Subtitled Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay. If you are interested in the recent global recession, this is a very readable book in very understandable language. I am interested in economics in general and have done quite a bit of reading about the recession and haven't found anything that is both as comprehensive and as understandable as this book.
In Lanchester's opinion the four basic causes of the global recession were:
1. Climate--the post-Cold War victory party of free-market capitalism
2. Problem--the subprime mortgages
3. Mistake--the mathematical models of risk
4. Failure--of regulation
Each of these areas are discussed in some detail and along the way he explains how the banking system works and what a Credit Default Swap is and a myriad of other interesting details.
My only criticism is that he is short on solutions. He says it is bad and not going to get a lot better any time soon and that's about it. There are a few legislative suggestions and why they probably won't be implemented. What I would have liked would be some concrete suggestions as to what someone could do to get out of this mess and prevent a repeat of it but none were forthcoming. We're going to be paying for a long, long, long time.
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