How We Got Swindled by Wall Street Godfathers, Greed & Financial Darwinism ~ The 30-War
Against the American Dream; foreword by David Satterfield, 2 times Pulitzer Prize-winner
"With keen intellect and searing wit, Henry Schoenberger’s How We Got Swindled exposes
the myriad of financial hijinks and colossal leadership failures that have turned the first
decade of the new century into an economic disaster. Schoenberger not only identifies the
causes, rationales and human failings that led to his mess; he provides some ready answers
for how we must go about fixing it. This should be must-reading for every policy maker in
Washington and every student of economics and finance."
-
David Satterfield, former Business Editor of the Miami Herald, two times Pulitzer Prize - winner
"Having been on the inside of one of the largest sub-prime mortgage lenders
that failed, I can attest to the fact the Mr. Schoenberger has got it right. His insights
and historical perspectives are on the money. We need to be focusing on how we effectively
regulate the markets so that this type of crisis does not come back to bite us again."
-
Marc Loewenthal, Esq., Former SVP of Enterprise Risk Management, New Century Financial Corp.
E. Henry Schoenberger is a frequent contributor to the Huffington Post
Bio
Henry Schoenberger is a Cleveland entrepreneur, financial specialist, writer and author.
Schoenberger’s latest book, How We Got Swindled by Wall Street, Greed & Financial Darwinism ~ The 30-Year War Against The American Dream, is due out next month. The book, an insightful look at the failures of Washington and Wall Street as well as all the contributing factors that led to the current depression-like economy and dysfunctional state of the US, includes a foreword from David Satterfield, a veteran financial journalist who shared in two Pulitzer Prizes while he was the business editor at the Miami Herald.
Schoenberger’s 1990 book, Invest for Success, How to Avoid Getting Ripped Off by Real Estate Partnerships, the Stock Market and Diversification became a critical success nationally, and recently B&N decided to carry it again online and in stock. He has authored a number of articles in professional journals and mainstream publications.
A 1964 graduate of Miami University, with a degree in English and Economics, Schoenberger has served in a variety of roles in the financial world. From capital formation consulting, to having been among the earliest financial planners in 1968, to owning his own broker-dealer NASD Member Firm specializing in private placements, to a venture capital CEO leading a small business into and successfully out of Chapter 11. He presented testimony to Senate Finance for TRA 86 at the request of George Mitchell, has spoken before various professional groups and has taught his continuing education course for CPAs, Trust Officers and Trust Department Lawyers for many years.
Schoenberger has been successful in both the insurance and securities businesses for over four decades, and has been a life-long student of economics and economic history as well as a political junkie dating from the day his father gave him an I Like Ike button. He is a poet-philosopher and pragmatic, rational idealist with a point of view encompassing human needs as well as economic realities. He believes the past will be eventually be acknowledged as prologue to provide the lessons to successfully transition from where we find ourselves today to a future that has appropriate concern for the public good. And he believes in the collective spirit of Americans, a spirit that has always found a way to transcend rancorous disagreement to form a stronger union.
From 45 years of personal experience, he understands why we cannot fix our continuing financial tragedy until it is recognized and acknowledged that Financial Darwinism is Born-again Social Darwinism and the survival of the richest ethic has been curbed by rebuilding the barriers against greed. And the Keynesian pragmatic solutions which worked in the after-math of the Great Depression must be applied to solve economic problems that cannot be solved by monetary and fiscal policy.
Table of Contents
Foreword
1
Preface: A Zen Path Through the Minefields
5
1. Social Darwinism Practiced by “Robber Barons” and Pyramid Builders
15
2. Financial Darwinism is Born Again Social Darwinism
21
3. Party Principles vs. Human Considerations –
Democrats vs. Republicans Who Just Say No
27
4. Housing Prices in Free Fall or in a Return to Value,
Commercial is Rotten Too
35
5. Greedy Deregulated Banks Abandoned Prudence
and Reason for Fees and Bonuses
43
6. Wall Street: Financial Investment versus Real Investment,
The Only Ethic is Survival of the Richest
55
7. Appraisers and Raters Drove the Getaway Cars
69
8. Self-Serving Regulators Serve the Self-Interested Ultra Rich
79
9. Financial Engineering – The Quantification of Risk Myth
103
10. “Too Complex to Explain” Financial Instruments: Derivatives, CDOs,
CMOs, Swaps, and Rancid Tranches – Pools of Worse than Junk Bond Debt
115
11. Risk Reduction, A Financial Engineering Faith-Based Hoax
131
12. Risk Measurement Simplified
143
13. Haute Degrees and Social Standing Do Not Equal Judgment or Ethics
145
14. Arcane Professional Nomenclature Utilized to
Obfuscate and Sell Empty Promises
153
15. The Insidious Use and Abuse of Language
by Allowing It to Shape Thought
161
16. The Financial Media – Reporters or Shills?
Objective Media – a Casualty of the War
175
17. Malfeasance – The Omission of Significant Information Constitutes Fraud
191
18. Executive Compensation, Reasonable or Disgusting: Tax Laws
Promote Bonuses Not Dividends; No Enforcement of IRS Sec. 162(m
201
19. Establish Economic Fairness and Stability by
Rising Up Against Financial Darwinists
215
Appendix I: Chapters from Invest for Success
235
Appendix II: Letters From 1989
259
Appendix II:I Financial Darwinism 1987 Outline
269
Media Interview Questions
Before reading interview questions keep in mind that Swindled is the brutally candid and vehemently objective book of an insider who knows what so many do not.
And the only book to expose the connectivity of all the culprits and controlling issues that combined to create the 2nd worst economy since 1776, along with the most societal angst since the Great Depression.
It is the only book that provides a simple path to follow all the dots to understand the whole truth. Confusion results from not seeing the whole.
Swindled arms readers with questions to ask, information and solutions that Congress and Wall Street do not want you to have!
“It reads like an autopsy, and an indictment!” Mark Marshall, Mike Levine, Expert Witness Radio, WBAI-FM, NYC -
www.expertwitnessradio.org
“Get Swindled, it’s a good read.” Paul Lisnek, Politics Tonight, WGN-TV, Chicago
Learn why all the “too complex to explain” financial innovation was/is illegal, from Chapters 8 and
10. Learn why the economic theories and attitudes from the Social Darwinism era of robber barons
have metastasized into Financial Darwinism. And learn why this is the real root cause.
From 44 years of insider experience, with a lifelong concern for the common good -- I can discuss and shed enlightenment on:
- The fact of the real root cause. And the past that was prologue.
- Misrepresented economic notions from the past, and their conflicted supporters.
- Current political lies about economic theories from robber barons.
- Why OWS started in the right place. The fallacies underlying Occupy the SEC.
- Financial Reform: Why the “Volker Rule won’t Work: Proprietary Trading? Compliance?
- Why the SEC and the Fed did not enforce regulations with the force of law behind them.
- Specific SEC and Fed Bank Holding Co. regulations that were violated: laws were broken!
- Why the SEC fraud settlement was like a member of the Manson family indicting, and the prosecuting Charlie.
- Why the bank mortgage fraud is so much deeper than identified.
- What is really wrong with Wall Street – Banks vs Bank Holding Cos. – Glass-Steagall
- Why Congress has not asked Justice to indict major culprits.
- That hedging is what you do when you know what you are going to do will not work.
- The fallacy of leverage and mathematical risk measurement by financial engineers!
- Bogus collateral and the raters that committed fraud and why.
- What financial instruments and what kind of leverage should be stopped.
- Media shills: continuing platforms for culprits still regarded as experts: lost obuectivity!
- The deregulation of greed and the devaluation of ethics: why greed was let out of its cage.
- Crony Capitalism, Financial Capitalism – financial investment vs real investment – why
- Capital Formation is the real job creator and it only results from real investment.
- Is Capitalism the culprit? Is so much inequality OK?!
- How to fix where we are.
I need your help to get the whole truth out: to arrange an interview or for more information:
216-752-3244; 216-287-4513; (fax) 216-991-4100
E. Henry Schoenberger
18904 Oxford Road; Shaker Heights, Ohio 44122
I would appreciate hearing from you, and a link, if you run a review, feature or mention Swindled.
Swindled has been in print since mid January, and is available in stock from Amazon, B&N, and as an eBook.
Distributed to stores and libraries by Baker and Taylor.
Barnes & Noble
Amazon (see inside)
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Henry Schoenberger
@ehschoenberger