Posted on November 15, 2008 - by Lauren

Plunder

Plunder:

Investigative Insight into a Financial Meltdown

Reviewed by Stuart Nachbar

These days I have to ask myself if book publishers and Wall Street make connected decisions on the release of business profile books. Is it mere coincidence that stories about AIG and Bear Stearns have appeared scant weeks after their failures were fait accompli with the business press?

{mosimage}Investigative journalist and television producer Danny Schechter asked that very same question in a new book: Plunder, Investigating our Economic Calamity and the Subprime Scandal. He explained that only a small press was willing to take on the title because Plunder did not fit the template for traditional business books where, in his own words, story telling trumps analysis. While Schecter has been part of news establishment himself—he produced ABC News’ 20/20 for seven years, part of an extremely long resume of credits—he prides himself on being an independent thinker.

Schechter’s experience shines throughout Plunder. He takes you step-by-step not only through the debt crisis that brought on the most recent federally-backed bailout, but also shows how the regulators and the national business news media were tacit collaborators with Wall Street and the Bush Administration. He does a better job at posing the pointed questions than someone like Michael Moore, who does not have either the education or professional journalistic experience.  Nor does he take sides with the Democratic Party, as Moore does. Schechter holds them equally to blame, though he shows some hope for Barack Obama in this story. He does, however, show materials from academic allies, the CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition as well as the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who calls Schecter a “human rights activist.” And his writing style is less dry than Al Gore’s.

But Plunder is not so much a business profile as it is a populist consumer book, a warning about how the debt crisis and the federal bailout will affect working individuals, as opposed to Wall Street executives. The faults I see with Plunder are that there are too many attributions to other books. (I am one who likes to see more of the author’s opinions); too many repeated digs at offenders on the same point; Schecter’s “back-stepping” on his own credentials (he denies expertise in finance, but he is writing about the subject and challenging expert decisions); and, his referral to himself as “The News Dissector,” which makes appear to be a Jim Cramer wannabee.  Cramer, the host of CNBC’s  Mad Money makes his living screaming aloud about the prospects of stocks, or the lack thereof. Schecter reserves some digs for Creamer’s earlier (and sunnier) predictions before the meltdown, though he avoids the fact that the “Mad Man’s” books have become bestsellers. I’d love to watch these two men in a televised shouting match—Schechter might actually win in a tough fight—but I doubt CNBC would allow it.

Plunder is biased, but it is a worthwhile and easy read for someone who knows little about economics and finance, or does not have the time to get into the nitty gritty of those subjects. I have some schooling in business, and for the most part I agree with Schechter’s analysis conclusions. But I also wonder, with the tone of the writing, if he’s shooting himself in the foot.

Contact Stuart Nachbar at http://www.EducatedQuest.com , a blog on education politics, policy and technology or read about his first book, The Sex Ed Chronicle, a novel on education and politics in 1980 New Jersey, at http://www.SexEdChronicles.com.