Collusion: How Central Bankers Rigged the World
Collusion: How Central Bankers Rigged the World book cover

Collusion: How Central Bankers Rigged the World

Hardcover – May 1, 2018

Price
$25.52
Format
Hardcover
Pages
384
Publisher
Bold Type Books
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-1568585628
Dimensions
6.5 x 1.25 x 9.5 inches
Weight
1.34 pounds

Description

"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 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.

Features & Highlights

  • In this searing exposéformer 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.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
60%
(268)
★★★★
25%
(112)
★★★
15%
(67)
★★
7%
(31)
-7%
(-31)

Most Helpful Reviews

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Straight Forward, Well Researched, Not fear porn

First and foremost, this is one of the better books I've read, especially on the banking system. Nomi Prins doesn't sensationalize or create fear porn. This entire volume is written very practically. I will warn readers up front that there is a lot of banking and financial terminology and acronyms. There's a glossary to help but it may be a bit of a challenge if you are completely unfamiliar with the banking system.

Rather than offer a summary, I'm going to offer a couple of quotes directly from the book that do well presenting the overall theme:

- "By conjuring money, the Fed had begun something it couldn't stop." - p. 223

- "Nowhere in any of this did the plight of ordinary citizens meaningfully feature in the discussion." - p. 224

- "This coddling of the oppressors depicted the illogic of a situation that hurt all those involved to some degree - except the central bankers themselves. It was the central banking establishment that had no real allegiance to voters and that remained virtually untouchable." - p. 242

Basically, in 2007/2008, a fiscal crisis erupted, with the epicenter being the United States. This crisis was in part caused by the deregulation of the banking industry during the Clinton Administration, including the repeal of the Glass-Steigal act. Though many who have been following the system are aware of that, Prins gets into detail of why this is true. It lead to out of control "betting" utilizing people's deposits. This "betting" included subprime loans, derivative markets (including derivatives from toxic assets), and so on. When it all came to a head, the bankers went to governments to bail them out. And they did. And the banks made out big time but Main Street did not. And then central banks pushed money conjuring (QE) for a trickle down effect. It didn't work. Banks hoarded it and bet on more derivatives. So the central banks keep doing the same thing and have for about a decade with the same effect.

The author does a great job in presenting the elitism of the central bankers, the revolving door between banking positions and government positions, the fact that the bankers are less and less accountable to governments and that governments are more and more held hostage by those bankers. This book should be on the reading list for every college student out there, but it won't be.

Political Trigger Warning: The author does not speak highly of any American administration, whether it be Bush, Obama, or Trump. So if you are in love with any of these presidents, you will be triggered.
163 people found this helpful
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Just read or listen to Collusion - it will change your sense of The Matrix we live in.

I just finished Nomi's book, Collusion. I worked for The Federal Reserve in various departments throughout my life, including payment processing, Treasury Direct, and as a bank holding company examiner. I do not mean to be histrionic here. I do not personally know Nomi. This is the most important book I've read in a decade. Take my advice just this once - get Collusion, and read it. And thanks, Nomi, for your bravery.
135 people found this helpful
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A Nobel Prize for economics

Prins in a just world could easily receive the Nobel Prize for economics . The secret world of Central Banks has a profound effect on how we all survive in this money driven planet . Japan , Europe and the US Central Banks are all in collusion offering the big banks ZIR-Ps , zero interest rate policies while the masses have to settle for convience store sleerpies! The bright side of the story has been how China and other developing countries have been able to challenge the trickle down approach to finance , investing in infrastructure and other social investments. On the other hand with the Fed trillions
go to lining the pockets of our big banks while the finance sector pays little attention to the needs of the public.For anyone interested in economics , this is the key piece of the global puzzle. In a just world the Quantitative Easing might be how we ease Climate Change , a strategy environmental groups might consider . Thank you Nomi Prins for your research and moral strength.
54 people found this helpful
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Good premise, heavily researched. Destroyed by terrible structure and minimal analysis.

I was quite looking forward to the publication of this book, and I honestly wanted to like it. Ms. Prins has been an outspoken critic of central bank policies, and I fundamentally agree with her stance. Unfortunately, "Collusion" is by no means an enjoyable read, and it does a poor job of establishing its basic premise.

The book's central thesis - that central bankers coordinated their actions after 2008 to manipulate markets with no checks on their power - is a fine one. Indeed, I think this would have been quite a good book if the author had used that premise to craft a narrative, using her encyclopedic knowledge of events since the last financial crisis to bolster her arguments. But that's not what you get.

Rather, the book is broken up geographically, with an exhaustive (and exhausting) recapitulation of prominent financial events in a particular country region serving as a chapter. It first runs through everything that happened in Mexico over the past ten years. Then Brazil. Then China, Japan, and the Eurozone in turn. There is a great deal of heavily referenced information in these chapters, but distressingly little in terms of synthesis or analysis. Rather than providing a global perspective on how coordinated central bank efforts in response to various developments aided some parties or harmed others, each chapter becomes a tedious slog through a particular country's or region's crises and the local central banker's immediate response. The concluding chapter is brief, does little to tie the preceding chapters together, and offers only cursory and superficial suggestions on how to move forward.

The book gets the second star because it is obviously well researched and the volume of information is impressive. But anyone expecting either to get either entertainment or insight from their reading should look elsewhere.
44 people found this helpful
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Clueless Prins Sells Fear and Doom. Perfect for the Alex Jones Show

Where do I begin with a book that should be classified as fiction but is listed in the economics category? First, you must understand that Prins positions herself as a financial authority when she has no idea what is going on. This book serves as a perfect example of that.

For years Prins has been telling people to stay out of the stock market and to buy gold. Anyone who listened to her has lost huge and missed out on the second longest bull market in US history.

It should be noted that in order to market this and her previous books, Prins has enlisted the services of several ridiculous conspiracy You Tube channels. You can check all of the ridiculous things she has said in the past on You Tube.

Prins waters down much of her ridiculous conspiracy nonsense in this book so as to not reveal her real purpose, which is to draw in the lunatic gold bug crowd with her fake news interviews and then to water down the message in this book knowing that the gold lunatics who are familiar with her fake news interviews can read between the lines. Meanwhile, those who are not familiar with her fake news conspiracy fear mongering will think her premise seems reasonable. I believe Prins’ book and marketing campaign behind it to be represent publishing fraud.
27 people found this helpful
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Great reference material, global view of Central Banks, names are named, but a dense read for the average reader

Very dense book, so be ready for a lot of detail with entities you never heard of in a global view...could have summed it up in a page or too. It would be a great reference book for an article or paper. The thing I was most interest in, how to address the problems and issues received 1 sentence...there must be a financial reset. That I would have been interested in learning more about.
25 people found this helpful
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A dire explanation by a woman who is exceptionally well ...

A dire explanation by a woman who is exceptionally well qualified to know her topic and who writes clearly about it.
21 people found this helpful
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Very well written - easy to understand!

Excellent work ... Well written ... Incredible back-up with 80 pages of foot-notes and references ... Easy to understand ... I love how the book was broken down by geographical regions ... Kudos ... A MUST READ
17 people found this helpful
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Hugely Informative!

This book gives an impressive timeline of global central bank intervention that reaches the height of an academic dissertation. Although the sitings of central bank involvement in seemingly necessary activities gets a bit tedious at times, they do give the author great credibility in her contention and can only point to what she's attempting to illustrate-- Collusion (and, yes, that's with a capital "C"). Two thumbs up-- and extra credit for truthfulness!
15 people found this helpful
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but easily digestible for any student who wishes to understand the ...

This book is very informative and well written with acronyms and abbreviations explained as you read each sentence. There is even a glossary in the back to explain terms. This book is not a FAST read, but easily digestible for any student who wishes to understand the financial working and crisis of present times.. This book puts the reader into the drivers seat of knowledge and understanding of the interconnecting world of international finance and your place in it. Well done, Nomi.
15 people found this helpful