Simon Johnson

Even after the ruinous financial crisis of 2008, America is still beset by the depredations of an oligarchy that is now bigger, more profitable, and more resistant to regulation than ever. Anchored by six megabanks, which together control assets amounting to more than 60 percent of the country's gross domestic product, these financial institutions (now more emphatically "too big to fail") continue to hold the global economy hostage, threatening yet...

"America is mired in debt--more than $30,000 for every man, woman, and child. Bitter fighting over deficits, taxes, and spending bedevils Washington, D.C., even as partisan gridlock has brought the government to the brink of default. Yet the more politicians on both sides of the aisle rant and the citizenry fumes, the more things seem to remain the same. In White House Burning, Simon Johnson and James Kwak--authors of the national best seller 13 Bankers...

"In 13 Bankers, prominent economist Simon Johnson and James Kwak show why our future is imperiled by the ideology of finance and by Wall Street's political control of government policy pertaining to it. To restore health and balance to our economy, Johnson and Kwak make a radical yet feasible and focused proposal: reconfigure the megabanks to be 'small enought to fail'."--Container.

Two teenage boys, Pikelet and Loonie, are growing up in a remote corner of the Western Australian coast. Hungry for discovery, the pair forms an unlikely friendship with Sando, a mysterious older surfer and adventurer who pushes the boys to take risks that will have a lasting and profound impact on their lives.