Collusion: How Central Bankers Rigged the World

by Nomi Prins

Overview

In this searing exposé oformer Wall Street insider Nomi Prins shows how the 2007-2008 financial crisis turbo-boosted the influence of central bankers and triggered a massive shift in the world order.

Central banks and international institutions like the IMF have overstepped their traditional mandates by directing the flow of epic sums of fabricated money without any checks or balances. Meanwhile, the open door between private and central banking has ensured endless opportunities for market manipulation and asset bubbles — with government support.

Through on-the-ground reporting, Prins reveals how five regions and their central banks reshaped economics and geopolitics. She discloses how Mexico navigated its relationship with the US while striving for independence and how Brazil led the BRICS countries to challenge the US dollar's hegemony. She explains how China's retaliation against the Fed's supremacy is aiding its ongoing ascent as a global superpower and how Japan is negotiating the power shift from the West to the East. And she illustrates how the European response to the financial crisis fueled instability that manifests itself in everything from rising populism to the shocking Brexit vote.

Packed with tantalizing details about the elite players orchestrating the world economy — from Janet Yellen and Mario Draghi to Ben Bernanke and Christine Lagarde — Collusion takes the reader inside the most discreet conversations at exclusive retreats like Jackson Hole and Davos. A work of meticulous reporting and bracing analysis, Collusion will change the way we understand the new world of international finance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781568589435
Publisher:	PublicAffairs
Publication date:	05/07/2019
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	532,382
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Nomi Prins is a journalist, speaker, respected TV and radio commentator, and former Wall Street executive. The author of six books, including All the Presidents' Bankers, Other People's Money, and It Takes a Pillage, her writing has been featured in the New York Times, Fortune, Mother Jones, Guardian, and Nation, among others. She was a member of Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) Federal Reserve Reform Advisory Council, and is on the advisory board of the whistle-blowing organization ExposeFacts.

Table of Contents

Characters: The Conjurers of Money ix

Author's Note xv

Introduction 1

1 Mexico: There's No Wall Against US Financial Crises 15

2 Brazil: National Politics Meets the Federal Reserve Meets China 53

3 China: Dragon Rising 87

4 Japan: Conjured-Money Incubator 133

5 Europe Part I: The Trichet Files 181

6 Europe Part II: The Draghi Money Machine 213

Conclusion: The End Is Just The Beginning 247

Acknowledgments 255

Glossary 257

Notes 261

Index 343

Editorial Reviews

"Prins is that rare combination of real-world expertise, scholarly method, and a brilliant writing style. Collusion is urgent and timely. A must-read for savers, students, journalists, and public officials."—James Rickards, bestselling author of Currency Wars and The Death of Money

"[An] unflinching, troubling exposé... well worth a close read by anyone looking to understand the roots of the last crash and prepare for the next."—Publishers Weekly

"After the 2008 economic collapse, central banks created $21 trillion of money to stave off a global depression. But who got all that new money? And how was it used? The always insightful Nomi Prins, after traveling the globe for answers, reveals the shocking truth-and she does it in plain English so everyone can understand the awful facts."—David Cay Johnston, bestselling author of It's Even Worse Than You Think

"Prins has emerged as one of the fiercest critics of crony capitalism and its sustained attacks against poor and working people. This is the book that the financial elites don't want you to read."—Jeremy Scahill, Academy Award-nominee, bestselling author of Blackwater, and cofounder of The Intercept

"Meet the Lords of Finance of the twenty-first century. Prins' in-depth reporting explores how central bankers' political aspirations came to supersede their duties to safeguard their economies. With few options, central bankers will become more desperate with hopes that more collusion will save the day. Read this book to understand how very wrong they are and to fully grasp the danger that lies in wait."—Danielle DiMartino Booth, author of Fed Up and former Federal Reserve advisor

"The US doesn't have a financial press. It has something better-Nomi Prins. Read this book to understand the central bank conspiracy against the world economy."—Paul Craig Roberts, former Wall Street Journal editor and assistant secretary of the US Treasury

"Central banks, led by the Federal Reserve, are the opioids for private banks addicted to being reckless with other people's money. Prins, drawing from her previous work in Wall Street firms and her present field research around the world, says, 'We are headed for another epic fall.' Taxpayers, workers and consumers who will suffer from another bailout, all better read this clear, concise, compelling book."—Ralph Nader

"Scarier than Stephen King horror fiction. Prins, a refugee from Goldman Sachs, tells the truth on her fellow banksters and their abuse of the scary uber-power they wield when they take control of money-printing machinery of the world's central banks. Astonishingly, she got deep inside these secretive power chambers-and came out alive with truly fascinating tales of the blood diamonds of global finance. I particularly enjoyed, if you can use that word, her exposure of the cruelty and cupidity of the banking potentates who suffocated Greece to please the gods of Markets and Mammon."—Greg Palast, author of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

A somber, important warning that's likely to cause readers to wonder about the safety of their assets, if not fear for the near-term future.—Kirkus Reviews

"Captivating... an exposé of the highest order - an all-inclusive and wide-ranging attempt to draw back the curtain and illuminate those who are truly pulling the strings controlling the progression of world events... Prins leaves virtually no stone unturned in this comprehensive and mesmerizing indictment... Prins is able to write with an authority virtually nonexistent - or certainly unrivaled - among her peers."—Bowling Green Daily News

From the Publisher

02/19/2018
This unflinching, troubling exposé from Prins (All the Presidents’ Bankers), a journalist and former banker at Lehman Brothers, forecasts impending doom for the global economy—all at the hands of central bankers. Prins criticizes the efforts made since 2008 to guard against future banking crises, charging regulators with increasing the supply of “artificial money” rather than fostering sustainable growth. She ascribes the 2008 crisis to a too loosely regulated banking system; ever since, G7 central banks have “colluded” to keep private banks afloat through quantitative easing, which entails buying bonds and other assets from financial institutions to increase the money supply. According to Prins, this has resulted in asset bubbles, which, when popped, could bring down banks and markets. The book’s most chilling section consists of Prins’s predictions of what awaits a world economy threatened by rising income inequality and an elite class bent on preserving its dominance: a bigger collapse than the 2008 crisis. This dense though lively treatise is not for the faint of heart, but it’s well worth a close read by anyone looking to understand the roots of the last crash and prepare for the next. Agent: Andrew Stuart, Stuart Agency. (May)

Publishers Weekly

2018-03-03
Wall Street executive Prins (All the Presidents' Bankers: The Hidden Alliances that Drive American Power, 2014, etc.) delivers a sharp-edged critique of the hegemony of central banks over the world's economies.Central banks, supporting too-big-to-fail banking conglomerates, are skilled practitioners of what the author calls "money conjuring," wherein "the cost of money is rendered abnormally cheap." Through the trickle-downish machinery of quantitative easement, the very banks that brought on the financial crisis now remembered as the Great Recession reward themselves. In 2017, she notes, U.S. banks used 99 percent of their earnings to buy their own stocks and pay out dividends to their shareholders even as the easement was, at least in theory, supposed to loosen the purse strings and set more money loose in the broader economy. The closeness of central, government-allied banks with their private counterparts, including revolving-door jobs, has meant that regulators are all too willing to overlook excesses and violations; even in moments of financial turmoil brought on by the banks, the "conjurers" and the speculators are rarely blamed. The intervention of central banks in the marketplace, Prins adds, has mostly had the effect of distorting that marketplace by supporting a banking system that requires serious overhaul in the place of mere infusions of cheap money—and this money rarely finds its way into the hands of ordinary borrowers, and certainly not at the cheap rates the banks enjoy. Given that the central banks and those private counterparts have successfully resisted meaningful reform—witness the Trump administration's efforts to scrap what little regulation there is—the likelihood of a repeat of 2008 seems high indeed. "It only takes one domino to fall to wipe them all out," Prins warns in closing. "It will again begin with the banks, cripple the markets, and devastate the global economy."A somber, important warning that's likely to cause readers to wonder about the safety of their assets, if not fear for the near-term future.

Kirkus Reviews