Panic!: The Story of Modern Financial Insanity - Softcover

Lewis, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141042311 ISBN 13: 9780141042312

Publisher: Penguin, 2008

Synopsis

From Black Monday to the Asian financial crisis, from the internet bubble to mortgage meltdown, our lives are ruled by crazy cycles of euphoria and hysteria that manage to grip the world but are all-too-soon forgotten.

In this unique collection of articles Michael Lewis - ex-trader and bestselling chronicler of greed and frenzy in the markets - casts a sceptical eye back over the most panicked-about panics of recent decades. He tells a story of boom and bust, deranged greed, outsized egos and over-inflated salaries, where the only thing that can ever be predicted is our constant inability to predict anything.

Using contemporary accounts from commentators such as Joseph Stiglitz, Jeffrey Sachs and Paul Krugman, plus many of his own best writings, Lewis conveys the mood before each catastrophe, what it was like in the heat of the moment, how, afterwards, we tried to explain away the chaos - and then failed to learn from it before the whole process started all over again.

About this title

Review:

It s hard to imagine a more timely book.

It s hard to imagine a more timely book. "

In this enlightening (and frightening) anthology, the Moneyball and Liar s Poker author collects the best reporting and analysis of every Wall Street crisis of the past twenty years. As a source of aid in these troubled times, the book s only competition is a bottle of Scotch. "

It s hard to imagine a more timely book."

It's hard to imagine a more timely book.

From the Back Cover:

'Everything, in retrospect, is obvious. But if everything were obvious, authors of histories of financial folly would be rich ...'

From Black Monday to the Asian financial crisis, from the internet bubble to mortgage meltdown, our lives are ruled by crazy cycles of euphoria and hysteria that manage to grip the world but are all-too-soon forgotten.

In this unique collection of articles Michael Lewis - ex-trader and bestselling chronicler of greed and frenzy in the markets - casts a sceptical eye back over the most panicked-about panics of recent decades. He tells a story of boom and bust, deranged greed, outsized egos and over-inflated salaries, where the only thing that can ever be predicted is our constant inability to predict anything.

Using contemporary accounts from commentators such as Joseph Stiglitz, Jeffrey Sachs and Paul Krugman, plus many of his own best writings, Lewis conveys the mood before each catastrophe, what it was like in the heat of the moment, how, afterwards, we tried to explain away the chaos - and then failed to learn from it before the whole process started all over again.

Panic! gives us a completely new insight into how markets really operate - and who really knows what they're talking about.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0141042311
• ISBN 13: 9780141042312
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400