Throw Them All Out: How Politicians And Their Friends Get Rich Off Of Insider Stock Tips, Land Deals, And Cronyism That Would Send The Rest Of Us To Prison (2011)
About book Throw Them All Out: How Politicians And Their Friends Get Rich Off Of Insider Stock Tips, Land Deals, And Cronyism That Would Send The Rest Of Us To Prison (2011)
WARNING: Do not read this book, unless you want to be pissed at each and every member of Congress in the last 50 years. The title of this book is as accurate as it is long, that is to say, very. It is written from a non-partisan point of view, skewering Democrats and Republicans alike. Mr. Schweizer has meticulously researched the source material, and it shows in the thousands of footnotes. Let this also serve as a warning for any who, like myself, feel the need to run down every single footnote, I think I may have a problem. Overall, I found this to be an engaging, if infuriating, read. Highly recommended. Firstly, if you are the type who disagrees with facts if they make the political party you cheer for look bad this book might not be for you. This book predominantly examines graft of Democrats with a focus on billions of dollars handed out by the Obama administration. At no point does the author say Democrats have the Congressional insider trading market cornered but I know how angry some of the more irrational folks get about these things. Basically the book is a quick read, some may find it tedious as there is example after example in some of the chapters. Pages and pages of what stocks George Soros was buying at the same time he was meeting White House officials to discuss stimulus spending in 2009. Other examples of pervasive graft shown is Nancy Pelosi conveniently stifling a bill to regulate credit card swipe fees around the same time she was offered shares in Visa's stock IPO where she quickly doubled her investment. Another example is John Kerry making 111 transactions (103 were purchases) of medical / health care related stocks in 2003 as he was currently working on Medicare reform. The author also touches on land grabs which the politicians then enrich with earmarks, and also the above average stock returns of politically connected hedge funds. I greatly enjoyed the emphasis the author put on how in just about every other walk of life the insider trading Congress benefits from would at the least get you or I fired, probably arrested.
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insightful. it will make you mad and leave you feeling like there is nothing we can do about it.
—ken
Made it about halfway through. This should have been a lot shorter.
—LaniR
Now how do we get the laws on the books to prevent this.
—Andrea
