A Capitalist’s Lament: How Wall Street Is Fleecing You and Ruining America

Rarely have I found a non-fiction book that is a page-turner, but the book A Capitalist’s Lament: How Wall Street Is Fleecing You and Ruining America is one of those books. The author, Leland Faust, goes into detail about how investors are being taken by Wall Street.

Don’t get the author wrong. He is not anti-capitalist, he is what I would call pro-moral capitalist (which is also how I would describe myself, by the way). He is just bringing to light all the ways that the average person is being taken advantage of, on a financial basis.

Although I am familiar with what he covers on a general basis, the author covers the specifics, everything from over charging to fraud. For example, Chapter 2, called Big Is Not Beautiful, is significantly devoted to Goldman Sachs. He points out 37 different instances of fines, security violations, and other issues of the firm.

Examples of some of the chapters that I found the most interesting are:

Fees and Sleaze: Welcome to the World of Hedge Funds

Stupid Predictions and Constant Hype

Myopia: Short Term Trading

Leveraging Yourself to Death

Fortunately, Faust has a resolution, which he covers in the last chapter, Protecting Yourself and Fixing the Wall Street Mess. If you are looking for a great Wall Street expose, I highly recommend A Capitalist’s Lament: How Wall Street Is Fleecing You and Ruining America.