The Payoff

Why Wall Street Always Wins

By: Jeff Connaughton

Narrated by: Jeff Connaughton

Beginning in January 2009, The Payoff lays bare Washington’s culture of power and plutocracy. It’s the story of the 20-month struggle by Senator Ted Kaufman and Jeff Connaughton, his chief of staff, to hold Wall Street executives accountable for securities fraud, stop stock manipulation by high-frequency traders, and break up too-big-to-fail megabanks. This book takes us inside their dogged crusade against institutional inertia and industry influence as they encounter an outright reluctance by the Obama administration, the Justice Department, and the Securities and Exchange Commission to treat Wall Street crimes with the gravity they deserve. On financial reforms, Connaughton criticizes Democrats for relying on the very Wall Street technocrats who had failed to prevent the crisis and Republicans for staunchly opposing real reforms, primarily to enjoy a golden opportunity to siphon fundraising dollars from the Wall Street executives who had raised millions to elect Barack Obama president.

Connaughton, a former lawyer in the Clinton White House, illuminates the pivotal moments and key decisions in the fight for financial reform that have gone largely unreported. His arch, nonpartisan account chronicles the reasons why Wall Street’s worst offenses were left unpunished - and why it’s likely that the 2008 debacle will happen again.

©2012 Jeff Connaughton (P)2013 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Jeff Connaughton has a new job: truth teller. The Payoff: Why Wall Street Always Wins is a memoir and more…A must read if you’re interested in the corrupting influence of lobbyists, the revolving door between Wall Street and those that govern and regulate the financial services industry, and how huge, and ultimately untraceable, amounts of money grease the wheels of government at every step…Full of revealing quotes and anecdotes that describe a messy, self-serving, and sometimes ruthless political process.” ( Forbes online)

“A new powerful voice who knows how big banks really work and who is willing to tell the truth in great and convincing detail…A page-turning memoir that is also a damning critique of how Wall Street operates, the political capture of Washington, and our collective failure to reform finance in the past four years. The Payoff: Why Wall Street Always Wins is the perfect antidote to disinformation put about by global megabanks and their friends.” ( Huffington Post)

“The great mystery story in American politics these days is why, over the course of two presidential administrations (one from each party), there’s been no serious federal criminal investigation of Wall Street during a period of what appears to be epic corruption. People on the outside have speculated and come up with dozens of possible reasons, some plausible, some tending toward the conspiratorial - but there have been very few who’ve come at the issue from the inside. We get one of those rare inside accounts in The Payoff: Why Wall Street Always Wins…[from] one of the few voices on the Hill who always talked about the subject with appropriate alarm.” ( Rolling Stone

Not much is changed since 2012!

Fascinating book! Although it was written in 2012, little has changed. How fortunate we are to have people like the author to tell this story! I went to look for other books and materials on this subject. I hope the author will update this excellent expose!

It's No Surprise!

I liked the book. sadly it's just another example of our government asleep at the wheel.

I have two new heroes

great insight into the stock market maneuvering that mainstream investors don't have access to! And how 2 good men fought like hell for stricter regulations for wall street and banks!

Horrible

Guy realizes he has made alot of money and wants to make himself feel like he is still a good guy.

Spare us.

Not sure if he is liberal conservative or other. He believes more regulators is the solution. His is of the same moralistic crew of do gooders who said that regulation FD was in the best interest of all that was moral and fair.

People like this have been writing laws for democracies around the world for 70 plus years. Is it any wonder that democracies are failing? When your first principle is fair and moral outcomes you will get some very strange laws passed. Laws that don't apply to the governed but not the governors, laws that take away property rights, laws that compromise the ability of the government to tell the governed how much money something costs, etc., etc. Your first principle should be that everyone has the right and the duty to look after him or herself and to that end may contract in all manner of ways.

Only reason to read the book is to peer inside the peanut of a mind such a person possesses. Or to understand the lies they tell themselves or the public in order to feel good about the havoc they have created with their life's work.