-
Fraud
- An American History from Barnum to Madoff
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 19 hrs and 27 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $30.09
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
The United States has always proved an inviting home for boosters, sharp dealers, and outright swindlers. Worship of entrepreneurial freedom has complicated the task of distinguishing aggressive salesmanship from unacceptable deceit, especially on the frontiers of innovation. At the same time, competitive pressures have often nudged respectable firms to embrace deception. As a result, fraud has been a key feature of American business since its beginnings.
In this sweeping narrative, Edward Balleisen traces the history of fraud in America - and the evolving efforts to combat it - from the age of PT Barnum through the eras of Charles Ponzi and Bernie Madoff. Starting with an early 19th-century American legal world of "buyer beware", this unprecedented account describes the slow, piecemeal construction of modern regulatory institutions to protect consumers and investors, from the Gilded Age through the New Deal and the Great Society. It concludes with the more recent era of deregulation, which has brought with it a spate of costly frauds. By tracing how Americans have struggled to foster a vibrant economy without enabling a corrosive level of fraud, this book reminds us that American capitalism rests on an uneasy foundation of social trust.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Going Infinite
- The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Michael Lewis
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Michael Lewis first met him, Sam Bankman-Fried was the world’s youngest billionaire and crypto’s Gatsby. CEOs, celebrities, and leaders of small countries all vied for his time and cash after he catapulted, practically overnight, onto the Forbes billionaire list. Who was this rumpled guy in cargo shorts and limp white socks, whose eyes twitched across Zoom meetings as he played video games on the side?
-
-
really expected more rigor from Michael Lewis
- By Wowhello on 10-04-23
By: Michael Lewis
-
Lying for Money
- How Legendary Frauds Reveal the Workings of the World
- By: Dan Davies
- Narrated by: Tim Paige
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The way most white-collar crime works is by manipulating institutional psychology. That means creating something that looks as much as possible like a normal set of transactions. The drama comes later, when it all unwinds. Financial crime seems horribly complicated, but there are only so many ways you can con someone out of what’s theirs.
-
-
Very interesting book!
- By Ebong Eka on 02-21-22
By: Dan Davies
-
Profit and Punishment
- How America Criminalizes the Poor in the Name of Justice
- By: Tony Messenger
- Narrated by: Karen Chilton
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Messenger offers the first humane, journalistic expose of an American tragedy: modern-day debtor's prisons and how they've destroyed the lives of poor Americans.
-
-
Politically motived and bias
- By Amazon Customer on 04-07-22
By: Tony Messenger
-
Ponzinomics
- The Untold Story of Multi-Level Marketing
- By: Robert L. FitzPatrick
- Narrated by: Robert L. FitzPatrick
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ponzinomics by Robert L. FitzPatrick, author of False Profits, is the first comprehensive account of how "multi-level marketing" was created in America, escaped criminal and civil prosecution, and spread all over the world. It is the first book to fully explain how the legitimate business of "direct selling" was turned into pyramid recruiting. Ponzinomics reveals how multi-level marketing helped to lay a foundation on Main Street of pervasive deception, financial self-destruction, authoritarian leader-worship, and economic make-believe.
-
-
"Glorified Pyramid Schemes"
- By RedGiraffeMan on 05-27-22
-
Knowledge and Decisions
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 20 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This reissue of Thomas Sowell’s classic study of decision making, which includes a preface by the author, updates his seminal work in the context of The Vision of the Anointed. Sowell, one of America’s most celebrated public intellectuals, describes in concrete detail how knowledge is shared and disseminated throughout modern society. He warns that society suffers from an ever-widening gap between firsthand knowledge and decision making—a gap that threatens not only our economic and political efficiency but our very freedom.
-
-
Thomas Sowell's Greatest Work
- By Doug on 12-08-12
By: Thomas Sowell
-
Saving Capitalism
- For the Many, Not the Few
- By: Robert B. Reich
- Narrated by: Robert B. Reich
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Saving Capitalism, Robert Reich reveals the entrenched cycles of power and influence that have damaged American capitalism, perpetuating a new oligarchy in which the 1 percent get ever richer and the rest - middle and working class alike - lose ever more economic agency, making for the greatest income inequality and wealth disparity since World War II.
-
-
A riveting economics book! Mind. Blown.
- By Nothing really matters on 04-18-16
By: Robert B. Reich
-
Going Infinite
- The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Michael Lewis
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Michael Lewis first met him, Sam Bankman-Fried was the world’s youngest billionaire and crypto’s Gatsby. CEOs, celebrities, and leaders of small countries all vied for his time and cash after he catapulted, practically overnight, onto the Forbes billionaire list. Who was this rumpled guy in cargo shorts and limp white socks, whose eyes twitched across Zoom meetings as he played video games on the side?
-
-
really expected more rigor from Michael Lewis
- By Wowhello on 10-04-23
By: Michael Lewis
-
Lying for Money
- How Legendary Frauds Reveal the Workings of the World
- By: Dan Davies
- Narrated by: Tim Paige
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The way most white-collar crime works is by manipulating institutional psychology. That means creating something that looks as much as possible like a normal set of transactions. The drama comes later, when it all unwinds. Financial crime seems horribly complicated, but there are only so many ways you can con someone out of what’s theirs.
-
-
Very interesting book!
- By Ebong Eka on 02-21-22
By: Dan Davies
-
Profit and Punishment
- How America Criminalizes the Poor in the Name of Justice
- By: Tony Messenger
- Narrated by: Karen Chilton
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Messenger offers the first humane, journalistic expose of an American tragedy: modern-day debtor's prisons and how they've destroyed the lives of poor Americans.
-
-
Politically motived and bias
- By Amazon Customer on 04-07-22
By: Tony Messenger
-
Ponzinomics
- The Untold Story of Multi-Level Marketing
- By: Robert L. FitzPatrick
- Narrated by: Robert L. FitzPatrick
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ponzinomics by Robert L. FitzPatrick, author of False Profits, is the first comprehensive account of how "multi-level marketing" was created in America, escaped criminal and civil prosecution, and spread all over the world. It is the first book to fully explain how the legitimate business of "direct selling" was turned into pyramid recruiting. Ponzinomics reveals how multi-level marketing helped to lay a foundation on Main Street of pervasive deception, financial self-destruction, authoritarian leader-worship, and economic make-believe.
-
-
"Glorified Pyramid Schemes"
- By RedGiraffeMan on 05-27-22
-
Knowledge and Decisions
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 20 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This reissue of Thomas Sowell’s classic study of decision making, which includes a preface by the author, updates his seminal work in the context of The Vision of the Anointed. Sowell, one of America’s most celebrated public intellectuals, describes in concrete detail how knowledge is shared and disseminated throughout modern society. He warns that society suffers from an ever-widening gap between firsthand knowledge and decision making—a gap that threatens not only our economic and political efficiency but our very freedom.
-
-
Thomas Sowell's Greatest Work
- By Doug on 12-08-12
By: Thomas Sowell
-
Saving Capitalism
- For the Many, Not the Few
- By: Robert B. Reich
- Narrated by: Robert B. Reich
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Saving Capitalism, Robert Reich reveals the entrenched cycles of power and influence that have damaged American capitalism, perpetuating a new oligarchy in which the 1 percent get ever richer and the rest - middle and working class alike - lose ever more economic agency, making for the greatest income inequality and wealth disparity since World War II.
-
-
A riveting economics book! Mind. Blown.
- By Nothing really matters on 04-18-16
By: Robert B. Reich
-
Private Empire
- ExxonMobil and American Power
- By: Steve Coll
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 24 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Steve Coll investigates the largest and most powerful private corporation in the United States, revealing the true extent of its power. ExxonMobil’s annual revenues are larger than the economic activity in the great majority of countries. In many of the countries where it conducts business, ExxonMobil’s sway over politics and security is greater than that of the United States embassy. In Washington, ExxonMobil spends more money lobbying Congress and the White House than almost any other corporation. Yet despite its outsized influence, it is a black box.
-
-
Please no more accents!
- By Zak on 07-24-12
By: Steve Coll
-
Berkshire Beyond Buffett
- The Enduring Value of Values
- By: Lawrence A. Cunningham
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Berkshire Hathaway, the $300+ billion conglomerate that Warren Buffett built, is among the world's largest and most famous corporations. Yet for all its power and celebrity, few people understand Berkshire, and many assume it cannot survive without Buffett. This book challenges that assumption. In a comprehensive portrait of the corporate culture that unites Berkshire's subsidiaries, Lawrence Cunningham unearths the traits that assure the conglomerate's perpetual prosperity.
-
-
For My Money, Best Book on Berkshire Hathaway
- By William G. Stuart on 06-15-20
-
Why They Do It
- Inside the Mind of the White-Collar Criminal
- By: Eugene Soltes
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller, Eugene Soltes
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rarely does a week go by without a well-known executive being indicted for engaging in a white-collar crime. Perplexed as to what drives successful, wealthy people to risk it all, Harvard Business School professor Eugene Soltes spent seven years in the company of the men behind the largest corporate crimes in history - from the financial fraudsters of Enron, to the embezzlers at Tyco, to the Ponzi schemers Bernie Madoff and Allen Stanford.
-
-
Wide ranging, from psych studies to perps' words
- By Philo on 10-22-16
By: Eugene Soltes
-
Three Felonies A Day
- How the Feds Target the Innocent
- By: Harvey Silverglate, Alan M. Dershowitz - foreword
- Narrated by: Chris Sorensen
- Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Three Felonies a Day, Harvey A. Silverglate reveals how federal criminal laws have become dangerously disconnected from the English common law tradition and how prosecutors can pin arguable federal crimes on any one of us, for even the most seemingly innocuous behavior. The volume of federal crimes in recent decades has increased well beyond the statute books and into the morass of the Code of Federal Regulations, handing federal prosecutors an additional trove of vague and exceedingly complex and technical prohibitions to stick on their hapless targets.
-
-
Audible edition is not very exciting
- By jg on 10-25-18
By: Harvey Silverglate, and others
-
Law School for Everyone: Corporate Law
- By: George S. Geis, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Professor George S. Geis
- Length: 5 hrs and 43 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
These 12 lectures answer questions about a high-stakes, ever-evolving area of the American legal system. Recreating a traditional law school course in corporate law, Professor Geis guides you through the foundations of corporate law, the history of corporations, the problems that can plague corporations (including insider trading and bribery), and more. In clear, accessible language, Law School for Everyone: Corporate Law introduces you to the inner workings of corporate law.
-
-
It's a winner
- By Philo on 10-20-19
By: George S. Geis, and others
-
Supercapitalism
- The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life
- By: Robert B. Reich
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since the 1970s, and notwithstanding three recessions, the U.S. economy has soared. American capitalism has been a triumph, and it has spread throughout the world. At the same time, argues the former U.S. secretary of labor, Robert B. Reich, the effectiveness of democracy in America has declined. It has grown less responsive to the citizenry, and people are feeling more and more helpless as a result.
-
-
Robert Reich for V.P. (of the U.S.)
- By Horace on 11-07-07
By: Robert B. Reich
-
The Curse of Bigness
- Antitrust in the New Gilded Age (Columbia Global Reports)
- By: Tim Wu
- Narrated by: Marc Cashman
- Length: 4 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We live in an age of extreme corporate concentration, in which global industries are controlled by just a few giant firms - big banks, big pharma, and big tech, just to name a few. But concern over what Louis Brandeis called the "curse of bigness" can no longer remain the province of specialist lawyers and economists, for it has spilled over into policy and politics, even threatening democracy itself.
-
-
Interesting and informative
- By Lily Silvester Wood on 01-02-19
By: Tim Wu
-
The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One
- How Corporate Executives and Politicians Looted the S&L Industry
- By: William K. Black
- Narrated by: Scotty Drake
- Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this expert insider's account of the savings and loan debacle of the 1980s, William Black lays bare the strategies that corrupt CEOs and CFOs - in collusion with those who have regulatory oversight of their industries - use to defraud companies for their personal gain.
-
-
Bank frauds and their pet regulators, 1980s-2000s
- By Philo on 03-29-15
By: William K. Black
-
A Capitalism for the People
- Recapturing the Lost Genius of American Prosperity
- By: Luigi Zingales
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born in Italy, University of Chicago economist Luigi Zingales witnessed firsthand the consequences of high inflation and unemployment - paired with rampant nepotism and cronyism - on a country’s economy. This experience profoundly shaped his professional interests, and in 1988 he arrived in the United States, armed with a political passion and the belief that economists should not merely interpret the world, but should change it for the better.
-
-
Enjoyable but a tad predictable.
- By Kevin on 12-24-12
By: Luigi Zingales
-
Big Dirty Money
- The Shocking Injustice and Unseen Cost of White Collar Crime
- By: Jennifer Taub
- Narrated by: Eliza Foss
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How ordinary Americans suffer when the rich and powerful use tax doges or break the law to get richer and more powerful - and how we can stop it. There is an elite crime spree happening in America, and the privileged perps are getting away with it. Selling loose cigarettes on a city sidewalk can lead to a choke-hold arrest, and death, if you are not among the top one percent.
-
-
The Loss of Glass-Steagal has led to Cheating
- By Rajiv on 05-23-21
By: Jennifer Taub
-
Tailspin
- The People and Forces Behind America's Fifty-Year Fall - and Those Fighting to Reverse It
- By: Steven Brill
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 16 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this revelatory narrative covering the years 1967 to 2017, Steven Brill gives us a stunningly cogent picture of the broken system at the heart of our society. He shows us how, over the last half-century, America's core values - meritocracy, innovation, due process, free speech, and even democracy itself - have somehow managed to power its decline into dysfunction.
-
-
Shorter would have been Better
- By Joseph on 06-12-18
By: Steven Brill
-
FDR's Folly
- How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression
- By: Jim Powell
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the minds of historians and the American public alike, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was one of our greatest presidents, not least because he supposedly saved America from the Great Depression. But as historian Jim Powell reveals in this groundbreaking book, Roosevelt's New Deal policies actually prolonged and exacerbated the economic disaster.
-
-
Scones for the Tea Party
- By Chiefkent on 06-11-12
By: Jim Powell
Related to this topic
-
Supercapitalism
- The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life
- By: Robert B. Reich
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since the 1970s, and notwithstanding three recessions, the U.S. economy has soared. American capitalism has been a triumph, and it has spread throughout the world. At the same time, argues the former U.S. secretary of labor, Robert B. Reich, the effectiveness of democracy in America has declined. It has grown less responsive to the citizenry, and people are feeling more and more helpless as a result.
-
-
Robert Reich for V.P. (of the U.S.)
- By Horace on 11-07-07
By: Robert B. Reich
-
A Capitalism for the People
- Recapturing the Lost Genius of American Prosperity
- By: Luigi Zingales
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born in Italy, University of Chicago economist Luigi Zingales witnessed firsthand the consequences of high inflation and unemployment - paired with rampant nepotism and cronyism - on a country’s economy. This experience profoundly shaped his professional interests, and in 1988 he arrived in the United States, armed with a political passion and the belief that economists should not merely interpret the world, but should change it for the better.
-
-
Enjoyable but a tad predictable.
- By Kevin on 12-24-12
By: Luigi Zingales
-
Big Dirty Money
- The Shocking Injustice and Unseen Cost of White Collar Crime
- By: Jennifer Taub
- Narrated by: Eliza Foss
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How ordinary Americans suffer when the rich and powerful use tax doges or break the law to get richer and more powerful - and how we can stop it. There is an elite crime spree happening in America, and the privileged perps are getting away with it. Selling loose cigarettes on a city sidewalk can lead to a choke-hold arrest, and death, if you are not among the top one percent.
-
-
The Loss of Glass-Steagal has led to Cheating
- By Rajiv on 05-23-21
By: Jennifer Taub
-
FDR's Folly
- How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression
- By: Jim Powell
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the minds of historians and the American public alike, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was one of our greatest presidents, not least because he supposedly saved America from the Great Depression. But as historian Jim Powell reveals in this groundbreaking book, Roosevelt's New Deal policies actually prolonged and exacerbated the economic disaster.
-
-
Scones for the Tea Party
- By Chiefkent on 06-11-12
By: Jim Powell
-
Wall Street
- A History, Updated Edition
- By: Charles R. Geisst
- Narrated by: Stephen McLaughlin
- Length: 27 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wall Street is an unending source of legend - and nightmares. It is a universal symbol of both the highest aspirations of economic prosperity and the basest impulses of greed and deception. Charles R. Geisst's Wall Street is at once a chronicle of the street itself - from the days when the wall was merely a defensive barricade built by Peter Stuyvesant - and an engaging economic history of the United States, a tale of profits and losses, enterprising spirits, and key figures that transformed America into the most powerful economy in the world.
-
-
Many books in one; best linking of stories, eras
- By Philo on 03-23-14
-
The Great American Stick Up
- Greedy Bankers and the Politicians Who Love Them
- By: Robert Scheer
- Narrated by: Christian Rummel
- Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Instead of going where other journalists have gone in search of this story - the board rooms and trading floors of the big Wall Street firms - Scheer goes back to Washington, D.C., a veritable crime scene, beginning in the 1980s, where the captains of the finance industry, their lobbyists and allies among leading politicians destroyed an American regulatory system that had been functioning effectively since the era of the New Deal.
-
-
A great telling of an unfortunate part of history
- By Trace on 10-27-20
By: Robert Scheer
-
Supercapitalism
- The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life
- By: Robert B. Reich
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since the 1970s, and notwithstanding three recessions, the U.S. economy has soared. American capitalism has been a triumph, and it has spread throughout the world. At the same time, argues the former U.S. secretary of labor, Robert B. Reich, the effectiveness of democracy in America has declined. It has grown less responsive to the citizenry, and people are feeling more and more helpless as a result.
-
-
Robert Reich for V.P. (of the U.S.)
- By Horace on 11-07-07
By: Robert B. Reich
-
A Capitalism for the People
- Recapturing the Lost Genius of American Prosperity
- By: Luigi Zingales
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born in Italy, University of Chicago economist Luigi Zingales witnessed firsthand the consequences of high inflation and unemployment - paired with rampant nepotism and cronyism - on a country’s economy. This experience profoundly shaped his professional interests, and in 1988 he arrived in the United States, armed with a political passion and the belief that economists should not merely interpret the world, but should change it for the better.
-
-
Enjoyable but a tad predictable.
- By Kevin on 12-24-12
By: Luigi Zingales
-
Big Dirty Money
- The Shocking Injustice and Unseen Cost of White Collar Crime
- By: Jennifer Taub
- Narrated by: Eliza Foss
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How ordinary Americans suffer when the rich and powerful use tax doges or break the law to get richer and more powerful - and how we can stop it. There is an elite crime spree happening in America, and the privileged perps are getting away with it. Selling loose cigarettes on a city sidewalk can lead to a choke-hold arrest, and death, if you are not among the top one percent.
-
-
The Loss of Glass-Steagal has led to Cheating
- By Rajiv on 05-23-21
By: Jennifer Taub
-
FDR's Folly
- How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression
- By: Jim Powell
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the minds of historians and the American public alike, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was one of our greatest presidents, not least because he supposedly saved America from the Great Depression. But as historian Jim Powell reveals in this groundbreaking book, Roosevelt's New Deal policies actually prolonged and exacerbated the economic disaster.
-
-
Scones for the Tea Party
- By Chiefkent on 06-11-12
By: Jim Powell
-
Wall Street
- A History, Updated Edition
- By: Charles R. Geisst
- Narrated by: Stephen McLaughlin
- Length: 27 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wall Street is an unending source of legend - and nightmares. It is a universal symbol of both the highest aspirations of economic prosperity and the basest impulses of greed and deception. Charles R. Geisst's Wall Street is at once a chronicle of the street itself - from the days when the wall was merely a defensive barricade built by Peter Stuyvesant - and an engaging economic history of the United States, a tale of profits and losses, enterprising spirits, and key figures that transformed America into the most powerful economy in the world.
-
-
Many books in one; best linking of stories, eras
- By Philo on 03-23-14
-
The Great American Stick Up
- Greedy Bankers and the Politicians Who Love Them
- By: Robert Scheer
- Narrated by: Christian Rummel
- Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Instead of going where other journalists have gone in search of this story - the board rooms and trading floors of the big Wall Street firms - Scheer goes back to Washington, D.C., a veritable crime scene, beginning in the 1980s, where the captains of the finance industry, their lobbyists and allies among leading politicians destroyed an American regulatory system that had been functioning effectively since the era of the New Deal.
-
-
A great telling of an unfortunate part of history
- By Trace on 10-27-20
By: Robert Scheer
-
The Third Revolution
- Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State
- By: Elizabeth C. Economy
- Narrated by: Jo Anna Perrin
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eminent China scholar Elizabeth C. Economy provides an incisive look at the transformative changes underway in China today. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has unleashed a powerful set of political and economic reforms: the centralization of power under Xi himself; the expansion of the Communist Party's role in Chinese political, social, and economic life; and the construction of a virtual wall of regulations to control more closely the exchange of ideas and capital between China and the outside world.
-
-
A decent synopsis of Xi Jinping and his polices
- By Yoda on 04-29-19
-
Economics for the Common Good
- By: Jean Tirole, Steven Rendell - translator
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 18 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Jean Tirole won the 2014 Nobel Prize in Economics, he suddenly found himself being stopped in the street by complete strangers and asked to comment on issues of the day, no matter how distant from his own areas of research. His transformation from academic economist to public intellectual prompted him to reflect further on the role economists and their discipline play in society. The result is Economics for the Common Good, a passionate manifesto for a world in which economics, far from being a "dismal science," is a positive force for the common good.
-
-
A Great Overview of the Challenges of Modern Econ
- By Zach Sullivan on 08-06-18
By: Jean Tirole, and others
-
How the Other Half Banks
- Exclusion, Exploitation, and the Threat to Democracy
- By: Mehrsa Baradaran
- Narrated by: Priya Ayyar
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The United States has two separate banking systems today - one serving the well-to-do and another exploiting everyone else. How the Other Half Banks contributes to the growing conversation on American inequality by highlighting one of its prime causes: unequal credit. Mehrsa Baradaran examines how a significant portion of the population, deserted by banks, is forced to wander through a Wild West of payday lenders and check-cashing services to cover emergency expenses and pay for necessities - all thanks to deregulation that began in the 1970s.
-
-
The Borrowers at the Fringe
- By Darwin8u on 09-13-16
By: Mehrsa Baradaran
-
The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve
- By: Peter Conti-Brown
- Narrated by: Brian Holsopple
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The independence of the Federal Reserve is considered a cornerstone of its identity, crucial for keeping monetary policy decisions free of electoral politics. But do we really understand what is meant by "Federal Reserve independence"? Using scores of examples from the Fed's rich history, The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve shows that much common wisdom about the nation's central bank is inaccurate.
-
-
Meandering, gossipy, a bit pop-journalistic
- By Philo on 10-03-16
-
Battle for the Soul of Capitalism
- By: John C. Bogle
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There is no one better qualified to tell us about the failures of the American financial system and the grotesque abuses that have taken place in recent years than John C. Bogle, founder and former chief executive of the Vanguard mutual-fund group. This legendary mutual-fund pioneer has witnessed firsthand the innermost workings of the financial industry for more than 50 years and has set the standards for sound investment strategies and stewardship.
-
-
Do You Own a Mutual Fund?
- By M. Kettell on 02-02-08
By: John C. Bogle
-
Reckless Endangerment
- How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon
- By: Gretchen Morgenson, Joshua Rosner
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Reckless Endangerment, Gretchen Morgenson, the star business columnist of The New York Times, exposes how the watchdogs who were supposed to protect the country from financial harm were actually complicit in the actions that finally blew up the American economy.
-
-
Required reading
- By David on 10-24-11
By: Gretchen Morgenson, and others
-
Private Empire
- ExxonMobil and American Power
- By: Steve Coll
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 24 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Steve Coll investigates the largest and most powerful private corporation in the United States, revealing the true extent of its power. ExxonMobil’s annual revenues are larger than the economic activity in the great majority of countries. In many of the countries where it conducts business, ExxonMobil’s sway over politics and security is greater than that of the United States embassy. In Washington, ExxonMobil spends more money lobbying Congress and the White House than almost any other corporation. Yet despite its outsized influence, it is a black box.
-
-
Please no more accents!
- By Zak on 07-24-12
By: Steve Coll
-
Phishing for Phools
- The Economics of Manipulation and Deception
- By: George A. Akerlof, Robert J. Shiller
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ever since Adam Smith, the central teaching of economics has been that free markets provide us with material well-being, as if by an invisible hand. In Phishing for Phools, Nobel Prize-winning economists George Akerlof and Robert Shiller deliver a fundamental challenge to this insight, arguing that markets harm as well as help us. As long as there is profit to be made, sellers will systematically exploit our psychological weaknesses and our ignorance through manipulation and deception.
-
-
Useful for a certain audience, but ...
- By Philo on 02-29-16
By: George A. Akerlof, and others
-
Other People's Money
- The Real Business of Finance
- By: John Kay
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The finance sector of Western economies is too large and attracts too many of the smartest college graduates. Financialization over the past three decades has created a structure that lacks resilience and supports absurd volumes of trading. The finance sector devotes too little attention to the search for new investment opportunities and the stewardship of existing ones, and far too much to secondary-market dealing in existing assets. Regulation has contributed more to the problems than the solutions.
-
-
Listened twice. Everyone must read this.
- By Tristan on 01-18-16
By: John Kay
-
The Deep State
- The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government
- By: Mike Lofgren
- Narrated by: Brian O'Neill
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mike Lofgren is back with a book perfectly pitched for the frenzied circus of the primaries. His argument this time is that for all of the backstabbing and money grubbing of the campaign season, the politicians we elect have as little ability to shift policy as Communist party apparatchiks. Welcome to Mike Lofgren's Washington, DC - a This Town where the political theater that is endlessly tweeted and blogged about has nothing to do with actual decision making.
-
-
Almost good, but profoundly misunderstands economics and very biased towards Democrats
- By Nina Prevot on 04-08-16
By: Mike Lofgren
-
Who Controls the Internet
- Illusions of a Borderless World
- By: Jack Goldsmith, Tim Wu
- Narrated by: Bob Loza
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Is the Internet erasing national borders? Who's really in control of what's happening on the Net--Internet engineers, rogue programmers, the United Nations, or powerful countries?In this provocative new book, Jack Goldsmith and Tim Wu tell the fascinating story of the Internet's challenge to governmental rule in the 1990s, and the ensuing battles with governments around the world.
-
-
Mostly delves into questions of law
- By Amazon Customer on 05-07-11
By: Jack Goldsmith, and others
-
Captive Audience
- By: Susan P. Crawford
- Narrated by: Carol Hendrickson
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ten years ago, the United States stood at the forefront of the Internet revolution. With some of the fastest speeds and lowest prices in the world for high-speed Internet access, the nation was poised to be the global leader in the new knowledge-based economy. Today that global competitive advantage has all but vanished because of a series of government decisions and resulting monopolies that have allowed dozens of countries, including Japan and South Korea, to pass us in both speed and price of broadband.
-
-
Great info, dry delivery
- By Chase Vaughan on 02-12-16
What listeners say about Fraud
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michael A. Koziarski
- 03-18-19
History of regulation
It’s a relatively interesting history of regulation and prosecution of fraud. If you’re wanting a history of scammers or details of ripoff artists this is pretty light on those details.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 09-04-23
An eye opening read and useful to read 2020-2023
An eye opening read and useful to read 2020-2023 and beyond with the pharmaceutical companies.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Fahad
- 08-23-20
In summary. Democrats are good, republicans are bad
Very politicized book. Not much useful content. I wouldn’t buy it. I don’t even remember how I got it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Philo
- 04-10-17
Encyclopedic; a bit dry in tone, but informative
I didn't know there was so much to say about fraud. This is at once a cultural and a legal history. The listener seeking flash or entertainment will probably be disappointed. It sounds more like a textbook than anything else. But the expression is sophisticated. The words chosen are crystalline in their aptness and clarity. As a professor in law, it is surely in my wheelhouse, and in that, a pleasure to listen to. What appears between the lines is a very rich social and social-class history of business groups in America. The Republican Protestant elites (and the prejudices surrounding them) in their battles with the relative outsiders in business are particularly well described. Also interesting is the fine line between energetic entrepreneurship and fraud, exemplified in the development of Sears, as it tangled with and engaged various regulators. Better Business Bureaus, Rotary Clubs, a curtain is pulled back and more revealed about the struggles and balances between eager promoters and (sometimes self-appointed, sometimes blinkered) guardians of business virtue in American history. Here I get a different vantage in the dynamics between sometimes vital, sometimes intrusive regulators, and the private forces they wrestle with.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mattia
- 04-22-19
Dry and tedious
I can't finish this book. I've read more than enough academic books in my life and career and I was looking more for a fun and informative book on the history of fraud. This book provides far more information on macro/micro-economics and the development of law and legal proceedings with respect to fraudulence. It's a rather dry and tedious read.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 12-06-19
Good Information to under laws
Good book to read on government response to fraud. It suggests buyer beware before purchase.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Gunnar
- 02-06-17
An extremely dry, boring, scholarly overview
Would you try another book from Edward J. Balleisen and/or Tom Perkins?
I actually pre-ordered this before it was released as I am interested in the subject matter. Unfortunately, within 10 minutes of listening I realized that this wasn't the sort of book I thought it was going to be. This book takes a scholarly approach to "fraud" as a subject, instead of exploring the characters and details involved in various frauds in American History. The result is that it has the feel of an extremely dry and boring academic text. The monotone narrator certainly didn't help also, and it was very difficult to stay awake while listening.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful