This is a book by Andreas Cervenka, an economics journalist who's part poet, part whistleblower, part straightforward reporter, part funnyman, and part singular writer. Bodil Malmström—author and bon vivant extraordinaire—described him as the 'Tomas Tranströmer of freelance journalism,' and she's right.

Cervenka reminds me of Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and the special breed of cutting-edge journos who eviscerate miles of red tape to get to the truth, but that's not cutting it straightforward enough. Add a bit of Fran Lebowitz and you're not far off. Cervenka's wit carries truth a long way.

This book is solely dedicated to writing about banks in a very straightforward way, which is by describing what they actually do.

Cervenka exposes the biggest banks in Sweden—although he does, frankly, expose more from around the globe, while going after the Swedish ones in most detail—by quoting their leadership and also the central parts of the Swedish government that are supposed to keep banks in check.

There are so many twists and turns, from Iceland and the USA to a deep-dive into the Swedish living-space loan economy, explanations on how banks create money, to how they have no transparency, and how bankers never have to fear jail-time for their crimes—except on Iceland—and Cervenka even has time to proffer positive and truly constructive criticism.

But he never lets his hands off the managers of the banks.

He shouldn't, and he doesn't.

Cervenka is extremely witty, and his terse brand of humour drips off the page when he truly gets going.

As he quotes the Nobel prize winner Bob Dylan in singing, 'Steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king.'