A lively exposé of the people responsible for our financial crisis, from Wall Street executives to the politicians who let it happen.

Over the past quarter century, we have lived through the greatest looting of wealth in human history. While billions of dollars streamed into the pockets of a few elites in the corporate and economic class, the vast majority of citizens have lived through a period of falling wages, disappearing pensions, and dwindling bank accounts that led to the personal debt crisis at the root of the current financial meltdown. This “audacity of greed” was legally blessed by the ethos of the “free market,” a phony marketing phrase that covered up the fleecing of the American public.

In The Audacity of Greed, Jonathan Tasini examines the reasons and exposes the people responsible for the looting of America, from the Wall Streeters who funded their lavish lifestyles at the public’s expense to the politicians who stood by and watched it happen. Tasini argues that we need a cultural and philosophical revolution that punctures the fable of market fundamentalism and values the contributions made by ordinary Americans throughout the economy.

Praise for The Audacity of Greed and Jonathan Tasini

“Jonathan Tasini is one of the country's premier labor writers. Not just a reporter, he brings a wealth of firsthand, frontline experience to every issue he tackles.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich

“This is must reading for anyone who wants to know how we got us into this financial mess—and what it will take to get out of it.”
—Katrina vanden Heuvel

“Jonathan Tasini dares to utter the words that are still not said in ‘polite’ company: The G-word: Greed! The T-word: Theft! No, greed is not good. Enriching oneself by taking the money of others and leaving them poor: that’s theft. Tasini shows us the economy as we need to see it—from the perspective of people who work.”
—George Lakoff, author of The Political Mind and Don't Think of an Elephant!