Ferguson followed the film in 2013 with a book titled Predator Nation: Corporate Criminals, Political Corruption, and the Hijacking of America. He expands on the film's revelations, and explains in clear prose how deep the problems are (and who's responsible for them). It is the most important book ever written about the 2008 crisis.

In the first chapter, he writes: "The rise of predatory finance is both a cause and a symptom of an even broader, and even more disturbing, change in America's economy and political system. The financial sector is the core of a new oligarchy that has risen to power over the past thirty years, and that has profoundly changed American life."

When the book came out, Ferguson spoke with Amy Goodman on DemocracyNow! about this change and the oligarchy it has produced.

Asked specifically which crimes were committed, he said: "It's a very long list. Certainly at the top of the list would be securities fraud, accounting fraud and Sarbanes-Oxley violations. [...] We now have publicly available evidence, through a combination of lawsuits, government investigations and whistleblowers, that there was extensive and highly illegal conduct in the housing bubble and the financial crisis."

Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi also wrote a book of remarkable insight that is essential for understanding the current state of our economic system (as well as our system of criminal justice). His 2014 text The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap compares the impunity of Wall Street criminals against the arbitrary arrest and incarceration of less-wealthy Americans, for "crimes" that are shockingly minor. (Taibbi explains how one man was arrested for "obstructing pedestrian traffic" because he was standing outside his building at 3:00 AM.)

Taibbi also spoke with DemocracyNow! to discuss his research and analysis. He explained: "This book grew out of my experience covering Wall Street. I've obviously been doing it since the crash in 2008. And over and over again, I would cover these very complex and often very socially destructive capers committed by white-collar criminals. And the punchline to all of the stories were basically the same: Nobody would get indicted; nobody went to jail.

"I shifted my focus to try to learn a lot more for myself about who does go to jail in this country, because I thought you really can't make this comparison accurately until you learn about both sides of the equation, because it's actually much more grotesque to consider the non-enforcement of white-collar criminals when you do consider how incredibly aggressive law enforcement is with regard to everybody else."

Of the feature films made about the 2008 crisis, none is more haunting or incisive than 2011's Margin Call. Starring Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Zach Quinto, Paul Bettany, and Stanley Tucci, it examines the crash from inside a trading firm eager to save itself by dumping its toxic assets before anyone realizes what's going on. (As Irons says in the film: "Be first. Be smarter. Or cheat.")

In 2015 the rapper Killer Mike (of Run the Jewels) invited Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders into his Atlanta barbershop to discuss capitalism, its alternatives, and economic justice.

Sanders, a lifelong champion of poor and working people — and a person who has fought against racism and white supremacy for decades — found abundant common ground with Mike, even while they disagreed on certain issues. It's a remarkable conversation, bringing together two profound thinkers from profoundly different backgrounds.

In the introduction, he writes: "It is not necessary for us to understand all the technical details in order to understand what is going on in the world and exercise what I call an 'active economic citizenship' to demand the right courses of action from those in decision-making positions. After all, we make judgements about all sorts of other issues despite lacking technical expertise. We don't need to be expert epidemiologists in order to know that there should be hygiene standards in food factories, butchers and restaurants. Making judgements about economics is no different."

In 2008 Chang gave a talk entitled "Why the World Isn't Flat", a comprehensive response to and refutation of the claim by Thomas Friedman that "free trade" rules imposed by NAFTA and the WTO make things better for everyone.

Using a rare mix of insight, detail, pop culture, and humor, Chang eviscerates this claim and demonstrates how people around the world — especially the poor and most vulnerable — are hurt by these policies. This talk is focused on problems with "free trade", but it clearly ties into the discussion of capitalism as a system.