Inside Job The Looting Of Americas Savings And Loans

Posted In: Inside Job

Valene Jeanmard says...

This is a tragic story of the looting of hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayers money, money that could've gone for needed social services or other things.The government let it happen and this book tells you how.

Posted on November 23, 2010

Octavio Meisner says...

I give this 4.5 stars out of 5 - very well done. The most accessible, well-documented history of the S&L crisis caused by Reagan in the 80's. Even though the topic is dated, the book provides a good subject for students of history, and also an eye-opener for people interested in the irresponsible (and costly) fiscal policies of the neo-con right wing.



In the first few pages, this book summarizes a problem (a scam, actually) perpetuated on the American taxpayers by a small handful of ultra-wealthy elitists. In just a few minutes, you will have a firm grasp on how the scam works, and the long term effects on the US economy - something even the press never really understood and failed to adequately convey to the public. The author uses metaphors and plain language, and even though it is dense, the book is easy to read.



Besides being a good overview, what I found most interesting was the secion on Neil Bush and his insurance fraud scams (over 100 of them), and how George H Bush was able to pardon him before the public or press got full wind of his embezzlement.Subsequently, I read the book "Silverado: Neil Bush and the Savings & Loan Scandal" - which was also very good, but franky, I thought that the short section on Bush in the Inside Job did more than an adequate job of covering all the facts.



Except for the historian, economist, or political scientist, this book is probably too much detail for the average reader. For those of you who want the quick & dirty fact, I suggest reading about it online (Wikipedia), or getting the the abridged version of this book, or listening to the abridged audio book. But the length of the book does not detract from my positive rating - very well done.

Posted on November 24, 2010

Lonnie Postell says...

When master thief Dalton Russell (Clive Owen) takes a bank hostage, NYPD hostage negotiator Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) and detective Bill Mitchell (Chiwetel Ejiofor) are called onto the scene to investigate and ease the situation. But they don't realize that Dalton is smarter than the average bank robber, and hostages constantly get whacked off. Complicating matters for the cops is Manhattan Trust's chairman of the board, Arthur Case (Christopher Plummer). A man with something to hide (in a secret safe-deposit box), Case hires power broker Madeline White (Jodie Foster) to move and shake her way into the middle of the crisis, the better to protect Case's secret.



If anything, Spike Lee is a good director. However, during the course of the new millennium, he has churned out a bunch of rancid comedy-dramas: "Bamboozled" (with Damon Wayans) and "She Hate Me" (with Anthony Mackie). The problem wasn't that Denzel Washington - Spike's trump card - wasn't in them. They just weren't funny or insightful. So cut to 2006, and we have ran into the director's latest opus, "Inside Man". Good news, it's a great thriller that finally reunites him with Washington, and casts plenty of famous white actors/actresses (including Willem Dafoe, Foster, Owen, and Plummer) in memorable roles.



"Inside Man" touches on plenty of topics, one of many is Lee's trademark - race. But here, he manages to get into a groove instead of struggling to find a consistent tone, and enters into "25th Hour" territory by using 9/11 archetypes a backdrop. An act of terror in a bustling bank bristles blacks, whites, Sikhs, Latinos, and Jews in equal measure. The cops on the scene hardly hold in their own prejudices, and Lee playfully frames the film with two versions of A.R. Rahman and Gulzar's hit Bollywood song "Chaiyya Chaiyya".



There are also plenty of twists. We won't spoil too much for you, but as mentioned in the plot summary above, we know that Plummer's character has shady motives, and that Dalton may be doing more than just a heist.



And let's not forget the performances. Washington once again pulls in another powerhouse performance playing Keith Frazier. He keeps dropping monologues, stays even-tempered (much like he did in "Out of Time" and "The Manchurian Candidate"), plays cat-and-mouse games with Owen's bank robber, and shares some often humorous chemistry with Ejiofor (another great African-American actor, circa "Four Brothers"). Of course, he can play this character in his sleep, and we'd praise him no matter what. He shares equal chemistry shared with other stars, such as Foster (doing another impressive job as another female protagonist), Dafoe, and Plummer.



Well, it's safe to say Spike Lee has come back, but not in the way you hoped for. It still has Lee focusing in on racial issues, but he has created a thriller that is not loud or relying on cheap pyrotechnics. It wouldn't be obvious, considering he has Denzel Washington in his holster.

Posted on November 24, 2010

Clinton Backenstose says...

Overall this is one of the best books I have read. The level of reporting, the details, the work involved in tracking down sources and detailed information (during an era without high speed internet and without significant computing power) is mind boggling.I won't elaborate further since other reviewers have covered that ground.



Let me now turn my attention to the Kindle version (I read the paperback version and later bought the Kindle version to have as a handy reference).The Kindle version is woefully deficient. It is one of the the worst examples of Amazon's lack of enforcement of a standard for converting text (especially older books) to their electronic Kindle format!!



> There is NO table of content in the Kindle version, not even an unlinked one.



> The very useful Dramatis Personae is omitted from the Kindle version!



> The Glossary is omitted from the Kindle Version!



> A section on "Source Notes" which includessections:"Suggested Readings" and "Media Overviews" is omitted from the Kindle Version.



> There is NO Index...at all. This not entirely trivial since it would at least provide an organized overview of important data.However, even if the Kindle version did have a table of contents, it, as in all Kindle books, would presumably be non-functional.Since the Kindle does not use page numbers, an index is usually presented as a poor quality, non-linked image, not as searchable text document. And, of course, there is no way in the Kindle (that I am aware of) to perform Boolean searches to compensate for this missing feature(a linked index).



> Inside Job is one of the best examples of investigative reporting I have ever read. The author's of this book have numerous and elaborate footnotes in the paperback version but the footnote references are not "linked" in the Kindle version.The lack of linking the footnotes from their reference in the body of the text makes it EXTREMELY difficult to read the footnotes(and this work has numerous footnotes).In fact it is so cumbersome to find and read the footnotes it renders them effectively useless.



In short, the publisher took shortcuts in creating the Kindle e-book version that detract substantially from an otherwise excellent book. (As a note: I also fault Amazon for not imposing a rigorous standard for books that are converted to the Kindle e-book format.If nothing else Amazon should at least provide a table on every Kindle book's Amazon purchase page plainly displaying which Kindle features are enabled (eg, TOC linked?, Index present?, Footnotes Linked? Definitions working?, Search function fully enabled? etc.)That's the least they could do.

Posted on November 26, 2010

Alane Beaubrun says...

A must read - will leave you speechless and much wiser.

Posted on November 26, 2010

Shantel Joler says...

"Inside Job" is a nice piece of work but it gives a complete and wholly undeserved "pass" to the US Congress for its failure to act to prevent the financial crisis we are still living today.Congress is supposed to regulate the regulators, but was snoozing at the switch ... if you give it the benefit of the doubt.

Posted on November 28, 2010

Leisha Anastasi says...

I highly recommend this to those of us who were not adults at the time: in the 80's, I was still a kid - I couldn't be bothered to know what was happening in the world of S&Ls.Little did I know, but those high-flyers would affect my taxes for years (and years and years).



The book is easy to read - not too technical.It was a bit repetitive at times, but I think that's because many of the S&L crooks used the same types of illegal ponzi schemes to move money from one pocket to the other.



If you're like me, and knew very little about the S&L debacle, then let this book educate you.It's a telling tale of the problems brought-about by rampant de-regulation.I never knew that the S&L scandal(s) involved the wholesale looting of these banks (and American taxpayers - since they were federally protected deposits).



If you're already well-versed in the subject, you can read this to get some of the more personal stories of theft and graft.



There were also stories of corrupt politicians.I know it's a shock, but to me there's nothing more disgusting than a public trustee bending the rules to their advantage: they work for us.

Posted on November 28, 2010

Twanda Shipwash says...

The book itself is a fantastic example of very thorough investigative journalism. The writers obviously spent years doing massive amounts of research and interviews. It reads very well and presents a cast of characters as they truly are. It is written for the layman and casual reader. Once you put it down you will be extraordinarily disheartened at how the S&L crisis came about. The book sheds light on the roots and origins - the push for industry deregulation in the '80s and its massive, and quite apparently not well thought through, embrace by legislators. But it does a fair and balanced portrayal of the actors - highlighting that the worst people were already professional con artists and had links to organized crime. What is truly disheartening is the massive participation by and interference by top level career politicians (a handful of whom are still around)- many of whom were found by their peers to have severely violated ethics standards. It does a good job of portraying why regulation and oversight of certain industries - particularly the financial services industry, is so difficult. The rulemakers (legislators) are often severely conflicted because they are so heavily funded by the industry - most people don't like taking shots at their meal ticket. Some legislators, as detailed here, won't even hesitate to attack regulators when they threaten their lobbyist/campaign lifeline - rather than protect their citizens overall.



This is a very good read in light of current events with the mortgage lending crisis. One will find creepy, even shocking similarities. The bottom line is the same - poorly written loans (given to an elite group in the S&L case) with no real, credible basis for believing they would be repaid - shoddy underwriting, shoddy controls, shoddy monitoring, weak regulation/deregulation/regulation with no teeth [which is always exploited by those opportunistic few who quite literally make a living as con artists (criminals)], massive interference by the rich and connected.



The best, and saddest part, is this book is real - the events really happened, the facts are portrayed very objectively (the writers did an extraordinary job with research and documenting sources of information), the people involved were people well known and are still around in some circles, the costs and consequences are real and still being paid for to this day. Reading this book in light of current events will make one pause...pause and worry.

Posted on November 28, 2010

Palmira Bumgardner says...

Spike Lee has created an imaginative and gripping thriller with "Inside Man". Collecting some of the biggest names on screen, Lee has put together a film that has both the thrills and twists to entertain, and the comments on society to give something more when the credits have rolled by.



Set in New York, the viewer enters the world of Dalton Russell, a bank robber with a so-called "perfect plan", and Detective Keith Frazier, who arrives to negotiate with the team of robbers. Add in the sub-plots of Arthur Case, who has a lot to lose in this robbery, and Madeleine White, a type of "discrete" agent with some less than legal influence, and you have a complex story line that gives you enough to think about to cope with a couple of viewings.



The names filling the credits are impressive, making the movie all the more enjoyable. Jodie Foster, (White), Denzel Washington, (Frazier), Clive Owen, (Russell, a surprisingly good bad guy!), Christopher Plummer, (Case, and Willem Dafoe all make this movie special in their own ways. They are all top grade actors with the skills to make the story live.



The social commentary is present all through the film at varying levels. For the most part, it is a subtle presence in the background, hardly making itself felt, but there none-the-less. At other moments, it is much more obvious. My own favourite scene is one betweem Dalton Russell and Brian, the young boy with his Playstation Portable and the violent games. Dalton asks about the game in which one has to do things such as kill and destroy people, (extremely graphically). Russell promises to have a word with Brian's father about the game. The entire movie is saturated with a social commentary on the corruption and violence that surrounds us, and a whole lot more.



This is one of the best films I have seen recently and is a movie that has given me lots to think about and consider. It is powerful in its twists, well-acted and very well executed in all aspects. It is thoroughly enjoyable on a number of different levels. A great movie!

Posted on December 1, 2010

Donald Weser says...

The book came in great condition and was shipped very quickly.Would buy from this seller again!

Posted on December 1, 2010