“The hunt is on and brother you’re the prey”
~ Curtis Mayfield, “New World Order”

By Catherine Austin Fitts

Matt Taibbi’s The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap is a beautifully written book which documents the double standard applied to “justice” for the rich and poor in America.

While the generosity shown by American prosecutors towards large financial institutions is widely appreciated, the nuts and bolts of how the Department of Justice and the American legal system engineered this windfall is not understood. Taibbi does an excellent job of digging in and explaining how it was done. Life is in the details and the details will astound you.

Another aspect not understood is how enforcement in a wide variety of forms is used to terrorize innocent poor people and profit from doing so. Taibbi’s description of how this war on the poor works is a brilliant contribution.

My favorite chapter describes the effort by hedge fund traders to destroy Fairfax Financial Holdings. Taibbi documents wave after wave of dirty tricks and harassments targeted at a reputable company and their senior executives. Think it can’t happen in America? The CEO of Fairfax Financial Holdings didn’t believe it could and put his company and shareholders at enormous risk as a result. If you are in business in North America you need to read this chapter.

If you walk down the street or drive a car in America, you need to read this book and prepare yourself to navigate the Sheriff of Nottingham let lose upon the land. There are scores of federal and state enforcement agencies with guns and budgets who can make money by catching you. More fiscal pressure means more arrests, more seizures and more civil money penalties.

Taibbi is a first rate storyteller who – along with the reality of our situation – will have you laughing and crying – sometimes at the same time.