Shelf Awareness , September 26, 2008 has a great list of new titles on the current financial crisis. We own many but not all of the titles. Some are fairly academic. Here are a few of the recommendations. To see more, follow the link.
Meltdown Lit: Recommended Books for the Wall Street Debacle
As Wall Street waits for a rescue, booksellers and librarians are highlighting titles to help consumers understand how things could go so bad and how the mess might be cleaned up. Quite a few authors anticipated the current crisis. Among the highest-rated, gilt-edged titles:The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What It Means by George Soros (PublicAffairs, $22.95, 9781586486839/1586486837), which was published in May. Glen Robbe, trade book manager at the Stanford Bookstore, Stanford, Calif., said that the store has “done very well” with the book, which is “designed for lay people who are looking to learn more than what they’re getting in newspapers.”
The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crash by Charles R. Morris (PublicAffairs, $22.95, 9781586485634/1586485636), published in March. Praveen Madan, co-owner of the Booksmith, San Francisco, Calif., noted that “with uncanny accuracy, Charles Morris predicted the current crisis and even estimated the magnitude of it. . . . Although the book does get a bit technical in some parts, most of it is written in such a way that even people without an advance finance degree can understand the basics.”
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein (Picador, $16, 9780312427993/0312427999), which appeared in paperback in June. Glen Robbe of the Stanford Bookstore called this title “prescient” and said that the store will highlight the book in connection with an appearance by Klein at the school October 16. He called the hardcover book trailer for the book “so compelling that you can’t not want to read the book after seeing it.”Financial Shock: A 360-Degree Look at the Subprime Mortgage Implosion, and How to Avoid the Next Financial Crisis by Mark Zandi (FT Press, $24.99, 9780137142903/0137142900), a July publication. Chief economist and co-founder of Moody’s Economy.com, Zandi “called the mess before it happened,” Maureen Montecchio, community relations manager at Barnes & Noble in Devon, Pa., said. “The book is written in layman’s terms. As my sister the stockbroker put it to me, ‘Even you could understand it.’ ” Montecchio added that Zandi appeared at a “very well attended” event at the store recently.
The Subprime Solution: How Today’s Global Financial Crisis Happened, and What to Do About It by Robert Shiller (Princeton University Press, $16.95, 9780691139296/0691139296) is an August title. Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten of 800-CEO-READ, the business book part of Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops, commented: “Shiller’s work on housing values is well-known and originally established in Irrational Exuberance. This book describes pretty clearly the mortgage crisis we are in and offers some solutions to get out.”I.O.U.S.A.: One Nation. Under Stress. In Debt. by Addison Wiggin and Kate Incontrera (Wiley, $19.95, 9780470222775/0470222778), which has a pub date of September 29. Carol Hill, owner of Book Mine, Leadville, Colo., said that this book, written as a companion book to the documentary of the same title released in August, and is “very readable, with the obvious advantage that it also provides a picture of where we are today. As the blurb on the back notes, it is ‘defiantly nonpartisan,’ including interviews with Warren Buffet, Alice Rivlin, Robert Rubin, Ron Paul, Paul Volker, Alan Greenspan and Paul O’Neill among others.”
Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism by Kevin Phillips (Viking, $25.95, 9780670019076/0670019070), which appeared in April. By the author of American Theocracy and American Dynasty, Bad Money notes that 20% of the economy is based on finance and if it is in trouble, it will have a major effect on the rest of the economy. Oh yes.
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