The definitive big picture on the financial crisis, from the man behind the Oscar-winning documentary that exposed the workings of the new economic elite Based on explosive interviews conducted personally by award-winning filmmaker Charles Ferguson, as well as newly released court documents and information buried in archives, Inside Job traces in gripping detail how the financial industry and its enablers went rogue. Ferguson shows how three decades of deregulation created a predator nation and invited the crisis, particularly as key players cycled through positions of power in government, independent academia, and big-ticket finance. With clarity, toughness, and stunning freshness, he delivers an unrivalled accounting of how the new economic oligarchy have wrested control of our politics and our prospects for eventual recovery.
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Ferguson presents a fierce indictment of predatory activities of parts of the financial system and of the corruption of democracy that big money financial lobbying has caused. A book well worth reading regardless of whether you fully agree or not with all of its arguments. --Nouriel Roubini, Professor at New York University and author of Crisis Economics
This take-no-prisoners account of the financial crisis follows the money, connects the dots, names names, and asks the questions our leaders still refuse to answer: how have those responsible for the crisis not been held accountable, and how can we make sure it doesn t happen again? --Arianna Huffington, Editor-in-Chief of the Huffington Post
As gripping as any thriller. --The Guardian on Charles Ferguson s film Inside Job
He's clever, he's funny, he doesn't pull his punches… [Ferguson's] evisceration of the Obama government's alliance with the banks opens a new front in the war on Wall Street…. If only righteous fury were always this enjoyable. --The Guardian
One of the outstanding journalistic achievements of the past decade --Daily Mail on the film Inside Job
‘I was totally gripped and have sat up in bed every night reading [Inside Job] until my eyes just couldn’t stay open any more. I liked the film, and the book is even better… you have to read this book.' FT Weekend review
This take-no-prisoners account of the financial crisis follows the money, connects the dots, names names, and asks the questions our leaders still refuse to answer: how have those responsible for the crisis not been held accountable, and how can we make sure it doesn t happen again? --Arianna Huffington, Editor-in-Chief of the Huffington Post
As gripping as any thriller. --The Guardian on Charles Ferguson s film Inside Job
He's clever, he's funny, he doesn't pull his punches… [Ferguson's] evisceration of the Obama government's alliance with the banks opens a new front in the war on Wall Street…. If only righteous fury were always this enjoyable. --The Guardian
One of the outstanding journalistic achievements of the past decade --Daily Mail on the film Inside Job
‘I was totally gripped and have sat up in bed every night reading [Inside Job] until my eyes just couldn’t stay open any more. I liked the film, and the book is even better… you have to read this book.' FT Weekend review
About the Author
Charles Ferguson won an Oscar in 2011 for Inside Job, his documentary on the financial crisis, and was an Oscar nominee for his first documentary, No End In Sight, on the war in Iraq. He is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, holds a PhD in Political Science from MIT, and has been a technology policy consultant to the White House and the Office of the US Trade Representative, as well as to leading technology companies including Apple, IBM, and Texas Instruments. He was the co-founder of Vermeer Technologies, which invented the web tool Front Page, later sold to Microsoft. A former visiting scholar at MIT and Berkeley, he has also been a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. He has written four books, and is a life member of the Council of Foreign Relations and a director of the French-American Foundation.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A WELL RESEARCHED AND FASCINATING ANALYSIS OF THE RECENT FINANCIAL CRISIS
30 July 2012
By RT
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I bought the Kindle version of this book as a "daily deal offer" without having heard of the film, which I have now bought (but not yet watched).
I previously had a fairly vague idea of the reasons behind the crisis, and tended to the view that yes the bankers were overpaid and greedy, but that we had all participated in borrowing and spending "easy money". I thought that the crisis was simply an unforseeable accident.
The book soon wiped away this view. Ferguson writes well and describes in easily understandable language just what was behind the crisis. He explains sub-prime mortgages, structured products, derivatives and hedge funds, CDOs and other exotic financial instuments. I now feel that I understand what these things are. Ferguson's writing style is clear and pleasurable to read, his only failing in this respect is that he often repeats things later on, but this is a minor irritation.
The book is well researched and backed up with extensive citations and references - the last 20% of the Kindle edition. What really opened my eyes was his detailed account of how the entire finance industry, banks, investment banks,mortgage lenders, ratings agencies, academics, regulators (in the USA) and insureres are all in each others pockets, with a common goal of self-enrichment at all costs. It is truly horrifying to learn that even when the property bubble was deflating, investment banks and insurers were offloading toxic assets onto unsuspecting investors, even betting (via "shorts") that these investment funds, sold to inexperienced or non-savvy institutions, would fail.
This book is a biting indictment of a system which rewards insiders by huge salaries and bonuses, while allows failure and fraud to go unpunished. The recent revelations of LIBOR rate fixing and HSBC's involvement in money laundering are not in fact very new, Ferguson points to them in the book.
Ferguson broadens his analysis to the current structures (and woes)of the US economic and social systems. I strongly recommend Inside Job as essential reading to anyone who wants to understand what happened in this crisis, and to the lack of any coherent political response to the dominance and rapacity of finance in the US (and the UK).
I previously had a fairly vague idea of the reasons behind the crisis, and tended to the view that yes the bankers were overpaid and greedy, but that we had all participated in borrowing and spending "easy money". I thought that the crisis was simply an unforseeable accident.
The book soon wiped away this view. Ferguson writes well and describes in easily understandable language just what was behind the crisis. He explains sub-prime mortgages, structured products, derivatives and hedge funds, CDOs and other exotic financial instuments. I now feel that I understand what these things are. Ferguson's writing style is clear and pleasurable to read, his only failing in this respect is that he often repeats things later on, but this is a minor irritation.
The book is well researched and backed up with extensive citations and references - the last 20% of the Kindle edition. What really opened my eyes was his detailed account of how the entire finance industry, banks, investment banks,mortgage lenders, ratings agencies, academics, regulators (in the USA) and insureres are all in each others pockets, with a common goal of self-enrichment at all costs. It is truly horrifying to learn that even when the property bubble was deflating, investment banks and insurers were offloading toxic assets onto unsuspecting investors, even betting (via "shorts") that these investment funds, sold to inexperienced or non-savvy institutions, would fail.
This book is a biting indictment of a system which rewards insiders by huge salaries and bonuses, while allows failure and fraud to go unpunished. The recent revelations of LIBOR rate fixing and HSBC's involvement in money laundering are not in fact very new, Ferguson points to them in the book.
Ferguson broadens his analysis to the current structures (and woes)of the US economic and social systems. I strongly recommend Inside Job as essential reading to anyone who wants to understand what happened in this crisis, and to the lack of any coherent political response to the dominance and rapacity of finance in the US (and the UK).
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By J. Wyper
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I bought this having watched the film several times. The book has the advantage of being able to go into subjects in greater depth, with more examples, and whilst the film's awkward interviews and "xxxx declined to be interviewed" lines made for a good spectacle they ultimately made the film appear very one-sided. The book is much better at placing the 2008 crisis in context - comparing the banking "industry" with other large, complacent and often corrupt American industries of the past (cars, steel etc.); and also there's more on how banking and finance have contributed to a massive rise in income inequality over the past few decades - a rise which has masked declining living standards for the bulk of the US (and UK) population.
It's also more up-to-date, of course. However the final chapter on "What should be done" is very brief - none of the ideas are fully developed. And the book has several irritating typographical errors, especially near the beginning - the odd word missed out or two words conflated. Not to mention the use of the word "incented" instead of "incentivised"; not a word I was able to find in the dictionary online (English or American).
It's also more up-to-date, of course. However the final chapter on "What should be done" is very brief - none of the ideas are fully developed. And the book has several irritating typographical errors, especially near the beginning - the odd word missed out or two words conflated. Not to mention the use of the word "incented" instead of "incentivised"; not a word I was able to find in the dictionary online (English or American).
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Jippu
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Ferguson has also done a documentary, but the book is better. The analysis is clear and convincing and touches areas which are not mentioned in other books. E.g., in comparison to Lewis' "Big short" Ferguson, offers a much more comprehensive analysis on the mechanisms that led to the meltdown. The main explanation that it was not in the individual actors' interests to blow the whistle, mainly because they did not stand to lose personally. And so much money was involved that you could corrupt anybody... So most people were quite aware that terrible things were happening, but still did nothing. Ferguson thinks it was grievously wrong that the main culprits have not been prosecuted, because only this would stop future crises from developing.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Everything you want to know.
I have always wondered that despite the fact the world was bought to its financial knees by the bankers from 2008, no-one has really been held to account - neither are they ever... Read more
Published 18 days ago by R. Sykes
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good book.. but a bit too much rhetoric
The author is obviously angry at the inaction of authorities, however reducing the rhetoric and focussing on the data would have made the book more readable.
Published 1 month ago by Ayan Kar
4.0 out of 5 stars
Damning indictment of the mess we're in
Detailed and insightful critique of corporate America, although Europe is mentioned too. The writing at times got a bit panic stricken. Read more
Published 2 months ago by R D Droy
2.0 out of 5 stars
That Day Is Done
Yet another book detailing the problems of the financial crash which began in 2007/8 and has not yet finished. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Honrus Publicus
5.0 out of 5 stars
A good read
Having watched the film I found this a very interesting follow up. Although some parts were a bit heavy I understood a lot about why the present crash has happened and how the... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Diane McDonnell
4.0 out of 5 stars
We needed this...
It's a powerful expose, & a genuine rallying call against the dangers of poorly governanced hegemonies. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Christopher Mathews
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