew of bankers/economist who blew the economy up are not charged with putting it back together... provides some WTF!?!?!? reading moments.
Charles Ferguson's film and this book are both essential to absorb for a better understanding of the 2008 financial crisis.
Charles Ferguson's film and this book are both essential to absorb for a better understanding of the 2008 financial crisis.
February 9, 2014
Luin kirjan suomennoksen Rosvojen valtio: Yritysten rikollisuus, poliittinen korruptio ja Yhdysvaltain kaappaaminen.
Kirja oli hyytävää luettavaa. Ferguson laajensi kirjassaan Inside Job -dokumenttielokuvaansa monipuolisemmilla todisteilla rahoitusmarkkinoiden sääntelyn purkamisen tuhoisista seurauksista. Todistustaakka vaikutti vastaanpanemattomalta.
Rahoitusmarkkinoita vain ohuesti seuraavana pysyin kuitenkin hyvin juonessa mukana. Minua jäivät erityisesti mietittämään
1. Moraalin rapistuminen, kun ahneelle saalistamiselle annetaan mahdollisuus. Oma etu ajaa kirkkaasti ohi yrityksen edun. Tilanne muuttuu lähes irvokkaaksi, jos oman yrityksen tuhoamisesta ja muiden rahojen tietoisesta hävittämisestä voi selvitä ilman rangaistusta.
2. Asiantuntijoiden ostaminen (mm. yliopistomaailma) ja sitä kautta "puoluettoman" tiedon katoaminen. Tämän kirjan lukemisen jälkeen viimeistään kysyn itseltäni jokaisen talousuutisen yhteydessä kenen etua annettu lausunto ajaa.
3. Kiihtyvä eriarvoistuminen ja sitä kautta sosiaalisen kierron merkittävä estyminen myös Yhdysvalloissa. Yhteiskunnan epävakauden lisääntyminen luo mahdollisuuden erilaisten radikaalien liikkeiden kasvulle. Toisaalta ilman radikaaleja muutoksia mahdollisuudet ihmistä ja luontoa kunnioittavalle kehitykselle ovat heikot.
Kirja oli hyytävää luettavaa. Ferguson laajensi kirjassaan Inside Job -dokumenttielokuvaansa monipuolisemmilla todisteilla rahoitusmarkkinoiden sääntelyn purkamisen tuhoisista seurauksista. Todistustaakka vaikutti vastaanpanemattomalta.
Rahoitusmarkkinoita vain ohuesti seuraavana pysyin kuitenkin hyvin juonessa mukana. Minua jäivät erityisesti mietittämään
1. Moraalin rapistuminen, kun ahneelle saalistamiselle annetaan mahdollisuus. Oma etu ajaa kirkkaasti ohi yrityksen edun. Tilanne muuttuu lähes irvokkaaksi, jos oman yrityksen tuhoamisesta ja muiden rahojen tietoisesta hävittämisestä voi selvitä ilman rangaistusta.
2. Asiantuntijoiden ostaminen (mm. yliopistomaailma) ja sitä kautta "puoluettoman" tiedon katoaminen. Tämän kirjan lukemisen jälkeen viimeistään kysyn itseltäni jokaisen talousuutisen yhteydessä kenen etua annettu lausunto ajaa.
3. Kiihtyvä eriarvoistuminen ja sitä kautta sosiaalisen kierron merkittävä estyminen myös Yhdysvalloissa. Yhteiskunnan epävakauden lisääntyminen luo mahdollisuuden erilaisten radikaalien liikkeiden kasvulle. Toisaalta ilman radikaaleja muutoksia mahdollisuudet ihmistä ja luontoa kunnioittavalle kehitykselle ovat heikot.
November 5, 2016
Oy, what a morass we have gotten ourselves into with our financial heedlessness. Lloyd Blankfein and the rest of the rogue's gallery are such loathsome, mendaciloquent crooks, but walking through the halls of my law school (where Blankfein's son incidentally graduated alongside of me) you'd be more likely to hear them adulated than suggested to be criminals on the grandest scale. After listening to this, however, I think the worst of the blackguards may be private equity managers.
Overall this was a great primer on the financial chicanery that has further unbalanced wealth in this country, an industry whose tendrils fully envelop both of our major political parties. Listening to it made me glad that I had swapped my vote with someone in North Carolina, who promised me he would vote for Hillary if I voted for Stein in my non-competitive state (read more, here: http://www.vocativ.com/372898/vote-sw...). I know in the end the decision is still made to enhance Clinton's chances of winning, but at least I won't have to hold my nose quite so firmly while casting my vote!
Overall this was a great primer on the financial chicanery that has further unbalanced wealth in this country, an industry whose tendrils fully envelop both of our major political parties. Listening to it made me glad that I had swapped my vote with someone in North Carolina, who promised me he would vote for Hillary if I voted for Stein in my non-competitive state (read more, here: http://www.vocativ.com/372898/vote-sw...). I know in the end the decision is still made to enhance Clinton's chances of winning, but at least I won't have to hold my nose quite so firmly while casting my vote!
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