Jeff Connaughton
  • The rest of the country may be divided into red and blue, but D.C. is green...and cheerfully so.”
    - Jeff Connaughton,
    THE PAYOFF: Why Wall Street Always Wins
“Jeff is one of the smartest guys on the Hill and is particularly strong on issues surrounding Wall Street and the regulatory system...he takes apart the oft-stated mantra that what Wall Street firms did during and after the crisis was maybe unethical, but not illegal.”
- Matt Taibbi, RollingStone.com, December 20, 2011
THE PAYOFF: Why Wall Street Always Wins is now available.

Lobbyist, White House Lawyer, and Senate Aide
on the Power of America’s Plutocracy
to Avoid Prosecution and Subvert Financial Reform

Jeff Connaughton

In January 2009, Ted Kaufman, long-time aide to Vice President Joe Biden, was appointed to fill Biden’s seat in the US Senate. Former Biden staffer and top DC lobbyist Jeff Connaughton joined Kaufman as his chief of staff. Frustrated with the systemic failures that led to a devastating financial crisis, together they led the charge in challenging both Congress and the Obama administration to rein in the excesses of Wall Street.

THE PAYOFF examines a culture of power elites in our nation’s capital that is slouching toward plutocracy, an alarming tale of reformers with the best of intentions running headlong into institutional failure and influence-peddling politics. It’s the story of a twenty-month struggle to hold Wall Street executives accountable for securities fraud, to stop stock manipulation by high-frequency traders, and to break up too-big-to-fail megabanks.

In this book, we experience a US senator’s vigorous crusade – side-by-side with his most trusted advisor – against Wall Street’s irresponsible risk-taking that destabilized the American economy.

THE PAYOFF About Jeff


THE PAYOFF: Why Wall Street Always Wins
Copyright 2012 - Jeff Connaughton