Lying for Money - 7:00pm Apr 30th Book Club

Is fraud a bug in the system—or a feature?
---
Sick of the brainrot and trying to read more? Looking to meet like-minded people or debate unlike-minded people? Or do you just want something to fill in your Wednesday night? Come down to the book club for humans!

This month we’re reading Lying for Money: How Financial Frauds Reveal the Workings of the World by Dan Davies.

• Synopsis: The way most white-collar crime works is by manipulating institutional psychology. That means creating something that looks as much as possible like a normal set of transactions. The drama comes later, when it all unwinds.
  Financial crime seems horribly complicated, but there are only so many ways you can con someone out of what’s theirs. In Lying for Money, veteran regulatory economist and market analyst Dan Davies tells the story of fraud through a genealogy of financial malfeasance, including: the Great Salad Oil swindle, the Pigeon King International fraud, the fictional British colony of Poyais in South America, the Boston Ladies’ Deposit Company, the Portuguese Banknote Affair, Theranos, and the Bre-X scam. Davies brings new insights into these schemes and shows how all frauds, current and historical, belong to one of four categories (“long firm,” counterfeiting, control fraud, and market crimes) and operate on the same basic principles. The only elements that change are the victims, the scammers, and the terminology. Revealing some of the most famous frauds of the modern age, Davies explains how fraud has shaped the entire development of the modern world economy.
• This review captures the main themes well

Notes

• We encourage you to support local book shops, though there are quite a few copies of this one currently available at TPL and online!
• To attend, you have to be a human (pets probably aren’t allowed at the venue ☹ )
• You can always come if you didn’t finish the book, but the discussion is based on having read the book (you will hear "spoilers")
• Open philosophical discussion, including for controversial topics, is welcome but be respectful
• Feel free to come 20ish minutes early and stay after to get to know people!

Note: We have a 'pay what you can' policy to reduce the chance of events being cost-prohibitive for anyone. But if you've been having a good time with us and want to pass along a couple of bucks to help cover Meetup platform costs for future events, there is a contribution bucket on the table that night and a Paypal link :)