It Takes a Pillage Publisher: Wiley Paperback – 2010

Nomi Prins wrote in the Introduction to this 2009 book, "I'm writing about some of these bankers that orchestrated expensive life jackets in a sea of their financial debris, because I used to traverse their world. As a managing director at Goldman Sachs, who was responsible for... the group that provided credit derivatives analytics, and a senior managing director at Bear Stearns International in charge of the group the provided numbers behind all sorts of securitized deals, I had an upfront and global seat for a lot of the internal politics and power plays that drive the internal pillaging." (Pg. 6)She argues that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner "had the option of coming up with a different plan to stabilize the banking system, rather than purchasing shares in its unwieldy firms. It could have been perfect. He could have taken the mantra of change that Obama rode into the White House on and turned the banking industry inside out, beating it into submission in return for helping it survive. So did he? No. He went back to Paulson's original plan of buying up toxic assets..." (Pg. 41)She asserts forcefully that "the most irksome class of lies... is that we're all victims to a bunch of poor people who bought McMansions, or at least homes they had no business living in. If that was really what this crisis was all about, we could have solved it much more cheaply in a couple of days in late 2008, by simply providing borrowers with additional capital to reduce their loan principals. It would have cost 3 percent of what the entire bailout would up costing, with comparatively similar risk." (Pg. 42)She contends, "the federal response to all of [bankers'] grief was monetary assistance and a shocking lack of prudence, rather than taking the opportunity afforded by their weakened state to administer real reform. Thus, the stage remains set for a repeat occurrence of the Second Great Bank Depression." (Pg. 78) Later, she added, "Life is a lot harder to stomach when you've lost your job and your retirement fund... and then you hear that ... people on Wall Street each bagged $10 million or more during what had been a horrific year for most everyone else. You can't help but wonder ... why your tax dollars are subsidizing them... No one in Washington asked you or me whether we wanted to contribute to executives' bonuses." (Pg. 151)She concludes, "We must ask ourselves: Do we have what it takes to stop the financial insanity this time? Or will we be lulled into complacency once again, so eager for a return to 'normal' that we fail to stop the same systemic cascade of reckless and shady practices and greed from devastating us all over again? And the answer must be: No, we won't! It's past time to flex our will and end the next pillage before it starts." (Pg. 224)Prins' jabs are very much "on the money," and this is one of the most interesting books about the financial crisis of 2008 and later.