13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown ~ Simon Johnson, James Kwak

What the book is about
For the past 3 decades Wall Street has become too entrenched within Washington power corridors. Under their influence an increasingly de-regulatory regime has overseen (or failed to oversee) American financial system. Current financial crisis (2007-2009), which is the main subject for the book, has resulted from these circumstances. Bankers'approach has resulted in situation that privatizes the profits, while socializes the losses. Solution in short: Too big to fail is too big- cut them to size.


Why this name:
2009- 13 bankers came to meet President Obama to discuss how the deal with the finacnail crisis of 2007-2009. And after the meeting there message was 'we are in this together'.
1997- Brooksley Born, then head of Commodity Futures Trading Corporation (CFTC) proposed to issue a “concept paper”. Her concern was that 'lack of oversight allowed the proliferation of fraud, and lack of transparency made it difficult to see what risks might be building  in  this  metastasizing  sector'. Larry Summers, Deputy Treasury Secretary  at that time, is supposed to have called her saying "I have thirteen bankers in my office, and they say if you go forward with this you will cause the worst financial crisis since World War II." NYTimes so aptly alliterates Credit Crisis Cassandra. 
These two event, coincidently involving 13 bankers, symbolize the power of Wall Street; the new financial oligarchy within US. 


Very apt quote from The Great Gatsby

"They   were   careless   people,   Tom   and   Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made."
—F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby


Referring to big banks, who brought global economy to the brink of failure, caused millions to lose their savings of life-time and then left it for the governments to salvage the situation using taxpayers money.


How Wall Street became so powerful 
Election campaign contributions, 'revolving door' between private sector and government services' and finally but most importantly their idealogical power that convinced people to the extent that pro-Wall Street sentiments were taken for granted.


Comparison with the Asian crisis of 90s
They dissect the financial crisis of South-East Asia (starting from Mexico, and that extended to Korea, Russia...). They show that in each emerging economy one common factor was crony-capitalism- close relationship between some oligarchs with the government (other factors were high   levels   of   debt, cozy and  dependence  on volatile  inflows  of  capital  from  the  rest  of  the  world).
And in each of these economies US and IMF pushed for taking long term stance (instead of bailout), even when it meant making few big companies bankrupt.
Later, when the similar situations came up in US (thats 2007-09 crisis), government took just the opposite route. This time, instead of huge money of taxpayers was spent to bailout the financial institutions.


I wonder why India was not mentioned. We didnt have this crony-capitalism problem, or because  we were not affected directly by this crisis?


Further
The book is a good read. A lot of further readings can be obtained from the blog of the authors. One post by another expert provides a very good summary (in fact more than that) of their last chapters. Book's site also provides very good information.

Baudolino~ Umberto Eco

A wonderful adventure of a lovable liar.

Year 1204, place Constantinople, person Nicetas Choniates a historian at Eastern Roman Imperial court. The city is being sacked by the pilgrims on their way to the 4th Crusade. Nicetas (Niketas in the book) is saved 'from the fury of the invaders' by a knight, who "appeared as handsome as Saladin, on a bedecked horse, a great Red cross on his chest, sword drawn, shouting "Gods belly!...". That's our hero Baudolino, who later flatly informs Niketas that he had the horse and the knights attire are actually stolen. Perhaps this is the only truth he tells, as after this there is no limit to the wonderful tales of Baudolino.  

Niketas is a court historian, and living at Byzantine court has taught him to evaluate people with calm distrust. But what to do of a man, who flatly admits that he is an inveterate liar, possesses likable personality, has got wonderful tales to tell and most of all who is also ones savior? While the city burns and later when he is on the run with family, Niketas can not keep himself from constantly listening to the amazing account of Baudolino's life. 

Towards the very beginning of the book Baudolino gives himself out candidly-

"Whether or not I saw him is another question. Master Niketas, the problem of my life is that I've always confused what I saw with what I wanted to see. ...with me, whenever I said I saw this, or I found this letter that say thus and so (and may be I'd written it myself), other people seemed to have been waiting for that very thing. You know, Master Nikatas, when you say something you've imagined, and other they say that's exactly how it is, you end up believing it yourself." 

But still, there are things that keep Niketas half convinced that he is listening to a true account of life- Baudolino's knowledge of the thing that are known only to most widely read savants, his confidence in narrating stories and of course his evident fluency with so many languages (an ability possessed only by the apostles). Baudolino tells about how he came to be the adopted son of the Holy Roman Emperor himself (Frederik I Barbarossa), the story of founding of city of Alessandria, how he was instrumental in brokering peace between the Italian cities and the Emperor and how he falls in love with his adopted mother and end up even kissing the Empress! Taking a number of personalities, events and even the legends of the era as raw material, Eco spins out an entertaining adventure of Baudolino. Over the course, he shows how a number of legends (holy grail, wealth of Pretor John's kingdom, so many holy relics, myriad mythic creatures like Unicorn etc.) might have become part of popular legends. Checkout the fantastic world map that Baudolino used in his quest for Prestor John's kingdom.

After Tom Holland's scholarly account of European life around the first Millennium, I could appreciate this romance from Eco even more- depiction of roughly the same era, portrayal of a number of events and personalities from the  and events from the same period, but in more fun-filled, and imaginative way. In an interview Eco had said about the book 'There are no advances in philology here – ... These are not pages or erudition, they are pages of comedy'. But that doesn't mean he takes it lightly. He says further 'it is an apology for utopia, for those inventions that move the world. Columbus discovered America by mistake: he thought that the earth was much smaller... A continent is conquered following a myth.' And towards the end of the book Eco uses one of the mythic creatures to explain Gnostic creation beliefs. 

But why is it we never hear of this superhero, this Baudolino, in our history books? Its because, when Nicetas wrote his history, he omitted Baudolino's name deliberately. Otherwise he would 'have to tell about the relics they fabricated (and so many other irreverent things.)... And the readers would lose faith in the most sacred things'. Niketas is comforted by his mentor that the beautiful story of Baudolino would still not be lost- 'sooner or later, someone- a greater liar than Baudolino- will tell it.' Thus referring to himself, Eco closes the enchanting story of Baudolino. 

Millennium, by Tom Holland

Subtitle of the book reads "The End of the World and the Forging of Christendom", that should give some idea about the book. Focus of the book is roughly the 100 year span of European history around the first Millennium (10th & 11th century). During that time, a lot of political and religious movements happened the way they happened, as people were waiting for the anti-Christ and then Christ to come once the thousandth year after the Savior was over. While no one exactly knew whether those thousand years were to be counted from the moment of His birth or Passion, or if those years were to be taken literally as 1000 years or even if those years were already gone by. And so even when the years kept going by, the people continued with their games out of fear, despair and hopes of the Millennium and the arrival of the Christ.

The tussle between the Papacy and rulers, Holland explains, first made Church getting too strong (with much fun and at length, he describes how even a emperor was forced to wait on a Pope for three days, standing outside the Pope's castle in snowy winter). And then, this same struggle made rulers to assert themselves more sternly, which made the state more independent and separate from the Church. He says that this would have paved way for secular democratic states ruled by modern ideas (allowing gay marriages etc.), however, the evolution of this modern state is not the focus of the book. So I find it funny that this is exactly what The Independent wants to highlight the most, perhaps because its so catchy- 'A pact between an obscure Pope and a Dark Ages emperor led to gay weddings and Voltaire' :)    

Holland also describes at a very high level also the major events since the death of Constantine that led to the momentous years around the Millennium. The evolution of Lord-serf relation, Knights, Castles, Peace of God and so many other things that I used to read about became even more clear. I think best part was the chapter on events that finally resulted in Norman conquest of England. True to his style, Holland named that chapter '1066 and all that'.

Another masterpiece of Tom Holland that matched my expectations after Rubicon and Persian Fire. Just today finished the book. Unlike other books, and like any of Tom Holland's, this one was required you to really focus due to its over-complicated sentence structure; but was still so much enjoyable, interesting and hence a fast read.