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Big Dirty Money: The Shocking Injustice and Unseen Cost of White Collar Crime
How ordinary Americans suffer when the rich and powerful break the law to get richer and more powerful--and how we can stop it.
There is an elite crime spree happening in America, and the privileged perps are getting away with it. Selling loose cigarettes on a city sidewalk can lead to a choke-hold arrest, and death, if you are not among the top 1%. But if you're rich and commit mail, wire, or bank fraud, embezzle pension funds, lie in court, obstruct justice, bribe a public official, launder money, or cheat on your taxes, you're likely to get off scot-free (or even win an election). When caught and convicted, such as for bribing their kids' way into college, high-class criminals make brief stops in minimum security "Club Fed" camps. Operate the scam from the executive suite of a giant corporation, and you can prosper with impunity. Consider Wells Fargo & Co. Pressured by management, employees at the bank opened more than three million bank and credit card accounts without customer consent, and charged late fees and penalties to account holders. When CEO John Stumpf resigned in "shame," the board of directors granted him a $134 million golden parachute.
This is not victimless crime. Big Dirty Money details the scandalously common and concrete ways that ordinary Americans suffer when the well-heeled use white collar crime to gain and sustain wealth, social status, and political influence. Profiteers caused the mortgage meltdown and the prescription opioid crisis, they've evaded taxes and deprived communities of public funds for education, public health, and infrastructure. Taub goes beyond the headlines (of which there is no shortage) to track how we got here (essentially a post-Enron failure of prosecutorial muscle, the growth of "too big to jail" syndrome, and a developing implicit immunity of the upper class) and pose solutions that can help catch and convict offenders.
There is an elite crime spree happening in America, and the privileged perps are getting away with it. Selling loose cigarettes on a city sidewalk can lead to a choke-hold arrest, and death, if you are not among the top 1%. But if you're rich and commit mail, wire, or bank fraud, embezzle pension funds, lie in court, obstruct justice, bribe a public official, launder money, or cheat on your taxes, you're likely to get off scot-free (or even win an election). When caught and convicted, such as for bribing their kids' way into college, high-class criminals make brief stops in minimum security "Club Fed" camps. Operate the scam from the executive suite of a giant corporation, and you can prosper with impunity. Consider Wells Fargo & Co. Pressured by management, employees at the bank opened more than three million bank and credit card accounts without customer consent, and charged late fees and penalties to account holders. When CEO John Stumpf resigned in "shame," the board of directors granted him a $134 million golden parachute.
This is not victimless crime. Big Dirty Money details the scandalously common and concrete ways that ordinary Americans suffer when the well-heeled use white collar crime to gain and sustain wealth, social status, and political influence. Profiteers caused the mortgage meltdown and the prescription opioid crisis, they've evaded taxes and deprived communities of public funds for education, public health, and infrastructure. Taub goes beyond the headlines (of which there is no shortage) to track how we got here (essentially a post-Enron failure of prosecutorial muscle, the growth of "too big to jail" syndrome, and a developing implicit immunity of the upper class) and pose solutions that can help catch and convict offenders.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published September 29, 2020
111 people are currently reading
1246 people want to read
About the author
Jennifer Taub
5 books19 followersJennifer Taub is a legal scholar and advocate, devoted to making complex business law topics engaging inside and outside of the classroom. Her research and writing focuses on corporate governance, banking and financial market regulation, and white collar crime. Similarly, her advocacy centers on “follow the money” matters –– promoting transparency and opposing corruption.
Her new book, Big Dirty Money: The Shocking Injustice and Unseen Cost of White Collar Crime (Viking) will be published on September 29, 2020. Taub was a co-founder and organizer of the April 15, 2017 Tax March where more than 120,000 people gathered in cities nationwide to demand President Donald Trump release his tax returns. She is a professor of law at the Western New England University School of Law where she teaches Civil Procedure, White Collar Crime, and other business and commercial law courses, and was the Bruce W. Nichols Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School during the fall 2019 semester. She formerly was a professor at Vermont Law School.
An authority on the 2008 mortgage meltdown and related financial crisis, Taub is also an emerging expert in white collar crime. In addition to Big Dirty Money, she is co-author with the late Kathleen Brickey of Corporate and White Collar Crime: Cases and Materials, 6th edition (Wolters Kluwer 2017). Relatedly, she has appeared on cable news programs including MSNBC’s Morning Joe and CNN Newsroom to discuss the Special Counsel investigation into links between Russia and the Trump presidential campaign.
In the area of banking and financial market regulation, Taub’s book Other People’s Houses: How Decades of Bailouts, Captive Regulators, and Toxic Bankers Made Home Mortgages a Thrilling Business was published in May 2014 by Yale University Press. Recognized as accessible and informative, OPH was honored by the Massachusetts Center for the Book as one of the 2015 finalists in the nonfiction category. Other People’s Houses was favorably mentioned by Nobel Laureate, Robert Shiller in his 2015 edition of Irrational Exuberance. Taub testified as an expert before the United States Senate Banking Committee and a United States House Financial Services Subcommittee. She also co-organized a conference and co-lead a panel discussion at the Financial Stability Law Workshop at the U.S. Treasury Department, hosted by the Office of Financial Research.
In addition to Other People’s Houses, Taub has written extensively on the financial crisis. Her publications include “The Sophisticated Investor and the Global Financial Crisis” in the peer-reviewed Corporate Governance Failures (UPenn Press, 2011) and a case study on AIG in Robert A. G. Monks and Nell Minow’s fifth edition of Corporate Governance (Wiley, 2011). In response to Roberta Romano, she presented and wrote “Regulating in the Light: Harnessing Political Entrepreneurs’ Energy for Post-Crisis Sunlight Hearings” (St. Thomas L. Rev. 2015). Additional works include the chapter “Delay, Dilutions, and Delusions: Implementing the Dodd-Frank Act” in Restoring Shared Prosperity (2013) and “What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Banking,” in the Handbook on the Political Economy of the Financial Crisis (Oxford, 2012). She wrote entries on “Shadow Banking” and “Financial Deregulation” for the Oxford Encyclopedia of American Business, Labor and Economic History (Oxford, 2013) and the chapter “Great Expectations for the Office of Financial Research,” in Will it Work? How Will We Know? The Future of Financial Reform (2010). In addition, she has published Reforming the Banks for Good in Dissent (2014). Her article, “The Subprime Specter Returns: High Finance and the Growth of High-Risk Consumer Debt,” was published in the New Labor Forum (2015). And, she recently wrote a book chapter on “New Hopes and Hazards for Social Investment Crowdfunding” in Law and Policy for a New Economy (Edward Elgar, 2017).
Taub’s corporate governance work often focuses on the role
Her new book, Big Dirty Money: The Shocking Injustice and Unseen Cost of White Collar Crime (Viking) will be published on September 29, 2020. Taub was a co-founder and organizer of the April 15, 2017 Tax March where more than 120,000 people gathered in cities nationwide to demand President Donald Trump release his tax returns. She is a professor of law at the Western New England University School of Law where she teaches Civil Procedure, White Collar Crime, and other business and commercial law courses, and was the Bruce W. Nichols Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School during the fall 2019 semester. She formerly was a professor at Vermont Law School.
An authority on the 2008 mortgage meltdown and related financial crisis, Taub is also an emerging expert in white collar crime. In addition to Big Dirty Money, she is co-author with the late Kathleen Brickey of Corporate and White Collar Crime: Cases and Materials, 6th edition (Wolters Kluwer 2017). Relatedly, she has appeared on cable news programs including MSNBC’s Morning Joe and CNN Newsroom to discuss the Special Counsel investigation into links between Russia and the Trump presidential campaign.
In the area of banking and financial market regulation, Taub’s book Other People’s Houses: How Decades of Bailouts, Captive Regulators, and Toxic Bankers Made Home Mortgages a Thrilling Business was published in May 2014 by Yale University Press. Recognized as accessible and informative, OPH was honored by the Massachusetts Center for the Book as one of the 2015 finalists in the nonfiction category. Other People’s Houses was favorably mentioned by Nobel Laureate, Robert Shiller in his 2015 edition of Irrational Exuberance. Taub testified as an expert before the United States Senate Banking Committee and a United States House Financial Services Subcommittee. She also co-organized a conference and co-lead a panel discussion at the Financial Stability Law Workshop at the U.S. Treasury Department, hosted by the Office of Financial Research.
In addition to Other People’s Houses, Taub has written extensively on the financial crisis. Her publications include “The Sophisticated Investor and the Global Financial Crisis” in the peer-reviewed Corporate Governance Failures (UPenn Press, 2011) and a case study on AIG in Robert A. G. Monks and Nell Minow’s fifth edition of Corporate Governance (Wiley, 2011). In response to Roberta Romano, she presented and wrote “Regulating in the Light: Harnessing Political Entrepreneurs’ Energy for Post-Crisis Sunlight Hearings” (St. Thomas L. Rev. 2015). Additional works include the chapter “Delay, Dilutions, and Delusions: Implementing the Dodd-Frank Act” in Restoring Shared Prosperity (2013) and “What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Banking,” in the Handbook on the Political Economy of the Financial Crisis (Oxford, 2012). She wrote entries on “Shadow Banking” and “Financial Deregulation” for the Oxford Encyclopedia of American Business, Labor and Economic History (Oxford, 2013) and the chapter “Great Expectations for the Office of Financial Research,” in Will it Work? How Will We Know? The Future of Financial Reform (2010). In addition, she has published Reforming the Banks for Good in Dissent (2014). Her article, “The Subprime Specter Returns: High Finance and the Growth of High-Risk Consumer Debt,” was published in the New Labor Forum (2015). And, she recently wrote a book chapter on “New Hopes and Hazards for Social Investment Crowdfunding” in Law and Policy for a New Economy (Edward Elgar, 2017).
Taub’s corporate governance work often focuses on the role
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews
September 27, 2020
Need another book for your post-November 2016 rage reading list? Looking for a companion to Sarah Kendzior's Hiding in Plain Sight? [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...] Shopping for books to give to your neighbors and relatives who swear that everything's OK, and, gee, there's no reason to get upset about politics or the election or policing or law enforcement or wealth distribution (and concentration) or taxation or...? Scouring the bookstore shelves for heavily researched explanations for how, in the law few years, the word kleptocracy wormed its way into the common vernacular?
Looking for more reasons to be angry that the rules don't apply to the wealthy, and, in the last few years, they seem more confident about what used to be more of a secret, and thus, it sure seems like there's more pigs at the trough behavior these days than there used to be?
Finding yourself scratching your head and getting angry that your social media feed increasingly features coverage of poor people and black people going to jail for, say, asking for equal rights while CEO's and senior officials (in nice clothes, getting in/out of nice cars) at banks who got rich while crashing the economy and causing millions (yes, millions) of Americans to lose their homes ... or accelerated global warming ... or spawned the opioid crisis ... achieved staggering wealth, avoided jail time, and, more often than not, received multi-million dollar golden parachutes?
Trying to understand how anyone believed that the recent tax cuts for the wealthy would pay for themselves (... oh, that's rich ... no, not sorry, that pun was absolutely intended) or how or why Congress thought the tax cuts were a good idea (not-a-secret: they didn't, and they didn't care, because they could get away with it, and it's what their rich donors wanted and, well, paid handsomely for)...
In any event, if any of this stuff speaks to you, well, this book is for you.
Sure, the author is a legal academic, but the book is entirely, easily accessible - and my sense is that it was written for the mass market. Wanna geek out? Read the voluminous end notes! Not interested in all that research? Well, fine: because the book reads like long-form journalism and commentary (and you can ignore the end notes). Heck, if you're sufficiently angry these days (like so many of us), you could easily plow through the book in one day of (at this point, unnecessary) coronavirus pandemic induced quarantine!
Read it. Enjoy it. (That is, if you're into the whole rage reading thing.) And share it with a friend. Talk about it. That's the only way things are going to change. And, yes, they need to change.
For a longer review (not mine), see: https://newrepublic.com/article/15936...
Note: Thanks to the publisher for an electronic ARC. It's nice to be ahead of the curve, particularly since my pre-ordered hardback isn't due to arrive at my local independent bookstore until later this week.
Looking for more reasons to be angry that the rules don't apply to the wealthy, and, in the last few years, they seem more confident about what used to be more of a secret, and thus, it sure seems like there's more pigs at the trough behavior these days than there used to be?
Finding yourself scratching your head and getting angry that your social media feed increasingly features coverage of poor people and black people going to jail for, say, asking for equal rights while CEO's and senior officials (in nice clothes, getting in/out of nice cars) at banks who got rich while crashing the economy and causing millions (yes, millions) of Americans to lose their homes ... or accelerated global warming ... or spawned the opioid crisis ... achieved staggering wealth, avoided jail time, and, more often than not, received multi-million dollar golden parachutes?
Trying to understand how anyone believed that the recent tax cuts for the wealthy would pay for themselves (... oh, that's rich ... no, not sorry, that pun was absolutely intended) or how or why Congress thought the tax cuts were a good idea (not-a-secret: they didn't, and they didn't care, because they could get away with it, and it's what their rich donors wanted and, well, paid handsomely for)...
In any event, if any of this stuff speaks to you, well, this book is for you.
Sure, the author is a legal academic, but the book is entirely, easily accessible - and my sense is that it was written for the mass market. Wanna geek out? Read the voluminous end notes! Not interested in all that research? Well, fine: because the book reads like long-form journalism and commentary (and you can ignore the end notes). Heck, if you're sufficiently angry these days (like so many of us), you could easily plow through the book in one day of (at this point, unnecessary) coronavirus pandemic induced quarantine!
Read it. Enjoy it. (That is, if you're into the whole rage reading thing.) And share it with a friend. Talk about it. That's the only way things are going to change. And, yes, they need to change.
For a longer review (not mine), see: https://newrepublic.com/article/15936...
Note: Thanks to the publisher for an electronic ARC. It's nice to be ahead of the curve, particularly since my pre-ordered hardback isn't due to arrive at my local independent bookstore until later this week.
January 16, 2021
I got to know about this book because I think I saw the author comment on Twitter about it during some conversation about 45’s corruption and if they’ll ever face consequences. I immediately decided to get it from the library and it was so eye opening.
The one overarching feeling you are left with after reading this book is rage. Rage at the wealthy corporate executives who use corrupt and unethical practices to maximize their profits while screwing over the lives of millions of normal people, while also getting away with a slap on the wrist or no consequences at all. The other feeling of rage is against the politicians who create such laws favoring corporates and prevent them from being punished, just to preserve their donor class. It’s absolutely horrifying to read and after seeing so many instances of powerful people getting away with just about anything, the chances of any convictions for the corrupt members of the outgoing administration seem very bleak.
But the book ends on a small hope. The author lists down the things that even we normal and usually powerless people can do to nudge our politicians to write better laws and ensure that the existing ones treat everyone equally before it. It doesn’t seem like an easy path forward but unless something is done to get money out of politics and to reduce the influence of corporate lobbyists on the writing of new laws, the situation is only gonna get worse.
In conclusion, this was a very interesting book to read and you should especially pick it up when you are ready to read something that’ll make you angry. I think what also works in its favor is that the author never shies away from giving her opinion about how despicable these massive frauds by powerful people are, and this natural outrage of the author is even more evident in the audiobook. I learnt a lot and I hope you will too... highly recommend.
The one overarching feeling you are left with after reading this book is rage. Rage at the wealthy corporate executives who use corrupt and unethical practices to maximize their profits while screwing over the lives of millions of normal people, while also getting away with a slap on the wrist or no consequences at all. The other feeling of rage is against the politicians who create such laws favoring corporates and prevent them from being punished, just to preserve their donor class. It’s absolutely horrifying to read and after seeing so many instances of powerful people getting away with just about anything, the chances of any convictions for the corrupt members of the outgoing administration seem very bleak.
But the book ends on a small hope. The author lists down the things that even we normal and usually powerless people can do to nudge our politicians to write better laws and ensure that the existing ones treat everyone equally before it. It doesn’t seem like an easy path forward but unless something is done to get money out of politics and to reduce the influence of corporate lobbyists on the writing of new laws, the situation is only gonna get worse.
In conclusion, this was a very interesting book to read and you should especially pick it up when you are ready to read something that’ll make you angry. I think what also works in its favor is that the author never shies away from giving her opinion about how despicable these massive frauds by powerful people are, and this natural outrage of the author is even more evident in the audiobook. I learnt a lot and I hope you will too... highly recommend.
February 10, 2021
In what should be a 5 star book, Taub has released what looks more like a draft of a great idea. The crimes and frauds revealed in BDM all have entire books devoted to them available and are more beneficial to read than this.
December 11, 2021
"Those who bring in $20,000 or less per year of personal income are just as likely to be audited as the top 1%"
Interesting read with thought-provoking facts that will make you angry. Unfortunately, I don't think this book was well edited and the amount of grammatical errors is "criminal".
Interesting read with thought-provoking facts that will make you angry. Unfortunately, I don't think this book was well edited and the amount of grammatical errors is "criminal".
November 8, 2020
Anyone that reads a newspaper would already know all this . The author appears to have lifted headlines then raged against them
Made it through 2 chapters and then got too bored to continue.
Made it through 2 chapters and then got too bored to continue.
August 15, 2022
Go get this book ASAP. I can’t remember how I stumbled across it, but I’m super glad it was recommended. Jennifer Taub did a fantastic job breaking down how the wealthy live by a different set of rules than the rest of us. I don’t understand how anyone could read this book and think we live in a fair, equal, and meritocratic society. Our prisons are filled with people who have done far less than the white-collar criminals Taub describes in this book. Each chapter has stories of rich people who got away with major crimes.
It’ll make you mad, but you should read this. The United States is not the country we’re told it is. If you have money, you live in a completely different world than the middle and lower classes. We should all take issue with the prison industrial complex and how peoples’ lives are ruined for something as stupid as drug posession while there are multimillionaires who are destroying lives, and in the case of Big Pharma, actually killing people.
Get this book and buy some copies for your friends.
It’ll make you mad, but you should read this. The United States is not the country we’re told it is. If you have money, you live in a completely different world than the middle and lower classes. We should all take issue with the prison industrial complex and how peoples’ lives are ruined for something as stupid as drug posession while there are multimillionaires who are destroying lives, and in the case of Big Pharma, actually killing people.
Get this book and buy some copies for your friends.
November 2, 2023
I dont really get into politics. In fact, I consider myself a centrist, as I often find myself agreeing with both left and right wingers. With that being said, I found this book to be completely biased. Most of the book was about Trump. We get it. He's a crook; most politicians are. Honestly, I dont even care if you call out Trump for his BS, or the many Republicans that she named and their crimes...However, when you only call out 1 side for their crimes, and fail to mention even 1 Democrat, you lose all credibility and respect from me. I wanted to give this book 2 stars. The only reason I am going to it 3 is because it wasn't ALL politics. There was a huge part about other white-collar criminals that I very much enjoyed. In fact, if the author had left out politics altogether, I would have given it 5 stars. If she had at least called out Democrats, as well as Republicans, I would have given it 4 stars. Be less biased next time and call out ALL criminals, regardless of their political affiliation.
November 16, 2021
A really lucidly written analysis of the many ways in which corporations and the very wealthy are routinely economically exploiting the general population by either ignoring, manipulating or rewriting themselves laws that should prevent such activity. The rich get rich while making the poor get poorer. They neither pay anything close to fair percentage of federal taxes which might enable much needed social programs nor do they get prosecuted for the actual fraud and lawbreaking which they do commit. Even if you feel that this is common knowledge, Taub offers both details of why it happens and suggestions how it could be curtailed or stopped. Essential reading
September 11, 2022
There are many reviews to read about this book. All I will say is that it is EXTREMELY timely in our current situation. Many examples of criminals that go unpunished and victims that are left to fend for themselves.
June 19, 2022
Good for if you know nothing about white collar crime. Talked a lot about solutions that are very obvious (tax the rich, give investigations into white collar crime more resources, etc.). Didn’t give as many anecdotes as I would have hoped for and focused a lot on Trump even though there are other chute collar criminals out there.
October 2, 2023
DNF. Just an anti-Trump book
November 3, 2020
There’s a simple statistic at the beginning of this book that “White Collar” crime costs victims between $300B to $800B per year, dwarfing all other street level crime. And yet Americans arm themselves to the teeth apparently to protect themselves for the latter, while not giving too much care for the former. In this book Taub outlines many instances of this type of crime mainly at the corporate level and outlines six key recommendations intended to combat this. The book itself is a bit like one that she references (Jesse Eisinger’s “The Chickenshit Club”) in documenting both many instances of corporate malfeasance and listing the many reasons that they are not being actively prosecuted. Like that book, it’s quite interesting but not necessarily what one would describe as a page turner. That’s a bit sad considering the negative effect this has on our lives. The recommendations given are admirable, but as Taub says the fact that these are viewed as victimless crimes will continue to hamper having these needed fixes becoming implemented.
January 24, 2021
The author takes on a lot of issues in 336 pages: white collar crime, sentencing disparities by race and type of crime, corporate corruption, harmful products, dark money in politics, protections for whistleblowers and investigative journalists, LLC secrecy, and the funding woes of the IRS. I'm sure that there were other issues that I have forgotten already. Each of these topics would justify a book of its own, and many have, but trying to cover all of these bases in so few pages results in a fairly superficial treatment of all of them. Each chapter is divided into multiple sections with short, punchy titles, and many of these sections are simply rants about the unfairness of it all. There is no real scientific research or analysis. The author's opinions are supported mostly by anecdotal information that appears to have been taken from newspapers and magazines. If you regularly read a good newspaper, there is little here that will be new to you.
Despite the difficulty of examining so many serious issues in so few pages, the book manages to be repetitive. For example, the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act are explained on three separate occasions. We keep hearing about Eric Garner and the Sacklers.
In the later chapters, the author tries to strike a more serious tone by launching into lengthy explanations of various US Supreme Court decisions. At the end, she comes up with some solutions for the problems outlined in the book. Many of these seem impossible to achieve in the current political climate, or in any political climate we are likely to see in the near future.
Some serious issues are ignored. For example, the author decries the sentencing disparities between white collar crimes and your more typical robbery and burglary offenses, but what is the answer? Mass incarceration has proved to be a failure. Should we incarcerate more people? What will be the result of making it easier to convict white collar offenders? More people in jail? Or should we attack the disparities by adapting some practices widely used in white collar cases, like conditional release and civil settlements, to crimes that now result in incarceration?
I gave the book two stars because it does raise some important questions, and it is worthwhile to consider the book's treatment of them if you are a person who does not follow the news closely. But for well-informed or semi-informed readers, it has little value because it lacks research, real depth, and analysis.
Despite the difficulty of examining so many serious issues in so few pages, the book manages to be repetitive. For example, the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act are explained on three separate occasions. We keep hearing about Eric Garner and the Sacklers.
In the later chapters, the author tries to strike a more serious tone by launching into lengthy explanations of various US Supreme Court decisions. At the end, she comes up with some solutions for the problems outlined in the book. Many of these seem impossible to achieve in the current political climate, or in any political climate we are likely to see in the near future.
Some serious issues are ignored. For example, the author decries the sentencing disparities between white collar crimes and your more typical robbery and burglary offenses, but what is the answer? Mass incarceration has proved to be a failure. Should we incarcerate more people? What will be the result of making it easier to convict white collar offenders? More people in jail? Or should we attack the disparities by adapting some practices widely used in white collar cases, like conditional release and civil settlements, to crimes that now result in incarceration?
I gave the book two stars because it does raise some important questions, and it is worthwhile to consider the book's treatment of them if you are a person who does not follow the news closely. But for well-informed or semi-informed readers, it has little value because it lacks research, real depth, and analysis.
June 26, 2021
Did not finish.
My high hopes given the subject matter quickly dwindled due to the author’s infatuation with linking every anecdote to Donald Trump, regardless of how tangible or tenuous those anecdotes were.
The first few chapters outline the development of academic thinking into fraud, white-color crime and the behaviors driving it. Thereafter, the book lapses into a compilation of cases and events covered in far greater depth and with sharper insight elsewhere.
“It’s not just Donald Trump,” the author repeatedly states, yet nary an attempt is made to mention the misdemeanors of other public officials.
A lengthy passage about the establishment of Citigroup, related repeal of Glass-Steagall and the resultant time-bomb leading to the 2008 crash even glides by without name-dropping the archetypal, for-hire politician that held the doors open for his corporate patrons.
Stick to Kleptopia, The Finance Curse or Putin’s People rather than this unofficial “For Dummies” guide.
My high hopes given the subject matter quickly dwindled due to the author’s infatuation with linking every anecdote to Donald Trump, regardless of how tangible or tenuous those anecdotes were.
The first few chapters outline the development of academic thinking into fraud, white-color crime and the behaviors driving it. Thereafter, the book lapses into a compilation of cases and events covered in far greater depth and with sharper insight elsewhere.
“It’s not just Donald Trump,” the author repeatedly states, yet nary an attempt is made to mention the misdemeanors of other public officials.
A lengthy passage about the establishment of Citigroup, related repeal of Glass-Steagall and the resultant time-bomb leading to the 2008 crash even glides by without name-dropping the archetypal, for-hire politician that held the doors open for his corporate patrons.
Stick to Kleptopia, The Finance Curse or Putin’s People rather than this unofficial “For Dummies” guide.
January 13, 2021
This book is great. It's depressing, because it shows just how thoroughly the Supreme Court and Congress have created an environment that's thoroughly hospitable to white-collar crime. But it's encouraging, because one major change she advocates for has already been implemented: the Corporate Transparency Act, which Congress passed in December 2020. I don't know if her other recommendations can possibly be implemented, because (a) Republicans don't think Democrats should be allowed to govern and (b) Republicans have been actively pushing, for decades, for the very conditions she thinks should be rolled back.
October 17, 2020
Another great book to get mad at the system in which we live. Unlike groceries, this one is easily fixable and the only ones holding us back are the ones with the money. We live with rampant white collar crime that is not prosecuted, not fully investigated, and not even fully known in scope. The most shocking thing is this book is the estimated cost of white collar crime vs "street level" property crime. Astonishing and easily fixable with the proper education and funding. We can't keep letting them get away with it
November 17, 2022
A pretty partisan take on white-collar crime. I would have loved deeper dives into the stories that were used as examples and less complaining. Each chapter is divided into multiple sections, many of which are simply rants about the unfairness of it all. There is no real scientific research or analysis. The author's opinions are supported mostly by anecdotal information that appears to have been taken from newspapers and magazines. A good idea for a book but not great execution. Worth your time but not too much of it.
November 25, 2020
It was a good read!
Very heavy on American companies and Trump (GMC, CITI Bank, Russia). It didn't go into too much detail on things really affecting life in Canada (money laundering, fentanyl, housing crisis, etc.). However, it did make great cases for increased regulation, task forces, and accountability/enforcement.
It also was great at outlining how all forms of corruption affect everyday citizens.
3.5/5
Very heavy on American companies and Trump (GMC, CITI Bank, Russia). It didn't go into too much detail on things really affecting life in Canada (money laundering, fentanyl, housing crisis, etc.). However, it did make great cases for increased regulation, task forces, and accountability/enforcement.
It also was great at outlining how all forms of corruption affect everyday citizens.
3.5/5
February 20, 2022
This is a politically charged book, there’s no real insight to banking or accounting fraud or crimes. I did not learn anything I could really reference, just someone’s political views on Donald Trump. I’m disappointed I read the whole book, should have stopped sooner.
April 12, 2021
Jennifer Taub’s Big Dirty Money: The Shocking Injustice and Unseen Cost of White Collar Crime (2020) adds a crucial and dynamic voice to the true inner-workings of the American government and exposes the various levels at which white-collar crime is committed in an easily digestible manner. It is near impossible to grasp the severity and the depth at which this crime runs in the U.S. government, but Taub is able to articulate the magnitude of this issue through Supreme Court cases such as Citizens United and crimes that have either been poorly prosecuted or not at all. Big Dirty Money makes it painfully clear how dire the financial-political dynamic in Washington is and has been for decades without the public’s knowledge.
While Taub explains technical topics which may be difficult for some readers to understand, she does a fantastic job of explaining the concepts that are crucial to her main arguments. Through Taub’s discussion of financial corruption both domestically and overseas, she opens the conversation up to concerns of resource stewardship globally as corruption and abuse of resources is not unique to America and foreign players have been and continue to be embedded in the American economic system. Taking Taub’s arguments a step further, looking at large financial moves with more scrutiny may uncover a more complicated network that is in control of how and where money flows in the American economy. By analyzing our own economic structure and processes, we can develop more nuanced reasoning and prosecute more white-collar crime, which is necessary to even begin to tackle the issue of corruption in American politics.
When looking at second and third-world developing countries, it is important to keep Traub’s warnings against allowing the wealthy few to essentially buy democracy, whether that takes form in education, real estate, or political elections. Taub is relevant to more than just the United States because the insurmountable issue of corruption in America could have been avoided had the government held a tighter grip on legislation that favored the 1% and if the public had known the truth behind their government institutions. This means that other countries should take note of Taub’s explanation for the current state of affairs in the U.S. and work to prevent the cycle from repeating itself. While Taub does an excellent job of pointing out the fraudulent activity in elite circles, it is important to think of how these crimes and actions are affecting the rest of the population. Taub’s criticism of the 2019 College Admissions scandal points to this notion by digging into how wealthy families were able to pass off their children as athletes, thereby taking scholarships and opportunities from more deserving candidates.
The root of Taub’s argument is clear: the wealthy and their relationships with politicians who have at least some sort of political power have ruined democracy in America in favor of a purely transactional model. While Taub successfully articulates this argument with flares of personal commentary and comparisons between various white-collar crimes where justice was not served, it can be easy to get lost in the technical language of the topic, even with some extremely helpful discussions and descriptions of key topics. Big Dirty Money demands attention both because of the inherent importance of its core content and because the topics discussed here are rarely talked about in truth and even more rarely corrected or fixed.
If you didn’t know about the dire white-collar crime circumstances in the United States before, you will after reading Big Dirty Money. Taub effectively gives a functioning foundation of this epidemic of crime in our government through creative uses of lawsuits, suspicious activity on the part of celebrities and the wealthy, and bits of history that contextualize her arguments into the modern issues we are facing today. This novel is incredibly relevant in thinking about protecting our democracy for years to come, as well as for fighting for equity across class and race in society.
While Taub explains technical topics which may be difficult for some readers to understand, she does a fantastic job of explaining the concepts that are crucial to her main arguments. Through Taub’s discussion of financial corruption both domestically and overseas, she opens the conversation up to concerns of resource stewardship globally as corruption and abuse of resources is not unique to America and foreign players have been and continue to be embedded in the American economic system. Taking Taub’s arguments a step further, looking at large financial moves with more scrutiny may uncover a more complicated network that is in control of how and where money flows in the American economy. By analyzing our own economic structure and processes, we can develop more nuanced reasoning and prosecute more white-collar crime, which is necessary to even begin to tackle the issue of corruption in American politics.
When looking at second and third-world developing countries, it is important to keep Traub’s warnings against allowing the wealthy few to essentially buy democracy, whether that takes form in education, real estate, or political elections. Taub is relevant to more than just the United States because the insurmountable issue of corruption in America could have been avoided had the government held a tighter grip on legislation that favored the 1% and if the public had known the truth behind their government institutions. This means that other countries should take note of Taub’s explanation for the current state of affairs in the U.S. and work to prevent the cycle from repeating itself. While Taub does an excellent job of pointing out the fraudulent activity in elite circles, it is important to think of how these crimes and actions are affecting the rest of the population. Taub’s criticism of the 2019 College Admissions scandal points to this notion by digging into how wealthy families were able to pass off their children as athletes, thereby taking scholarships and opportunities from more deserving candidates.
The root of Taub’s argument is clear: the wealthy and their relationships with politicians who have at least some sort of political power have ruined democracy in America in favor of a purely transactional model. While Taub successfully articulates this argument with flares of personal commentary and comparisons between various white-collar crimes where justice was not served, it can be easy to get lost in the technical language of the topic, even with some extremely helpful discussions and descriptions of key topics. Big Dirty Money demands attention both because of the inherent importance of its core content and because the topics discussed here are rarely talked about in truth and even more rarely corrected or fixed.
If you didn’t know about the dire white-collar crime circumstances in the United States before, you will after reading Big Dirty Money. Taub effectively gives a functioning foundation of this epidemic of crime in our government through creative uses of lawsuits, suspicious activity on the part of celebrities and the wealthy, and bits of history that contextualize her arguments into the modern issues we are facing today. This novel is incredibly relevant in thinking about protecting our democracy for years to come, as well as for fighting for equity across class and race in society.
January 6, 2021
Pacific Gas and Electric, General Motors, Governor Robert MacDonnell of Virginia, Wells Fargo, Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos, WeWork, Enron, Sandy Weill, Countrywide Mortgage, Ivan Boesky, Sackler's and OxyContin, Donald Trump’s tax evasion and the Subprime Mortgage Collapse...
The list above are just a few of the latest examples of corporate and individual greed that have largely gone unpunished. Companies may get fined and they may receive a slap on their wrists but few executives go to jail.
Taub provides an overview of various scandals and its effect on consumers, taxpayers and the public in general. She also offers some suggestions on how to better enforce regulations and laws. However given the greed of American businesses, the indifference of the American public and the soullessness of the Republican Party, I don’t think much will happen.
Well written book---makes a number of great points but she’s preaching to the choir to this reader..
My notes from the book below:
Just day after Valentine's Day in 2020, President Donald Trump granted clemency to a slew of affluent felons. Their offenses? Bribery, investment fraud, tax evasion, Medicare fraud, public corruption, computer hacking, and extortion cover-up, money laundering, conspiracy to defraud the federal government, obstruction of justice, mail fraud, wire fraud.
White-collar crime in America , such as fraud and embezzlement , cost victims and estimated three hundred billion to eight hundred billion dollars per year yet street level property crimes including burglary , larceny and theft cost us far less – – around sixteen billion dollars annually , according to the FBI .
In 2018, the Wells Fargo Board of Directors authorized paying shareholders billions of dollars in dividends and stock buybacks, but the bank still announced layoffs of more than 26,000 employees.
When powerful people plunder with impunity, they grow even wealthier. And they can use this wealth to change the laws and their enforcement so that they favored those at the top like themselves. This is not a theory. It's reality.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: "From 1999 to 2017, almost 218,000 people died in the United States from overdoses related to prescription opioids. That was more than half of the nearly 400,000 opioid deaths during that time period.”
The IRS was busy trying to survive budget cut after budget cut. Its 2019 budget was around $2 billion lower than in 2009. Along came layoffs, with 30,000 fewer employees at the IRS by 2020. Fewer auditors meant fewer audits. The agency lost out on collecting at least $18 billion per year.
The 2017 tax giveaway was expected to cost around $1.9 trillion by 2027, according to the Congressional budget office. Imagine if we had directed that money to where the greatest need is, not the greatest greed. We could have provided affordable childcare and pre-K to all families for a decade. But that's not all. Child poverty would have been eliminated during that period of time. After doing both, we could've raise teachers wages in a low income area schools by $10,000, doubled the amount of government funding for climate science, invested $100 billion fighting the opioid epidemic, and directed $60 billion towards community colleges.
The list above are just a few of the latest examples of corporate and individual greed that have largely gone unpunished. Companies may get fined and they may receive a slap on their wrists but few executives go to jail.
Taub provides an overview of various scandals and its effect on consumers, taxpayers and the public in general. She also offers some suggestions on how to better enforce regulations and laws. However given the greed of American businesses, the indifference of the American public and the soullessness of the Republican Party, I don’t think much will happen.
Well written book---makes a number of great points but she’s preaching to the choir to this reader..
My notes from the book below:
Just day after Valentine's Day in 2020, President Donald Trump granted clemency to a slew of affluent felons. Their offenses? Bribery, investment fraud, tax evasion, Medicare fraud, public corruption, computer hacking, and extortion cover-up, money laundering, conspiracy to defraud the federal government, obstruction of justice, mail fraud, wire fraud.
White-collar crime in America , such as fraud and embezzlement , cost victims and estimated three hundred billion to eight hundred billion dollars per year yet street level property crimes including burglary , larceny and theft cost us far less – – around sixteen billion dollars annually , according to the FBI .
In 2018, the Wells Fargo Board of Directors authorized paying shareholders billions of dollars in dividends and stock buybacks, but the bank still announced layoffs of more than 26,000 employees.
When powerful people plunder with impunity, they grow even wealthier. And they can use this wealth to change the laws and their enforcement so that they favored those at the top like themselves. This is not a theory. It's reality.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: "From 1999 to 2017, almost 218,000 people died in the United States from overdoses related to prescription opioids. That was more than half of the nearly 400,000 opioid deaths during that time period.”
The IRS was busy trying to survive budget cut after budget cut. Its 2019 budget was around $2 billion lower than in 2009. Along came layoffs, with 30,000 fewer employees at the IRS by 2020. Fewer auditors meant fewer audits. The agency lost out on collecting at least $18 billion per year.
The 2017 tax giveaway was expected to cost around $1.9 trillion by 2027, according to the Congressional budget office. Imagine if we had directed that money to where the greatest need is, not the greatest greed. We could have provided affordable childcare and pre-K to all families for a decade. But that's not all. Child poverty would have been eliminated during that period of time. After doing both, we could've raise teachers wages in a low income area schools by $10,000, doubled the amount of government funding for climate science, invested $100 billion fighting the opioid epidemic, and directed $60 billion towards community colleges.
February 1, 2021
I bought this book from Barnes and noble after an hour of browsing. That is significant bc Barnes stocks over 15k titles per store. The streets in the USA are paved with Gold.... And BIG DIRTY $.
What my 👂 heard ⤵️
white collar crime costs 300 to 800 billon a year yet street level property crimes including burglary larceny and theft cost us far less around $16 billion annually according to the FBI we cannot know the full extent of white collar crime as the FBI does not report an annual total
the wealth has been safely squirreled away
kleptocracy-government by theives
racism is baked into that conclusion
less than 2% of the person's committed to prisons in a year belong to the upper class.
what crooked practices are found in your occupation?
law is like a cobweb-it's made for flies and the smaller kinds of insects, so to speak, but lets the big bumble bees break through
no·men·cla·ture
/ˈnōmənˌklāCHər/
Learn to pronounce
noun
the devising or choosing of names for things, especially in a science or other discipline.
du·plic·i·ty
/d(y)o͞oˈplisədē/
Learn to pronounce
noun
1.
deceitfulness; double-dealing.
we sell blank crack cars cribs 100 miles per hour
larceny, theft of personal property
there is a mentality of too big to jail in the financial sector
donald trump complained in 2012 that every other country in the world was bribing foreign officials... and we aren't allowd to
forgiveness is a gift with tremendous value, both to The Grantor and to
the recipient
as of 2018, the United States is the most incarcerating nation in the history of humanity
everyone knows which side their bread is buttered on
in many states its harder to set up a library card then to set up a shell company
senator Graham said that the United States was becoming second only to Switzerland for parking illicit money noting that the US is more desirable for hiding money now than even the Cayman islands
in 2018, the tax cap was as much as $800 billion the difference between what it should be collecting each year and what it actually brings in through tax receipts
only about 3% of the annual tax Gap is owed by low income earners who bring in $20,000 or less per year of personal income and are almost just as likely to be audited as the one percent
the IRS is now ignoring wealthy tax cheats while penalizing low income workers over small mistakes
crim·i·no·gen·ic
/ˌkrimənəˈjenik/
Learn to pronounce
adjective
adjective: criminogenic
(of a system, situation, or place) causing or likely to cause criminal behavior.
"the criminogenic nature of homelessness"
What my 👂 heard ⤵️
white collar crime costs 300 to 800 billon a year yet street level property crimes including burglary larceny and theft cost us far less around $16 billion annually according to the FBI we cannot know the full extent of white collar crime as the FBI does not report an annual total
the wealth has been safely squirreled away
kleptocracy-government by theives
racism is baked into that conclusion
less than 2% of the person's committed to prisons in a year belong to the upper class.
what crooked practices are found in your occupation?
law is like a cobweb-it's made for flies and the smaller kinds of insects, so to speak, but lets the big bumble bees break through
no·men·cla·ture
/ˈnōmənˌklāCHər/
Learn to pronounce
noun
the devising or choosing of names for things, especially in a science or other discipline.
du·plic·i·ty
/d(y)o͞oˈplisədē/
Learn to pronounce
noun
1.
deceitfulness; double-dealing.
we sell blank crack cars cribs 100 miles per hour
larceny, theft of personal property
there is a mentality of too big to jail in the financial sector
donald trump complained in 2012 that every other country in the world was bribing foreign officials... and we aren't allowd to
forgiveness is a gift with tremendous value, both to The Grantor and to
the recipient
as of 2018, the United States is the most incarcerating nation in the history of humanity
everyone knows which side their bread is buttered on
in many states its harder to set up a library card then to set up a shell company
senator Graham said that the United States was becoming second only to Switzerland for parking illicit money noting that the US is more desirable for hiding money now than even the Cayman islands
in 2018, the tax cap was as much as $800 billion the difference between what it should be collecting each year and what it actually brings in through tax receipts
only about 3% of the annual tax Gap is owed by low income earners who bring in $20,000 or less per year of personal income and are almost just as likely to be audited as the one percent
the IRS is now ignoring wealthy tax cheats while penalizing low income workers over small mistakes
crim·i·no·gen·ic
/ˌkrimənəˈjenik/
Learn to pronounce
adjective
adjective: criminogenic
(of a system, situation, or place) causing or likely to cause criminal behavior.
"the criminogenic nature of homelessness"
November 22, 2022
A combination of depressing and angering, this book shows recent break downs in white collar laws and prosecutions, leading to growth of white collar crime.
The subtitle is "making white collar criminals pay", and most of the book it felt like there wasn't much we could do - this is all about corruption and collusion among the 1%. However, in chapter 11 (I see what you did there Jennifer) six fixes are proposed. Empowering the Justice Department and pushing to amend and clean up laws is still out of our hands, though we can reach out to our local representatives. The fifth and sixth tips are to restore funding to the IRS and improve data collection - perhaps further from our control. The third and fourth tips though - more visibility into white collar crimes, along with protecting journalists and whistleblowers *is* something we can more directly affect. I've got some thoughts along these lines...
I've seen other reviews complain that this is too basic. I appreciated reading about the history of the designation "white collar crime". Some of these cases are in the papers, and so I can understand complaints about fatigue also. The descriptions of crimes - and more importantly impacts - is part of that visibility, but many criminals are definitely trying to play the "court of public opinion" to their favor.
Yes, the situations this book describes are maddening. I appreciate a resource and an author that is willing to point out the problems and call for solutions. The paperback version contains an epilogue that paints an additional year of results. It also contains an extensive index and more than 50 pages of notes on the sources quoted. Highly recommended.
The subtitle is "making white collar criminals pay", and most of the book it felt like there wasn't much we could do - this is all about corruption and collusion among the 1%. However, in chapter 11 (I see what you did there Jennifer) six fixes are proposed. Empowering the Justice Department and pushing to amend and clean up laws is still out of our hands, though we can reach out to our local representatives. The fifth and sixth tips are to restore funding to the IRS and improve data collection - perhaps further from our control. The third and fourth tips though - more visibility into white collar crimes, along with protecting journalists and whistleblowers *is* something we can more directly affect. I've got some thoughts along these lines...
I've seen other reviews complain that this is too basic. I appreciated reading about the history of the designation "white collar crime". Some of these cases are in the papers, and so I can understand complaints about fatigue also. The descriptions of crimes - and more importantly impacts - is part of that visibility, but many criminals are definitely trying to play the "court of public opinion" to their favor.
Yes, the situations this book describes are maddening. I appreciate a resource and an author that is willing to point out the problems and call for solutions. The paperback version contains an epilogue that paints an additional year of results. It also contains an extensive index and more than 50 pages of notes on the sources quoted. Highly recommended.
August 31, 2021
This was a really great book and exposes how pervasive white collar crime is in our society. My only critique is that I wish the author had refrained from some of her anti-Trump zealotry as it needlessly politicized what could have been a book that brought together the entire working class. That said, I understand that anti-Trumpism is in vogue and is especially popular among many who read her books so it may have helped her bottom line to specifically and repeatedly attack the former President. To be clear, it is not that I don't realize that Trump has some history of corruption, but rather that I think it is a simplification to focus only on his business corruption when as President his policies and particularly the 2017 tax cuts demonstrably benefitted working people (along with those in every income bracket). I think it is particularly unfair to attack only Trump's corruption while failing to mention how Presidents Clinton and Obama both became extremely wealthy following their Presidencies. It is not a left vs right issue; it is a have vs have not issue. All that being said, I really enjoyed the book and think it is among the best looks at how corruption hurts us all.
November 11, 2020
This was thankfully not very long and rather boring at times however, it very importantly displays the huge levels of corruption in government and business. There are many specific examples and some details which I wouldn't remember anyway so I hurried through them. Reading about the inequity of justice between the wealthy criminals and the regular people is exasperating. She has good suggestions on how to help clean things up. I think this is good to read to be informed about why some decisions are made at top levels and who makes them. This book should get people to pay attention, stay informed and write to politicians when red flags are up.
January 29, 2021
Probably closer to 3.5** But, this book should have been totally up my alley. And yet, I found myself totally bored, and unable to read it for more than a few minutes at a time. I think some of it was that there was a lot of dense material, but it was covered only loosely and quickly… And a lot of the interesting fodder, the actual court cases, were covered so quickly, that you could barely understand what the issue was before she already moved onto a new issue. I normally complain that non-fiction books are a bit too long, but in this case, it was certainly a bit too short.
May 23, 2021
- Glass-Steagal’s removal has led to so much corruption.
- Whistleblowers get little protection now.
- IRS needs a refunding
- Loopholes need closure
- Stock buybacks have been at record levels since Trump cut corporate taxes and average folks’ taxes will go or have gone up
Big Dirty Money is why America is the most overrated country in the world. Only a nation this dumb would have a Columbia graduate lie that he went to Harvard to cheat people into getting him money for his twins’ preschool education.
- Whistleblowers get little protection now.
- IRS needs a refunding
- Loopholes need closure
- Stock buybacks have been at record levels since Trump cut corporate taxes and average folks’ taxes will go or have gone up
Big Dirty Money is why America is the most overrated country in the world. Only a nation this dumb would have a Columbia graduate lie that he went to Harvard to cheat people into getting him money for his twins’ preschool education.
August 8, 2022
Big Dirty Money serves as a call to action with the problem of favoring the call more than the case for the call to action. There are several great examples provided just as we're about to get into the meat of the problem. I also had issues/concerns with how the book was laid out. It wraps up with the various calls for action which would have been more suitable for being shared upfront. It weakens the book by having to recap each call to action reasoning after we've read about it dozens of pages before.
A good idea for a book but not a great book. Worth your time but not too long.
A good idea for a book but not a great book. Worth your time but not too long.
October 26, 2020
This is the criminal justice angle that gets no attention! But why would it since it affects those at the top who just want to take more from the rest of us with impunity? Taub raises the point that no statistics are done on white collar crime, criminal convictions are not attempted because courts have made intent harder to prove, and definitions of corruption more strict. Why?
The rich are held to a different standard than you or me - none.
The rich are held to a different standard than you or me - none.
December 8, 2021
Time and again, examples like the ones mentioned in this book show how the wealthy play by a different set of rules, and how we're actually closer to living in a feudal system, where few players who hold a big % of the wealth & power actually do whatever they want with impunity, and get away with it. The plebs meanwhile are kept distracted by some or the other petty thing... An infuriating read. Would not recommend it if you want to feel relaxed. Riled me up.
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