James Kwak, a former management consultant at McKinsey and Company and a current law student at Yale University, will speak on “13 Bankers: The Political Background to the Financial Crisis” on Wednesday, April 21 at 12:00 p.m. in Thompson 620. The talk is co-sponsored by the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) and the Center for Public Policy and Administration (CPPA).
Kwak’s presentation will be based on the just-released book, 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown, which he co-authored with Simon Johnson, the Ronald A. Kurtz (1954) Professor of Entrepreneurship at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
13 Bankers documents how a handful of banks became so large and powerful that, by the end of the 20th century, they were able to reshape our political landscape and produce a tolerance for excessive risk-taking that ultimately led to the current financial crisis and recession. The book also examines how both the Bush and Obama administrations bailed out the banks without securing meaningful reforms, setting the stage for another financial crisis, continued government bailouts, and an ever-growing national debt.
Ultimately, Johnson and Kwak show that the current crisis isn’t simply economic but a problem of political economy, and one that can be addressed only when policymakers find the courage to break up the big banks and impose stricter regulations.
Niall Ferguson (Harvard University) notes that Johnson’s and Kwak’s “analysis of the unholy inter-twining of Washington and Wall Street—a cross between the gilded age and a banana republic—is essential reading,” and Bill Moyers calls 13 Bankers “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.”
James Kwak received an A.B. in Social Studies from Harvard University and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Berkeley. Both he and Simon Johnson, who previously was chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, have published articles in many leading publications, including The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The Economist. They co-founded The Baseline Scenario, a widely-read blog about economics, finance and public policy.
This talk is free and open to the public. Brownbag lunches are welcome.