Jesse Eisinger

Senior Editor and Reporter

Photo of Jesse Eisinger

Jesse Eisinger is a senior editor and reporter at ProPublica. He is the author of the “The Chickenshit Club: Why the Justice Department Fails to Prosecute Executives.”

In April 2011, he and a colleague won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting for a series of stories on questionable Wall Street practices that helped make the financial crisis the worst since the Great Depression. He was the lead reporter on the “Secret IRS Files” series that exposed the tax avoidance strategies of the ultrawealthy. The series won several prizes, including the Selden Ring in 2022. He also won the 2015 Gerald Loeb Award for commentary.

He was the editor on the “Friends of the Court” series, which revealed how a small group of politically influential billionaires wooed justices with lavish gifts and travel; it won the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 2024.

He serves on the advisory board of the University of California, Berkeley’s Financial Fraud Institute. And he was a consultant on season 3 of the HBO series “Succession.”

His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, NewYorker.com, The Washington Post, The Baffler and The American Prospect and on NPR and “This American Life.” Before joining ProPublica, he was the Wall Street editor of Conde Nast Portfolio and a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, covering markets and finance.

He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, the journalist Sarah Ellison, and their daughters.

Don't Worry, Jamie, Lloyd's Shown the Way

As Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein has shown, an executive can preside over the reputational collapse of his firm and still come out golden.

SEC Files Charges in Magnetar Deal

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged an asset manager with fraud for its role in one of the most notorious groups of mortgage securities deals behind the financial crisis.

Panic, Please.

Market participants are complacent about the debt ceiling because they don't understand Washington anymore.

SEC Wins Big Fine From JPMorgan but Execs Skate Free

The Securities and Exchange Commission won praise for its supposedly tough London Whale settlement with JPMorgan. But the big winners so far are the bank execs.

A Double Espresso of Questions for Green Mountain

Wall Street may think that Green Mountain has put its troubles behind it. But on its first-ever investor day, questions about the company’s numbers persist.

The Bank-Friendly Eighth Governor of the Fed

Everyone's focused on who the next Federal Reserve chairman will be, but the permanent staff may be just as important.

Finally, Bank Regulators Have Had Enough

For first time since the financial crisis, the banks are losing some battles on tougher regulation.

Congress Bungles Fannie and Freddie Reform

A draft bill from Sens. Corker and Warner to fix Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has serious flaws that could make the plan unworkable.

Why the Shareholder Rescue Never Comes

The recent vote to keep Jamie Dimon as CEO and chairman of JPMorgan shows why the corporate governance movement won't work when it comes to Big Banking.

The Fed’s Credibility Problem

Yes, hedge funds have been wrong about inflation and rising interest rates. But they aren't wrong that the Fed has a credibility problem.

'Act of Congress' Stresses Hopeful Creation of Dodd-Frank, Omits Grim Ending

A new book from long-time Washington Post editor Robert Kaiser follows the creation of Dodd-Frank, but doesn't follow up to see how things turned out.

Big Banks are Victims of Their Own Success

A new bi-partisan bill proposes to raise capital standards at the biggest banks. Their paid shills are whining but the arguments don't hold water.

Forever Blowing Bubbles

It's looking like we have moved from the crash to the bubble and skipped the economic recovery.

Why Risk Managers Should Be Spymasters

John Breit was a physicist who went to Wall Street and learned to throw out his math models. He managed risk for Merrill Lynch by developing sources of human intelligence on the trading desks and among the executives.

Ixnay on ‘Say on Pay’

The Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law gave shareholders a vote on executive pay. It turns out that they usually approve compensation packages by margins Fidel Castro would have envied.

Lesson of JPMorgan’s Whale Trade: Nothing Was Learned

A devastating Senate report on JPMorgan’s London Whale trading debacle reveals that banks and regulators have learned few if any lessons from the financial crisis.

Bank of America’s Legal Gambit: Keeping Reserves Low

A lawsuit over Bank of America's mortgage portfolio could cost the bank tens of billions more than it had planned, prompting critics to say the bank has not set aside enough for a settlement.

Friends in Low Places: Where The Real Lobbying Happens

To advise him on tax policy, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid hires from a corporation infamous for avoiding taxes, while a bank regulator and a Beltway consulting firm swap top officials.

The .03% Solution

How a tiny tax on financial transactions could raise revenue and help the capital markets.

Explosive Charge: Morgan Stanley Peddled Security Its Own Employee Called ‘Nuclear Holocaust’

Lawsuit suggests employees across Morgan Stanley understood the housing market was in trouble and exploited that knowledge to bet against securities and unload garbage investments on the unsuspecting. The bank denies wrongdoing.

Follow ProPublica

Latest Stories from ProPublica