Nomi Prins - All the Presidents Bankers: The Hidden Alliances that Drive American Power

Praise for

ALL THE PRESIDENTS BANKERS

The relationship between Washington and Wall Street isnt really a revolving door. Its a merry-go-round. And, as Prins shows, the merriest of all are the bankers and financiers that get rich off the relationship, using their public offices and access to build private wealth and power. Disturbing and important. Robert B. Reich, Chancellors Professor of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley

Nomi Prins follows the money. She used to work on Wall Street, and now she has written a seminal history of Americas bankers and their symbiotic relationship with all the presidents from Teddy Roosevelt through Barack Obama. It is an astonishing tale. All the Presidents Bankers relies on the presidential archives to reveal how power works in this American democracy. Prins writes in the tradition of C. Wright Mills, Richard Rovere, and William Greider. Her book is a stunning contribution to the history of the American Establishment. Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prizewinning biographer and author of The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames

Nomi Prins takes us on a brisk, panoramic, and eye-opening tour of more than a centurys interplay between Americas government and its major banksexposing the remarkable dominance of six major banks, and for most of the period, the same families, over US financial policy. Charles R. Morris, author of The Trillion-Dollar Meltdown

Nomi Prins has written a big book you just wish was bigger: page after page of killer stories of bank robbers whove owned the banksand owned the White House. Prins is a born storyteller. She turns the history of the moneyed class into a breathless, page-turning romancethe tawdry affairs of bankers and the presidents who love them. Its brilliant inside stuff on unforgettable, and unforgivable, scoundrels. Greg Palast, investigative reporter for BBC Television and author of Billionaires & Ballot Bandits

In this riveting, definitive history, Nomi Prins reveals how US policy has been largely dominated by a circle of the same banking and political dynasties. For more than a century, presidents often acquiesced or participated as bankers subverted democracy, neglected the public interest, and stole power from the American people. Paul Craig Roberts, former Wall Street Journal editor and assistant secretary of the US Treasury

Nomi Prins has done it againthis time with a must-read, a gripping, historical story on the first corporate statersthe handful of powerful bankers and their decisive influence over the White House and the Treasury Department from the inside and from the outside to the detriment of the people. All the Presidents Bankers speaks to the raw truth today of what Louis D. Brandeis said a hundred years ago: We must break the Money Trust or the Money Trust will break us. Ralph Nader

Money has been the common denominator in American politics for the last 115 years, as Nomi Prins admirably points out. All the Presidents Bankers is an excellent survey of how money influences power and comes dangerously close to threatening democracy. Charles Geisst, author of Wall Street: A History

All the Presidents Bankers is gracefully written, carefully researched, and accessible. It is a must-read for anyone concerned with politics and economicsin other words, just about everybody. Thomas Ferguson, professor of political science, University of Massachusetts, Boston, and senior fellow, Roosevelt Institute

From Taft to Obama, Nomi Prins gives the low-down on the cozy ties between bankers and presidents in America. And although the state has become more powerful and the bankers less necessary, things have gotten worse, not better, over the century she describes. James Galbraith, professor, The University of Texas at Austin, and author of The Predator State

ALL THE

PRESIDENTS

BANKERS

Also by

NOMI PRINS

Other Peoples Money: The Corporate Mugging of America(2004)

Jacked: How Conservatives Are Picking Your Pocket (Whether You Voted for Them or Not)(2006)

It Takes a Pillage: An Epic Tale of Power, Deceit, and Untold Trillions(2009)

Black Tuesday: A Novel(2011)

Copyright 2014 by Nomi Prins.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Prins, Nomi.

All the presidents bankers : the hidden alliances that drive American power / Nomi Prins.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-56858-491-1 (electronic)

1. United StatesPolitics and government20th century. 2. United StatesPolitics and government20012009. 3. United StatesPolitics and government2009 4. BankersPolitical activityUnited StatesHistory20th century. 5. BankersPolitical activityUnited StatesHistory21st century. 6. PresidentsUnited StatesHistory20th century. 7. PresidentsUnited StatesHistory21st century. 8. Power (Social sciences)United StatesHistory. 9. AlliancesPolitical aspectsUnited StatesHistory. 10. United StatesEconomic policy. I. Title.

E743.P74 2013

332.10973'0904dc23

2013036297

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

CONTENTS

O

Bankers

Winthrop Aldrich: President of Chase, 19301934. Chairman of Chase, 19341953. Banker most publicly supportive of Glass-Steagall Act. Allied with FDR and Truman. Ambassador to Britain under Eisenhower.

Henry Alexander: