MidSouth’s Cloutier writes books on ‘bad banks’

Rusty Cloutier, the president and CEO of MidSouth Bank, has written a self-published book detailing how big banks led to the current economic downturn. Big Bad Banks points blame at government bank regulators and the institutions themselves. “While the big bankers and government officials concoct elaborate theories about what happened—theories that always seem to lay the blame on somebody else—I can tell you right now what caused it: pure greed and ego,” Cloutier says. In recent months, Cloutier has become an advocate for community banks, testifying before Congress and being profiled by the New York Times Magazine. Big Bad Banks is available at Barnes & Noble and Borders bookstores across south Louisiana and for sale at Amazon.com and on the book’s Web site here.