13 Bankers — James Kwak

A New York Times
Bestseller

Order

13 Bankers is a chilling tale of the dangers of concentrated economic, intellectual, and political power.

Senator Jim Bunning
Member of the Baseball Hall of Fame
Johnson and Kwak see the deeper political and cultural context that permitted carelessness and excess nearly to break the financial system and plunge us into a depression.

Senator Bill Bradley
Member of the Basketball Hall of Fame
We should heed the lesson that Simon Johnson and James Kwak draw: the continued concentration of economic and political power makes future economic crises inevitable and undermines democracy.

Congressman Brad Miller
A disturbing and painstakingly researched account of how the banks wrenched control of government and society out of our hands—and what we can do to seize it back.

Bill Moyers
A beautifully written and powerful story that ties the current financial crisis to a cycle of politics as old as the Republic, and to a pathology in our politics that is as profound as any that our Republic has faced.

Lawrence Lessig
Harvard Law School
Unless we separate money from politics, we’ll never be safe from another financial meltdown. In fact, we’ll never really be safe. Read this fine book and get to work.

Robert Reich
U.S. Secretary of Labor
We in Congress would be wise to take their advice.

Congressman Brad Sherman
If you want to understand how Wall Street captured Washington and how it tenaciously hangs on to that power, read 13 Bankers.

Senator Elizabeth Warren
If you’ve ever wondered why our financial regulators and banks made our financial system less efficient and much more dangerous, you should read this book.

Paul Romer
Nobel Laureate in Economics
His and James Kwak’s analysis of the unholy inter-twining of Washington and Wall Street–a cross between the gilded age and a banana republic–is essential reading.

Niall Ferguson
Harvard University
Johnson and Kwak demonstrate that what is good for Wall Street is decidedly not good for Main Street, and present a bracing, and at times frightening, analysis of how Big Finance has undermined our political system.

Arianna Huffington

Excerpt

“13 Bankers,” New York Times

Reviews

A well-documented appeal to embrace once again Thomas Jefferson’s skepticism of concentrated banking power.

—Louis Uchitelle, New York Times:

The authors’ main thrust is very well made: the burden of proof is on financial institutions to show that what they do is socially and economically worthwhile, not on governments and regulators to prove that it is not.

—Alan Beattie, Financial Times:

Mr. Johnson offers an enticing vision of a Wall Street confined, its potency limited to put-downs and head-shaking: a Wall Street where right-sized banking is a do-gooder word for a safer, saner system that has learned from its mistakes.

—David Weidner, Wall Street Journal

The best book of a fine bunch. . . . a brilliant, important, and extremely unsettling work.

—Jonathan Kirshner, Boston Review

I’m told that lots of copies of 13 Bankers are making their way around Capitol Hill. Even Chris Dodd told Don Imus that he is reading it. This could be the rare book than can actually have an impact on the vital debate happening right now in Washington.

—Arianna Huffington, The Huffington Post

Though Jamie Dimon won’t like this (any more than John D. Rockefeller did), incremental regulatory changes and populist rhetoric about “banksters” are getting us nowhere. It’s time for practical solutions. This might be a place to start.

—James Pressley, Bloomberg

An angry but well-documented survey of how nearly 30 years of deregulation under both Republicans and Democrats has created a few gigantic and, the authors say, uncontrollable financial institutions.

—Tom Abate, The San Francisco Chronicle

It’s been take, take, take by the bankers—without them giving anything much in return.

—Jonathan Ford, Prospect Magazine

It’s slow in the very best sense of that word. It’s a terrific book, highly recommended.

—Stephen Metcalf, Slate’s Culture Gabfest

This staid looking text holds an explosive idea: Wall Street has hijacked our government. And without a total overhaul, taxpayers will endlessly foot the bill for its sins.

—Katie Benner, Fortune

When Congress and the administration fight it out, 13 Bankers will be a must-read. And come the next crash, it will be so again.

—Jeffrey E. Garten, The Daily Beast

No book on the meltdown will make you angrier than 13 Bankers.

—Christopher Caldwell, The Weekly Standard

One of the most valuable contributions to the literature on the financial crisis.

—Arnold Kling, EconLog

[A] really good thing to read.

—Brad DeLong

Un essai engagé et une analyse informée et rigoureuse des liens incestueux entre la finance et la politique.

—Adrien Auclert, La Vie des Idées, Collège de France

Media

All Things Considered, March 26, 2010

The Leonard Lopate Show, March 30, 2010

The Colbert Report, March 30, 2010

Diane Rehm, April 1, 2010

C-SPAN, April 6, 2010

Radio Open Source with Christopher Lydon, April 14, 2010

Bill Moyers Journal, April 16, 2010

A New York Times Bestseller

13 Bankers is a chilling tale of the dangers of concentrated economic, intellectual, and political power.

Johnson and Kwak see the deeper political and cultural context that permitted carelessness and excess nearly to break the financial system and plunge us into a depression.

We should heed the lesson that Simon Johnson and James Kwak draw: the continued concentration of economic and political power makes future economic crises inevitable and undermines democracy.

A disturbing and painstakingly researched account of how the banks wrenched control of government and society out of our hands—and what we can do to seize it back.

A beautifully written and powerful story that ties the current financial crisis to a cycle of politics as old as the Republic, and to a pathology in our politics that is as profound as any that our Republic has faced.

Unless we separate money from politics, we’ll never be safe from another financial meltdown. In fact, we’ll never really be safe. Read this fine book and get to work.

We in Congress would be wise to take their advice.

If you want to understand how Wall Street captured Washington and how it tenaciously hangs on to that power, read 13 Bankers.

If you’ve ever wondered why our financial regulators and banks made our financial system less efficient and much more dangerous, you should read this book.

His and James Kwak’s analysis of the unholy inter-twining of Washington and Wall Street–a cross between the gilded age and a banana republic–is essential reading.

Johnson and Kwak demonstrate that what is good for Wall Street is decidedly not good for Main Street, and present a bracing, and at times frightening, analysis of how Big Finance has undermined our political system.

Excerpt

Reviews

Media

A New York Times
Bestseller