Nomi has done us a great service in reviewing how we got here and where we went wrong. Each morning's headlines are full of reverberations and aftershocks of the crisis. Each evening we get promises of change and hear a growing chorus of assurance that the worst is behind us. All of this makes It Takes a Pillage an essential guide to understanding how the financial-political-economic system works in today's America and beyond. Sadly, pillage, scandal and misinformation make up much of the core of our recent financial history.

The Great American Bubble Machine explores Goldman Sachs as a particular potentate and beneficiary of the policy choices and approaches followed by American regulators and politicians since March 2008. Goldman’s announcement of $3.44 billion in quarterly profits on July14, 2009 speaks to just how well the firm has done lately. Matt’s article is far ranging and conspiratorial in tenor. It is also full of verifiable facts and very biting humor. The work details the extraordinary penetration of Goldman alumni into top regulatory positions and the peerless assistance Goldmen received and benefited from throughout the crisis. It is hard to doubt that this firm is vastly overrepresented among senior officials. Clinton, Bush and Obama employed/employ the following Goldmen: Henry Paulson, Robert Rubin, Robert Steel, Joshua Bolten, Mark Patterson, Edward Liddy, Neel Kashkari, Gary Gensler, Stephen Friedman, William Dudley, Robert Hormats. In many tense, rushed and closed door meetings Goldman was represented on both sides of the bargaining table. These meetings often ended in decisions that were extremely beneficial to Goldman interests.