KDL Recommends

Panic: The Story of Modern Financial Insanity

ISBN: 9780393065145

Title: Panic: The Story of Modern Financial Insanity

Author: Michael Lewis

KDL Description:

An analysis of five financial upheavals in recent history includes coverage of the 1987 stock market crash, the Internet bubble, and the sub-prime mortgage crisis, in a report that reveals how public knowledge differed from what was actually taking place.

Amazon Description: A masterful account of today’s money culture, showing how the underpricing of risk leads to catastrophe.

When it comes to markets, the first deadly sin is greed. Michael Lewis is our jungle guide through five of the most violent and costly upheavals in recent financial history: the crash of ‘87, the Russian default (and the subsequent collapse of Long-Term Capital Management), the Asian currency crisis of 1999, the Internet bubble, and the current sub-prime mortgage disaster. With his trademark humor and brilliant anecdotes, Lewis paints the mood and market factors leading up to each event, weaves contemporary accounts to show what people thought was happening at the time, and then, with the luxury of hindsight, analyzes what actually happened and what we should have learned from experience.

As he proved in Liar’s Poker, The New New Thing, and Moneyball, Lewis is without peer in his understanding of market forces and human foibles. He is also, arguably, the funniest serious writer in America.