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Beginning in January 2009, THE PAYOFF lays bare Washington’s culture of power and plutocracy. It’s the story of the twenty-month struggle by Senator Ted Kaufman and Jeff Connaughton, his chief of staff, to hold Wall Street executives accountable for securities fraud, to stop stock manipulation by high-frequency traders, and to break up too-big-to-fail megabanks.
This book takes us inside their dogged crusade against institutional inertia and industry influence as they encounter an outright reluctance by the Obama administration, the Justice Department, and the Securities and Exchange Commission to treat Wall Street crimes with the gravity they deserve. On financial reforms, Connaughton criticizes Democrats for relying on the very Wall Street technocrats who had failed to prevent the crisis and Republicans for staunchly opposing real reforms primarily to enjoy a golden opportunity to siphon fundraising dollars from the Wall Street executives who had raised millions to elect Barack Obama president.
Connaughton, a former lawyer in the Clinton White House, illuminates the pivotal moments and key decisions in the fight for financial reform that have gone largely unreported. His arch, nonpartisan account chronicles the reasons why Wall Street’s worst offenses were left unpunished, and why it’s likely that the 2008 debacle will happen again.
Editorial ReviewsReviewNamed an Inc. Magazine Top 5 Business book of 2012
"You'd think that after destroying the world's economy with dodgy trades and double-dealing, at least somebody (other than the taxpayer) who was responsible might get thrown in jail. But you'd think wrong because Wall Street essentially "owns" both political parties, thereby making accountability impossible."
Inc. Magazine
Washington Man
"He transformed himself from public servant to rich lobbyist. When the financial crisis hit, he remembered who he was."
George Packer, New Yorker
"The great mystery story in American politics these days is why, over the course of two presidential administrations (one from each party), there’s been no serious federal criminal investigation of Wall Street during a period of what appears to be epic corruption. People on the outside have speculated and come up with dozens of possible reasons, some plausible, some tending toward the conspiratorial – but there have been very few who’ve come at the issue from the inside. We get one of those rare inside accounts in The Payoff: Why Wall Street Always Wins…. [T]hose interested in understanding the mindset of the people who should be leading the anti-corruption charge ought to read this book. It’s the weird lack of concern that shines through…On the outside we can only deduce the mindset from actions and non-actions, but Connaughton’s actually seen it, and with the book you get to see it too. It’s scary and definitely worth a read."
Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone.com
"You want the real skinny on HFT and the SEC? Read The Payoff. This guy [Jeff Connaughton] worked with Sen Kaufman, our champ!"
Jim Cramer, via Twitter
"If you feel like justice was thwarted during the financial crisis, if you feel like the market’s been rigged for the insiders and there’s no check on it, you’ve got an ally in Jeff Connaughton….[The Payoff is] an insider’s guide to what’s gone wrong in Washington, by somebody who made millions as a professional insider."
Paul Vigna, Wall Street Journal
"Anyone interested in how Washington works will find The Payoff impossible to put down."
Paul Barrett, Business Week
"Connaughton shares new details from the Brown-Kaufman crusade, which will be gripping to anyone interested in taming overgrown banks. But the book’s most important contribution, I think, is to tell the story of corporate influence over financial policymaking dating back several decades. You can pretty much feel the acid gushing into your stomach as you read it…. I can’t recommend the book enough."
Noam Scheiber, TNR.com
"If you want to know how this all happened, how it got so bad and has not become better, author Jeff Connaughton explains it in his new book, “The Payoff: Why Wall Street Always Wins.” On top of everything else, the American middle class is being systematically robbed by the corruption of Washington, namely by Wall Street. This corrupt nexus of money and power is why the economy collapsed, why it isn’t getting better, and why the middle class is fighting for its life."
Richard Parker, McClatchy Newspapers
"Weak U.S. legal oversight puts burden on compliance pros to protect their firms, author says."
Reuters, 9/4/12
"A must read if you’re interested in the corrupting influence of lobbyists, the revolving door between Wall Street and those that govern and regulate the financial services industry, and how huge, and ultimately untraceable, amounts of money grease the wheels of government at every step."
Francine McKenna, Forbes.com
"Mr. Connaughton is a fascinating witness and raconteur because he has been through the revolving door several times: in between work in the Senate and the Clinton White House, he spent 12 years in one of Washington’s top lobbying firms. This author has really lived in and understood the Wall Street-Washington corridor. The book is partly about his education — and ultimate disappointment, most of all with the Obama administration but definitely with both parties."
Simon Johnson, NYT.com Economix blog
"This is the most honest book I’ve read about Washington in years – it really tells it like it is."
Andrew Cockburn, Co-Producer, American Casino
"Kaufman’s chief of staff at the time, Jeff Connaughton, was even more scathing toward the Obama Administration. Attorney General Eric Holder, he noted, ‘said in his swearing-in that he would make it a priority. We thought we were making sure that they were doing the right thing, and they said all the right things in hearings, and nothing happened. I feel gamed by it."
George Packer, The New Yorker
"It is in fact one of the best books on how corporate criminals manipulate the system to get away with their crimes."
Editor, Corporate Crime Reporter
“Jeff is one of the smartest guys on the Hill and is particularly strong on issues surrounding Wall Street and the regulatory system . . . he takes apart the oft-stated mantra that what Wall Street firms did during and after the crisis was maybe unethical, but not illegal.”
—Matt Taibbi, RollingStone.com, December 20, 2011
“For a compelling account of how the financial lobby works, both in general and in this instance, look for a forthcoming book by Jeff Connaughton.”
—Simon Johnson, co-author of WHITE HOUSE BURNING,
the New York Times “Economix,” May 10, 2012
"[T]here is a new powerful voice who knows how big banks really work and who is willing to tell the truth in great and convincing detail. Jeff Connaughton - a former senior political adviser who has worked both for and against powerful Wall Street interests over the years -- has just published a page-turning memoir that is also a damning critique of how Wall Street operates, the political capture of Washington, and our collective failure to reform finance in the past four years. The Payoff: Why Wall Street Always Wins, is the perfect antidote to disinformation put about by global megabanks and their friends."
-- Simon Johnson, "One Man Against the Wall Street Lobby," Huffington Post, 8/25/12
"It is in fact one of the best books on how corporate criminals manipulate the system to get away with their crimes."
-- Editor, "Payoff in the Pit of Plutocracy," Corporate Crime Reporter, 8/23/12.
From the Inside FlapIn January 2009, Ted Kaufman, longtime aide to Vice President Joe Biden, was appointed to fill Biden’s seat in the U.S. Senate. Former Biden staffer and top DC lobbyist Jeff Connaughton joined Kaufman as his chief of staff. Frustrated with the systemic failures that led to a devastating financial crisis, together they led the charge in challenging both Congress and the Obama administration to rein in the excesses of Wall Street.
THE PAYOFF examines a culture of power elites in our nation’s capital that is slouching toward plutocracy, an alarming tale of reformers with the best of intentions running headlong into institutional failure and influence-peddling politics. It’s the story of a twenty-month struggle to hold Wall Street executives accountable for securities fraud, to stop stock manipulation by high-frequency traders, and to break up too-big-to-fail megabanks. In this book, we experience a U.S. senator’s vigorous crusade against Wall Street’s irresponsible risk-taking that destabilized the American economy. Through times of triumph and disheartening defeats, rarely witnessed from within our country’s legislative body, we encounter inertia, behind-the-scenes maneuvering, and outright reluctance by the Obama administration, the Justice Department, and the Securities and Exchange Commission to treat Wall Street crimes with the urgency they deserve. Even Robert Khuzami, director of the SEC’s enforcement division, when asked about federal judges rebuking the SEC for levying paltry fines, said to Kaufman: “I’m not losing any sleep over it.” Meanwhile, the Republican Party remains staunchly opposed to significant financial reform, primarily to wring fundraising dollars from the same Wall Street players who’d raised millions to elect Barack Obama president.
Connaughton, a former lawyer in the Clinton White House, illuminates the pivotal moments and key decisions in the fight for financial reform that have gone largely unreported. His take-no-prisoners, nonpartisan account chronicles the reasons why Wall Street’s worst offenses were left unpunished, why Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force was merely window dressing, why our stock markets are broken, and why it’s likely the 2008 Wall Street–driven debacle will happen again.
Finally, in an incisive self-critique, Connaughton reviews the arc of his own career—from an idealistic Biden acolyte to a money-driven Professional Democrat to Washington critic and commentator—and spells out why all Americans should stand united against crony capitalism.
Product Details
The Payoff - Why Wall Street Always Wins by Jeff Connaughton .pdf
(503.91 KB)
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