PERI Co-Director Gerald Epstein Publishes New Book on ‘Busting the Bankers’ Club’

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Gerald Epstein, professor economics and a founding co-director of the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at UMass Amherst, has published a new book, “Busting the Bankers' Club: Finance for the Rest of Us” (University of California Press, January 2024), outlining the failures of the U.S. financial system, the sources of its staying power and the path to meaningful economic reform. 

Drawing from decades of research on the history, economics and politics of banking, Epstein argues that bankers brought the global economic system to its knees in the run-up to the Great Recession and when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, only to be bailed out by the federal government without meaningful consequences for the banking industry. He writes that to break the cycle of trillion-dollar bailouts and make finance work for the American people, the coalition of politicians, economists, lawyers and CEOs who sustain and benefit from the status quo in banking must be supplanted by a more equitable system.

Epstein points out that there are thousands of activists, experts and public officials who are fighting for a financial system that will better serve the needs of marginalized communities and support important transitions to a greener, fairer economy.

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“Gerald Epstein has done something that has needed doing since 2008 — he has written a book that explains our complex, captured financial system to the lay reader,” says Rana Foroohar, associate editor of the Financial Times. “In simple, clear prose, he outlines why we are still fighting financial fires, and what we can do to bridge the Wall Street-Main Street divide. A wonderful way to understand how finance became the tail that wags the dog of our economy.”

Epstein will participate in a webinar to celebrate the new book on Friday, Feb. 2, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Moderated by PERI co-founder and Distinguished Professor Robert Pollin, the event will feature Lisa Donner, executive director of Americans Financial Reform; Christine Desan, public banking activist and professor of Law at Harvard University; and Jennifer Taub, professor of law at Western New England University and an expert on white-collar crime. The panel will discuss proposed reforms to the financial system, positive steps that can be and are being taken to bring these reforms to fruition, and how to overcome the attempts by the industry to block these efforts.

“Busting the Bankers’ Club” is available from booksellers now. Those who register for the webinar will receive a 40% discount on the purchase price of the book.