Other People's Money: The Corporate Mugging of America

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Ms. Prins, she tells us, was shocked, SHOCKED, to discover that Goldman Sachs is not a boy-scout troop. Well, yes, however I was left wondering why it took her fifteen years on Wall Street, and two years as an M.D. at Goldman, to realise this (more prissy than Claude Rains, she is careful to let us know that she left her winnings behind her). Has she never read Liar's Poker? Actually apparently she has, but you wouldn't guess.

No more impressive is her self-congratulatory description of how she would split from Goldman in her lunch break to join anti-IMF/WB/WTO/globalisation-in-general demos, which clearly gave her a self-satisfied glow of virtue. Unfortunately this does not strengthen her credentials. G-S may not require merit badges from prospective employees, but it does expect analytic intelligence, and anyone capable of landing a senior job there should have known that the (refined - if not the WSJ ed. page) case for globalisation has never been in dispute by uncool nerdy policy wonks (i.e. informed, intelligent people), but only by cool rock musicians and social sciences/culture studies students, and that all those feel-good demos were essentially no more than destructive stupidity, hurting the people whom the participants - at least sometimes - thought they were helping. Ms. Prins should read more by those infamous capitalist predators Paul Krugman and Jagdish Bhagwati before venturing back into print (she might also learn from them how to write).

Other Peoples Money comes with blurbs from the Economist and Ralph Nader both. It was even listed by the Economist as a book of the year (how can you resist a book recomended by Ralph Nader and the Economist both?), and as such it is a serious disappointment. It sprays moral indignation around with a firehose, but condemns banks as much for simply trying to make money as for gross moral turpitude, which is very bad for its case, since there is clearly moral turpitude and to spare.

This book reads like a set of preliminary notes, not a finished book: it repeats itself over and over, it lacks structure (indignation is not structure), and it lacks a coherent case. The real, and overwhelming, moral case, which is never effectively made, is not about the wickedness of banks, but about the need for effective, disinterested regulation. (Sure, there is lots about weak regulation, but this is presented as the fault of the banks - but there is nothing immoral about banks lobbying for privileges - everybody lobbys for privileges, proletarian heros such as steel workers included - what is wrong is politicians who are stupid or venal enough to give in to such lobbying).

Completely missing, also, is any analysis of the *stupidity*, as opposed to the corruption, of the banks and the consultants in the late 1990s and early 2000s; if they were dope pushing sharks, then they were also sharks addled a lot of the time on the stuff they were selling.

My conclusion, at the end (or more accurately, at about page 200, when I gave up), was that, with enemies like Ms. Prins, the Street need lose no sleep over the steadfastness of its friends.

By the way, I no-more believe that Ralph Nader actually read Other People's Money before providing his blurb than that the Pope or Ian Paisley watch the movies they condemn.


Rating:
Summary: Whose Money? OURS!
Review: Nomi Prins is the meteorologist of the Market Crash of 2002. She analyzes the "perfect storm" created by deregulation in banking, energy and telecom markets; combined with the manipulation of political power, and the avarice and greed of key executives in these industries.

Want to know whose money? OURS!


Rating:
Summary: A devastating indictment of corporate greed and regulatory c
Review: Other People's Money is a suspenseful, smart, compulsively readable account of the outrageous deceptions and monumental malfeasance of a number of high-flying corporations and the ego-driven executives who brought them to ruin ... along with the pensions, jobs and lives of thousands of American workers. Scarier still, the author convincingly argues that the reforms designed to prevent a recurrence of these scandalous doings are hopelessly inadequate to the task.

Written by a Wall Street insider (who happens to be -- surprise! surprise! -- a terrific writer), this gripping book teases apart the tangled relationships among corporations, Wall Street and government regulators. Despite the fact that it's exceedingly thorough and well documented, the book is never dull or dry. The author's passion and wit come through on every page.

Other People's Money is a "must-read" book ... and the sooner the better. It should absolutely be read by November 2!


Rating:
Summary: Exactly...
Review: What great journalism is supposed to do, challenge the powerful and succinctly, clear lay out complex issues to explain the motivations at their core. This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to see how the free market system has been overrun by charlatans and criminals whose hands were held by government and who all the while claimed to be its champions.