Inside Job: The Rogues Who Pulled Off the Heist of the Century

by Charles H. Ferguson

Based on explosive interviews conducted personally by award-winning filmmaker Charles Ferguson, as well as newly released court documents and information buried in archives, 'Inside Job' traces how the financial industry and its enablers went rogue.

Genres: Economics, History, Nonfiction, Finance, Politics

369 pages, Paperback

First published May 24, 2012

Reviews

[Henry Manampiring · Rating 5 out of 5]

How good is it? Put it this way.
I hate finance, and I enjoyed it. And enraged at the same time.

[Adam Beddoe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess non-fiction have the 'truth' to hide behind - any criticism can be derided as being driven by personal motivations....and as I currently work for a bank my opinion may be null and void from the outset however I personally think the systemic failure of banks and governments worldwide was shocking and awful as it has driven a greed fuelled morally bankrupt class based society with the top few percent benefitting. This book however although raising some good examples came across slightly too like a personal and unbalanced crusade looking for a cover up. It also dragged and seemed repetitious.

[Dewi Daniels · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't sure whether to give this book 2 stars or 4 stars, so I gave it 3 stars. The evidence that we were ripped off by the financial elite, and that they got away with it, is persuasive. On the other hand, I found the book's tone too hysterical for my taste. Every other sentence seems to contain either "criminal" or "toxic".

[spiacente · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ferguson definitely provides a very convincing argument(s) as to why many people in the financial sector ought to be in jail, and it is enraging that they are not. Which is why I felt like this was more of a paper (?) than a book? I don't know, maybe I'm just not used to reading non-fiction books yet, but there was quite a bit of digression into the past of individuals and what not. I think it is very brave of him to name those big shots like that though, as I'm sure the people he named are wealthy, powerful, and able to take him down if they wanted. I also learnt from the book that the sole inventive of the whole financial crisis seems to be monetary, and I guess economists respond to incentives particularly well. It's just disappointing that even academics would be dishonest in such a fashion though.. Ah, humans.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

ferguson doesn't get economy beyond donations. and he doesn't have to know anything about economy. what he knows is political sciences. and what butt to honor and respect to further the corporate agenda.

[Mike Phung · Rating 4 out of 5]

This give a brilliant look into the crisis 2008 and about how bad the CDO, it’s even sad that all people who created this kind of this disaster are still in charge!

[David Wu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I still think about this book to this day. No one rich is punished for the crimes they commit whether it's causing the housing crisis, the dot com bubble, and more recently the files and AI... Yeesh

[Peter]

The documentary film on which this book is based is highly commendable. The text has a lot going on in inverted commas, so on p89: "To understand that, we need to look inside them" requires a clear sense of what the that is, how and where the anchor points are set, who the them(s) are and which one(s) is-are being referred to. On p100, those characteristics described in inverted commas need to be handled by the legal representatives as they relate to specific cases.

#thethingoverthere - p118, 172

#ringingbell - p119

#moneylaundering - p126, 130, 132, 133, 139, 142, 162, 166, 176;p 178 and 179;

p130 - the parts in inverted commas appear to be about God's bankers; and on p134, 135, 136 and 137;p 146 and 171; and pp173-175; p197 and 198; p221, 229, 231 and 239.

#faoregulators - p222; p230 - to inc circuit breaker and capital and liquidity arrangements for high-frequency trading.

#can'tbreathe - p224-5

#peopletrafficking - p130, 132, 142

On p147, there appears to be an assumed circularity of Goldman Sachs is over here and Goldman Sachs makes markets because Goldman Sachs makes markets. Is that fair comment? To what extent is/should there be an expectation that licensed exchanges subject to proper supervision and regulation should act as venues where buyers and sellers come together where the exchange can co-ordinate the discovery of prices, execute trades-oversee clearing and complete settlement processes? In that way to what extent would such norms/practices make it easier to demonstrate that banks do not act as hedge funds?

#fraud - p165-6; p167 and 168; pp180-186; p190, 192, 194, 195

Considering the content of pp202-205, and p312, to what extent do large financial institutions consider anti-trust law to be largely irrelevant? To what extent would the scope and purpose of executive privilege be particularly significant in this context, including proper renderings? And which other factors (inc Bagehot's dictum?)

On p227: If volatility, leverage, concentration, and systemic interdependence are so incredibly dangerous, why would rational people construct such an industry? What might a formal elaboration of principal-agent and moral hazard considerations include?

p233, 248, 301 - at,in appropriate time/setting.

on p236, to what extent do laws need to be changed to prevent private equity houses imposing harms on other firms, including those that are publicly listed?

Concerning pp322-4, we do like the proper and the decent.

[Robert Droy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Detailed and insightful critique of corporate America, although Europe is mentioned too. The writing at times got a bit panic stricken. Overused the word 'toxic' and some facts were repeated several times but overall, an interesting book which made angry and sad all at the same time.

[Danny Matcham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the Oscar-nominated documentary but found the book rather stodgy to get through on my Kindle. Read about half of it and plan to finish at some point, but no rush!

[Brian Schwartz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Made me want to pull my eyes out just to alleviate the tedium of reading this book.