Best Law
Best Banking Law
From Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Jesse Eisinger, “a fast moving, fly-on-the-wall, disheartening look at the deterioration of the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission…It is a book of superheroes” ( San Franscisco Review of Books ). These revealing looks provide context for the evolution of the Justice Department’s approach to pursuing corporate criminals through the early 2000s and into the Justice Department’s approach to pursuing corporate criminals through the early 2000s and into the Justice Department of today, including the prosecutorial fiascos, corporate lobbying, trial losses, and culture shifts that have stripped the government of the will and ability to prosecute top corporate executives. "That the Wall Street titans who blew up the financial system suffered little more than slight reductions in their bonuses only reinforced the perception that the “system” is 'rigged'—with the consequences we know only too well. The unfolding of the financial crisis makes for thrilling drama in Eisinger's hands, heightened by the anxiety still felt by all who survived it. “Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Eisinger does a masterful job of assembling this riveting dossier of the legal scholars, jurists, and elected officials who played a role in turning the U.S. into a nation in which white-collar criminals are celebrated for their cunning instead of incarcerated for their offenses.” —Booklist, Starred Review. “In a spare, elegant and unrelenting narrative, Jesse Eisinger's The Chickenshit Club tackles one of the biggest remaining mysteries about the 2008 financial crisis: Why the American justice system failed miserably in its responsibility to hold Wall Street accountable for its unforgivable behavior in exacerbating the near-meltdown of the global banking system.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The Chickens--t Club is a fast moving, fly on the wall, disheartening look at the deterioration of the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission, written sympathetically, thoroughly, but mostly - engagingly. They operate on their own, independent of the Justice Department, their dotted line overseers. They turned up clues, did forensic accounting, and turned (“flipped”) lower level criminals to get the executives. With George W. Bush, Justice deteriorated under Secretary Alberto Gonzalez, who was forced to resign, and the SEC deteriorated under Christopher Cox, whose intent appeared to be to simply let it collapse from inactivity. They have been battered by the collapse of Arthur Andersen, which put a lot of employees on the street, and has given us ridiculous arguments over “too big to fail” and markets that “self-regulate”. The most notable is probably (Judge) Jed Rakoff, who began at the SEC and as a judge, had the temerity to refuse settlements between the government and the corporate criminals, because they were superficial, trivial, insufficient, and demonstrated no sense of justice whatsoever. As a result, settlements now avoid approval by the courts. The final impression is that there is an absolute rainbow of crime constantly glowing over corporate America."
"James Comey gave Eisinger the title for his book when he took over as prosecutor for the Southern District of New York under a newly elected George W. Bush. Eisinger says that the very moment Comey gave that speech may have represented the apogee of prosecutorial zeal on the part of the financial enforcement regime. Even sadder, there is nobody looking out for the interests of the taxpayer, who is the pigeon of last resort, picking up the tab when the abuses that have been covered up by financial shenanigans finally cause a massive collapse."
"Like a lot of people, I found the 2008 meltdown pretty hard to understand. Jesse's book cut through all the jargon and the purposefully dense legalese and explained the financial scandal in clear, understandable terms that have opened my eyes."
"I knew that corporate executives were not found to jail for obvious felonies, this book explains why and how the government became so weak that it didn’t even try to go after individuals for a while and had low success when it restarted."
"eye opener....james coomey is in here with a passion for justice."
"Although I have not finished this book, what I have read of it is excellent--good information well presented."
"LOVED this book!"
"Eisinger describes a core problem with our criminal justice system and some of the reasons behind the disparity in the administration of justice in America."