Other People’s Money: The Corporate Mugging of America
Nomi Prins

Often, left leaning books on finance are poorly informed. Not so with Prin’s awesome Other People’s Money. Prin is a former Goldman Sachs director turned think tank progressive and she knows her stuff. Her critique here of the excesses of finance capital is now a decade old, but it still holds water and, indeed seems prescient of the 2008 recession. When you pay people to take risks with other people’s money, wherein they are rewarded for their wins and not punished for their losses, you run the risk of creating perverse incentives (see 2008). Prins lays out the reasons for this and back it up with a very strong understanding of the way Wall Street works. This is one of the best progressive books on finance out there, and I recommend it for the enthusiast.