Bibliograph

Broken bargain, bankers, bailouts, and the struggle to tame Wall Street, Kathleen Day

Type

Label

Broken bargain, bankers, bailouts, and the struggle to tame Wall Street, Kathleen Day

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 357-405) and index

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Broken bargain

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

1078681512

Responsibility statement

Kathleen Day

Sub title

bankers, bailouts, and the struggle to tame Wall Street

Summary

A history of major financial crises--and how taxpayers have been left with the bill. In the 1930s, battered and humbled by the Great Depression, the U.S. financial sector struck a grand bargain with the federal government. Bankers gained a safety net in exchange for certain curbs on their freedom: transparency rules, record-keeping and antifraud measures, and fiduciary responsibilities. Despite subsequent periodic changes in these regulations, the underlying bargain played a major role in preserving the stability of the financial markets as well as the larger economy. By the free-market era of the 1980s and 90s, however, Wall Street argued that rules embodied in New Deal-era regulations to protect consumers and ultimately taxpayers were no longer needed--and government agreed. This engaging history documents the country's financial crises, focusing on those of the 1920s, the 1980s, and the 2000s, and reveals how the two more recent crises arose from the neglect of this fundamental bargain, and how taxpayers have been left with the bill

Table Of Contents

Introduction -- Part 1. E Pluribus Inc. -- 1. The Danger and Necessity of Banks -- 2. A Cheat upon Somebody -- 3 Inc. -- 4. The Civil War Tames Currency -- 5. Sunshine Charlie -- 6. Radio, Rayon, and Retail Credit -- 7. If It Seems Too Good to Be True . . . -- 8 Crash and Contagion -- 9. Tickled with Poverty -- 10. Moral Hazard -- Part 2. A Wonderful life: Socialism for the Rich -- 11. Zombie Banks -- 12. The American Home: Safeguard of American Liberties -- 13. Financial Cocaine -- 14. Cover-Up and Bailout -- 15. Russia Defaults -- 16. The Committee to Save the World -- 17. Dysfunctional Oversight -- 18. Enron: The Emperor's New Clothes -- Part 3. Ill-Gotten Gain: Boom, Bust, and the Great Recession -- 19. Tent City -- 20. Financial Magic -- 21. The Subprime Prisoner's Dilemma -- 22. Feds Tell States: Shut Up, Sit Down -- 23. A Number Out of the Air -- Part 4. Cockroaches in the Kitchen -- 24. Fake Accounts -- 25. Who Should Own a Bank

Classification