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PRAISE FOR SIMON JOHNSON AND JAMES KWAK’S 13 BANKERS
     
    “The best explanation yet for how the smart guys on Wall Street led us to the brink of collapse. In the process, Johnson and Kwak demystify our financial system, stripping it down to expose the ruthless power grab that lies at its center.”
    —Elizabeth Warren, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School; Chair, TARP Congressional Oversight Panel
     
    “Too many discussions of the Great Recession present it as a purely economic phenomenon.… Simon Johnson was the first to point out that this was and is a crisis of political economy. His and James Kwak’s analysis of the unholy intertwining of Washington and Wall Street—a cross between the gilded age and a banana republic—is essential reading.”
    —Niall Ferguson, Professor of History, Harvard University; Professor, Harvard Business School; and author of The Ascent of Money
     
    “A disturbing and painstakingly researched account of how the banks wrenched control of government and society out of our hands—and what we can do to seize it back.”
    —Bill Moyers
     
    “Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand what comes next for the world economy. Dangerous and reckless elements of our financial sector have become too powerful and must be reined in. If this problem is not addressed, there is serious trouble in all our futures.”
    —Nouriel Roubini, Professor of Economics, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University; Chairman of Roubini Global Economics
     
    “Beautifully written and powerful. Ties the current financial crisis to a cycle of politics as old as the Republic, and to a pathology in our politics that is as profound as any that our Republic has faced. Required reading for the president, and anyone else who cares for this Republic.”
    —Lawrence Lessig, Director of the Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics, Harvard University
     
    “Johnson and Kwak not only tell us in great detail how the crisis happened and what we must do to avoid another crisis, but they see the deeper political and cultural context that permitted carelessness and excess nearly to break the financial system and plunge us into a depression.”
    —Bill Bradley, former U.S. Senator
     
    “A chilling tale of the dangers of concentrated economic, intellectual, and political power. Even if you do not agree with everything the authors have to say, this book makes it clear why ending ‘too big to fail’ and reforming the institutions that perpetuate it are essential for our nation’s future economic prosperity and, more fundamentally, our democratic system.”
    —U.S. Senator Jim Bunning
     
    “This book is remarkable in its scope and conclusions. It places changes in financial services and the sector’s regulation over the last twenty years in the context of the last two hundred, and the comparison isn’t favorable. It’s the one book the president (and the Congress) should read.”
    —George David, former Chairman, United Technologies Corporation
     
    “A timely, informative, and important book. You may not agree with all the analysis, but the issues so clearly discussed are real, current, and vitally important. Financial industry reform must be undertaken soon; inaction, as the authors convincingly argue, would have dangerous consequences. This book explains it all, and it’s great reading.”
    —Lawrence K. Fish, former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Citizens Financial Group
     

SIMON JOHNSON AND JAMES KWAK
13 BANKERS
     
    Simon Johnson is Ronald A. Kurtz Professor of Entrepreneurship at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and a senior fellow of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He is coauthor, with James Kwak, of The Baseline Scenario, a leading economic blog, described by Paul Krugman as “a must-read” and by Bill Moyers as “one of the most informative news sites in the blogosphere.”
    James Kwak has had a successful business career as a consultant