The Crime Of Our Time: Why Wall Street is Not Too Big To Jail

313 Pages·2010·7.396 MB·English

by  Danny Schechter

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In 2006, fi lmmaker Danny Schechter was denounced as an “alarmist” for
his fi lm In Debt We Trust, which warned of the coming credit crisis. He
was labeled a “doom and gloomer” until the economy melted down, vin-
dicating his warnings. His prescient new book, The Crime Of Our Time,
is a hard-hitting investigation that shows how the fi nancial crisis was built
on a foundation of criminal activity.
To tell this story, Schechter speaks with bankers involved in these activi-
ties, respected economists, insider experts, top journalists including Paul
Krugman, and even a convicted white-collar criminal, Sam Antar, who
blows the whistle on these intentionally dishonest practices.
The Crime Of Our Time looks into how the crisis developed, from the
mysterious collapse of Bear Stearns to the self-described “shitty deals”
of Goldman Sachs. Schechter calls for a full criminal investigation and
structural reforms of fi nancial institutions to insure accountability by the
white-collar perpetrators who profi ted from the misery of their victims. W
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DANNY SCHECHTER is a veteran journalist who writes and speaks T
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about economic and media issues. He is a multiple Emmy Award E
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winner, having been a producer for ABC News, CNN and other major T
networks. He has written numerous books and directed many fi lms IS
including a tie-in with this book, Plunder: The Crime Of Our Time. NO TT N O T
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U.S. $19.95 / UK £13.99 IG
ISBN: 978-1934708-55-2 T
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disinformation® IL DANNY SCHECHTER
www.disinfo.com
“Truly revelatory and must reading for anyone trying to understand the fi nancial currents that have run the
economy into the ditch.” – ROBERT W. MCCHESNEY, co-author, The Death and Life of American Journalism
COOTcover.indd 1 10/6/10 5:26:35 PM
Advance Praise For
The Crime Of Our Time
“Danny Schechter is the people’s economist. The clairvoyance
of his opus transcends mainstream statistics-gatherers because
he examines the real world, reporting the American condition
as told to him by the real people who live it everyday. The Crime
Of Our Time combines Schechter’s signature bold passion,
keen analysis, and solid empathy for those caught in the cross-
fires of the financially powerful and politically connected. Like
Schechter’s other works, The Crime Of Our Time is ahead of its
time, and we could all learn from Schechter’s astute, heartfelt,
and exceedingly accurate observations and predictions.”
– Nomi Prins, former managing director at Bear Stearns
and Goldman Sachs, author of It Takes a Pillage
“Excellent investigative journalism like Danny Schechter’s in
The Crime Of Our Time actually protects capitalism against the
cancer of white-collar crime by educating law enforcement,
businesses, investors, anti-fraud professionals, and the public
about schemes used by criminals who victimize our economic
system for their own personal gain.”
– Sam Antar, convicted white-collar criminal
“Danny ranges wide over the political and cultural landscape,
pointing fingers, naming names and holding no sacred cows in
his quest to determine what went wrong with our economy
and who was responsible. His work is the antidote to to a
biased, compromised and sclerotic mainstream media.”
– Aaron Krowne, editor of the Mortage Lender
Implode-O-Meter (www.ml-implode.com)
“Fully living up to his well-deserved reputation as the news
dissector, Danny Schechter goes right for the jugular in this
rich and informative analysis of the financial crisis and its
roots. Not errors, accident, market uncertainties, and so on,
but crime: major and serious crime. A harsh judgment, but it’s
not easy to dismiss the case that he constructs.”
– Noam Chomsky
“Did the current economic crisis result simply from market
forces, misjudgment and greed? Or was it a deliberate criminal
manipulation of markets to extract wealth from the masses?
In The Crime Of Our Time, Danny Schechter turns his polished
investigative and reporting skills to exploring the theory that
it was a crime. In veteran journalist prose, he establishes
the crime’s elements, identifies the players, and exposes the
weapons that have turned free markets into vehicles for mass
manipulation and control.”
– Ellen Brown, author of Web of Debt
“Danny Schechter brings both the needed economics expertise
and the media credentials to the important task of exposing
and analyzing the elements of crime and corruption woven
deep into the fabric of our economic system’s current crisis.
Plunder and The Crime Of Our Time are important contributions
toward understanding an historic moment of change in the
economy and society of the United States.”
– Richard D. Wolff, professor of economics emeritus,
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
“Regulations have always been the mechanism used by
societies to prevent flagrant abuses of power, the enslavement
of the working class and the rise of a parasitic power elite.
The erosion of regulations, as Danny Schechter makes clear
in his book, permits the powerful to legalize crime. Theft,
fraud, deceptive advertising, predatory lending, debt sold to
investors as assets become the currency of a false economy.
And when this fictitious economy crashes those who engaged
in these crimes, because they have hijacked the reigns
of power, are able to loot the U.S. Treasury in the largest
transference of wealth upwards in American history. There
are many forms of terrorism. And this economic terrorism,
as Schechter writes, is perhaps even more dangerous to the
nation than the attacks of 9/11.”
– Chris Hedges, author of Empire of Illusion: The End of
Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle
“With The Crime Of Our Time, Danny Schechter has made
himself the clean-up hitter in the line-up of investigative
journalists. He has continued his pioneering work on how the
actual existing real world of capitalism works – not the fairy
tale version that dominates solitical and media discourse. This
book is truly revelatory and must reading for anyone trying to
understand the financial currents that have run the economy
into the ditch. With The Crime Of Our Time, Danny Schechter
has smashed the ball 500 feet over the centerfield fence.”
– Robert W. McChesney, media historian and co-author
of The Death and Life of American Journalism

THE CRIME
OF OUR TIME
N OT
DANNY SCHECHTER
Director of PLUNDER
and IN DEbt WE tRUst
Copyright © 2010 Danny Schechter
Published by:
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ISBN: 978-1934708-55-2
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For those who saw, anticipated, knew,
and were ignored:
Frederic Bastiat,
Fernando Pecora,
Nouriel Roubini,
and J. K. Galbraith
And, as always, Sarah Debs Schechter
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My deep appreciation for their support goes out to my col-
leagues. In this case, Sharon Kayser who writes about finance,
Tobi Kanter who first copy- and line-edited the manuscript
with additional help from Cherie Welch.
My thanks also to Ray Nowosielski who produced with
me Plunder: The Crime Of Our Time, the film on which this
book is based.
Special thanks to ColdType.net’s Tony Sutton, who has
also put up with and facilitated my earlier projects, and to
Disinformation’s managing editor, Ralph Bernardo, for his
editorial and design expertise.
Also, my gratitude to the Globalvision team, Rory O’Con-
nor, Eric Forman, David Degraw, Cherie Welch, Ryan Bennett,
Steven Grail, Jessica Hyndman, Iris Chung, Herb Brooks, Sean
Inonye, Shane O’Neill, Frank Meagher, Jessica B. Lee, Will
Lepczyk, Mikhael Page, Margeux LaCoste and Lexy Scheen
who helped my quixotic struggle to turn an idea into a film
without the funding I needed and support hoped for.
Hopefully, this book will inspire readers to see my film,
Plunder, and encourage film viewers to get more background
information on the issues I have addressed.
SELECTED PREVIOUS WORKS BY
DANNY SCHECHTER
Plunder: The Crime Of Our Time
In Debt We Trust
Squeezed: America As The Bubble Bursts
When News Lies: Media Complicity
and the Iraq War
Weapons of Mass Deception
Media Wars: News at a Time of Terror
News Dissector: Passions, Pieces and Polemics