Jimmy Stewart Is Dead: Ending the World's Ongoing Financial Plague with Limited Purpose Banking

Jimmy Stewart Is Dead: Ending the World's Ongoing Financial Plague with Limited Purpose Banking

by Laurence J. Kotlikoff

Narrated by Christian Rummel

Unabridged — 8 hours, 20 minutes

Jimmy Stewart Is Dead: Ending the World's Ongoing Financial Plague with Limited Purpose Banking

Jimmy Stewart Is Dead: Ending the World's Ongoing Financial Plague with Limited Purpose Banking

by Laurence J. Kotlikoff

Narrated by Christian Rummel

Unabridged — 8 hours, 20 minutes

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Overview

We let Wall Street play craps with our financial system, our economy, and our tax dollars. The result -- we lost big time. Jimmy Stewart is Dead  is a call to return to basics with a strategy that is very much like the one used by Stewart's character George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life: banks should be no more than intermediaries between borrowers and lenders and savers and investors. The book describes in plain English and simple terms the big con underlying the big game the web of interconnected financial, political, and regulatory malfeasance that culminated in financial meltdown and brought us to our economic knees. It also proposes the financial fix. Kotlikoff's solution is an idea he has termed limited purpose banking, a simple and essentially costless change to our financial system. It limits banks to their legitimate purpose, namely connecting (intermediating between) borrowers and lenders and savers and investors. Under limited purpose banking, all banks would operate as saving institutions and mutual funds that sell safe as well as risky collections of securities to the public. As mutual funds, the banks would simply function as middlemen. They would never, themselves, own financial assets or borrow to invest in anything except assets, needed to run their mutual funds. Hence, banks would never be in a position to fail because of ill-advised financial bets. Engaging and enlightening, Jimmy Stewart is Dead introduces a strategy for no-risk banking. The book explains the tenets of the plan such as the regained government control of the money supply and the new role of insurance companies. Author Laurence Kotlikoff, a leading economist, believes there is a better way to restore trust in our financial system and get our economy rolling than by having Unce Sam pledge to always clean up the mess. Its not to let the mess happen to begin with.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Kotlikoff has presented a thought-provoking proposal that merits attention in the debate over financial regulation."
—Kenneth Silber, FrumForum.com, March 2010

"Jimmy Stewart Is Dead makes for provocative reading. We certainly have squandered much of America's business and economic strength in the pursuit of personal gain and huge if not obscene bonuses. … It might just be easier to find another Jimmy Stewart. I'd call him Mr. Smith. And I'd ask him to go to Washington."
—Philip Moeller, U.S. News & World Report

"Kotlikoff grabs us by the collar, brilliantly unveiling the truth about our financial system. With scintillating arguments, vivid examples, and terrific wit, he offers a powerful reform that stops banks from gambling and restricts them to their legitimate purpose, 'connecting borrowers to lenders and savers to investors.' This is economics at its very best: deeply insightful and powerfully useful. It will change the global debate."
—JEFFREY SACHS, Director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Development and Health Policy, Columbia University

"Financial reform needs something simple, clear, and, most of all, effective. Read this book to get and understand the answer."
—GEORGE SHULTZ, Distinguished Fellow, the Hoover Institution, former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, and former U.S. Secretary of State

"At last! A real financial page-turner. Kotlikoff calls out the bad actors behind the financial crisis and nails them cold. But he also tells us how to prevent it from happening again. It's called Limited Purpose Banking. Anyone can read this book—and everyone should."
—SCOTT BURNS, Financial Columnist, Universal Press Syndicate

"Jimmy Stewart Is Dead is a page-turner, as fast-paced as The Simpsons, with new insights on every page. As fun as it is, Jimmy Stewart is also deadly serious. It describes our deep financial problems and offers an amazingly simple financial fix to prevent an even worse crash. Everyone should read this book."
—GEORGE AKERLOF, Koshland Professor of Economics, University of California at Berkeley, Nobel laureate in Economics

"Kotlikoff's book makes an impassioned, coherent, and convincing case for Limited Purpose Banking."
—ROBERT E. LUCAS, Jr., John Dewey Distinguished Professor of Economics, University of Chicago, Nobel laureate in Economics

"This book is 'must' reading for everyone who cares about the future of the American economy."-
—ROBERT W. FOGEL, Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago, Nobel laureate in Economics

"Kotlikoff is right. Unless we institute fundamental reforms, there will be an even greater crisis. This well-written book is a must-read for those concerned with reforming the financial system."
—EDWARD C. PRESCOTT, W. P. Carey Chair in Economics, Arizona State University, Nobel laureate in Economics

"Certainly we need to abandon today's hazardous financial system. Kotlikoff's Limited Purpose Banking plan is one of the best visions to surface so far."
—EDMUND PHELPS, McVickar Professor of Political Economy, Columbia University, Nobel laureate in Economics

Product Details

BN ID: 2940177720272
Publisher: Ascent Audio
Publication date: 07/20/2020
Edition description: Unabridged
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