Plunder
Investigating Our Economic Calamity and the Subprime Scandal
By: Danny Schechter
Published: Sept 1, 2008
ISBN-10: 1605203157
ISBN-13: 978-1605203157
Format: Paperback 240 pages
Publisher: Cosimo Books
"There's fear, uncertainty, and even panic in the world of finance", writes multiple Emmy award winning investigative journalist Danny Schechter in his important and eye opening book Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity and the Subprime Scandal. The author pulls no punches as he describes in graphic detail, not only how the global financial crisis began, but why it happened.
Danny Schechter provides the background to the subprime lending crisis, and the events that made it not only possible, but a certain outcome. He points out that the subprime disaster spread to and infected almost every other aspect of finance as well. The ripples traveled beyond the housing bubble collapse to include the entire global economy. Danny Schechter considers the events leading to the crisis to be based on greed and also on fraud. He points out that the alphabet soup of exotic financial instruments were the vehicle making the bubble possible. With regulators looking the other way, and the mainstream media oblivious to what was taking place, the debt created crisis was inevitable.
Danny Schechter (photo left) is especially critical of the role of the mainstream media in failing to report the growing bubble. While advertising revenue was growing for the media outlets, much of it derived from players in the bubble industries, the author considers the media to be complicit in the later events. Instead of reporting the fraud taking place, Danny Schechter believes the mainstream media was negligent in its duty as a community watchdog. On the other hand, the author writes that many bloggers were aware of the growing problem, and reported on it well in advance of the crash.
For me, the power of the book is the time line that follows the bubble as it burst, and how Wall Street, government, and the mainstream media reacted to the events. The diary of the still ongoing crash, as it happens, is powerful reporting and solid journalism. Danny Schechter does a fine job in dispelling many of the myths that have grown up about the causes of the crisis. Instead of simply blaming the victims, as he describes many media members as doing, he assesses the roles of all of the players in the disaster. His finger points directly at Wall Street, the regulators, and the mainstream media, and taking that stance is courageous one, regardless of the reader's personal beliefs on the still growing scandal.
I highly recommend Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity and the Subprime Scandal by Danny Schechter, to anyone who is serious about studying and learning the causes of the global financial crisis. The author takes the reader through an easy to understand journey of corruption, greed, and negligence that will open many eyes to what really happened and how to avoid it taking place again.
Read Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity and the Subprime Scandal by Danny Schechter, and you will gain a greater understanding of the origins of the subprime meltdown. that led to the current global financial crisis. This economic knowledge could very well save your bank account, your investments, and your home.
