Just finished my 4th book on the excesses of Wall St

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13 Bankers

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

13 Bankers describes the rise of concentrated financial power and the threat it poses to our economic well-being. Over the past three decades, a handful of banks became spectacularly large and profitable and used their power and prestige to reshape the political landscape.

Prior to that I've read:

Griftopia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America

It argues that the crisis was not an accident of the free market but the result of a complex and on-going politico-financial process taking place in the United States whereby wealth and power is transferred to a super-rich "grifter class" that holds a grip on the political process.

The Big Short - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine

The book was shortlisted for the 2010 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award. It spent 28 weeks on the New York Times non-fiction bestseller list

Third World America: Drowning In Debt And Choking On Lies - Business Insider

Third World America
How Our Politicians Are Abandoning the Middle Class and Betraying the American Dream

These books outline how Wall St basically owns the political process through their campaign contributions, army of lawyers, & lobbyists. I agree w/ 13 bankers in that if a financial institution is too big to fail (has to be bailed out by tax-payer $ under any & all circumstances) then its too big to exist.

Here's who the Repubs in the senate were sheilding from practical oversight/regs because, of course, the conservatives would yell "socialism!!!" look at 2:04 They made $50K in the amt of time they stood there in front of the cameras based on their annual bonus'.

from 5 yrs ago:
Compensation for top bank executives - CNNMoney.com

Good question at 3:25 too. They helped crater the economy through the pursuit of fees :

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eac0tTt64EQ]Inside Obama's bank CEOs meeting Eamon Javers POLITICO com - YouTube[/ame]​

what books have you read inre: Wall Streets capture of the political process and the consequent road to serfdom for the masses?

 

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This one looks illuminating/instructive as well. I may look into it after finishing my current book although 4 books on econ is more than enough for me (econ is not that exciting especially as it rerates to the pillaging varieties):
Age of Greed by Jeff Madrick - Book - eBook - Random House

He begins with Walter Wriston, head of what would become Citicorp, who led the battle against government regulation. He examines the ideas of economist Milton Friedman, who created the plan for an anti-Rooseveltian America; the politically expedient decisions of Richard Nixon that fueled inflation; the philosophy of Alan Greenspan, on whose libertarian ideology a house of cards was built on Wall Street; and the actions of Sandy Weill, who constructed the largest financial institution in the world, which would have gone bankrupt in 2008 without a federal bailout of $45 billion.

 

[Wiseacre]

I noticed you faulted the republicans, but not the democrats. Do you really think the Dems were not involved too? Seems odd, does it not, that if the Wall Streeters basically own the political process as you claim, that Barack Obama got elected or that the democrats managed to get a filibuster proof majority in the Senate.

I do agree that we've got too many financial institutions that are just too damn big. Dodd/Frank doesn't seem to be addressing that issue, in fact seems to be just the opposite. Instead of preventing more bailouts, it looks like they're preparing the guidelines for who gets the next one. And that's soley on the democrats, it was their bill.

 

[OohPooPahDoo]

I
Seems odd, does it not, that if the Wall Streeters basically own the political process as you claim, that Barack Obama got elected or that the democrats managed to get a filibuster proof majority in the Senate.

The last time the Democrats held a filibuster proof majority was in 1979.

 

[Unkotare]

Wow, you read four whole books! What a big boy!

 

[Katzndogz]

I would recommend Demonic by Ann Coulter, Ameritopia by Mark Levin, Bias by Bernie Goldberg and Shakedown by Kenneth R. Timmerman as an expose of how Jesse Jackson built an empire by using racisim to extort money.

 

[Dot Com]

I noticed you faulted the republicans, but not the democrats. Do you really think the Dems were not involved too? Seems odd, does it not, that if the Wall Streeters basically own the political process as you claim, that Barack Obama got elected or that the democrats managed to get a filibuster proof majority in the Senate.

I do agree that we've got too many financial institutions that are just too damn big. Dodd/Frank doesn't seem to be addressing that issue, in fact seems to be just the opposite. Instead of preventing more bailouts, it looks like they're preparing the guidelines for who gets the next one. And that's soley on the democrats, it was their bill.

the financial institutions give to both parties to hedge their bets. This is true. However, who drew up the bill to repeal Glass Steagall and who went to wall st to meet w/ bankers on the eve that the fin reform bill was being debated?
McConnell's Wall Street meeting prompts criticism from Democrats

Don't know if the tea party exists anymore but the *cough* "investment" (I use that term loosely) bankers do