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Title details for I.O.U. by John Lanchester - Available

I.O.U.

Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay

by John Lanchester
James Langton
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
The wildest story in the world these days is not fiction; it's what's really happening all around us as the world's global economy has gone into freefall. How did we get here? What does it all mean? How could so many smart people be so dumb and believe their own hype?


Accessibly, cleverly, and with mordant humor, journalist John Lanchester trots the globe in search of the answers to these questions—to Iceland, the scene of catastrophic bank collapse; to Hong Kong, the city of his birth built at the altar of free-market capitalism; to the high-stakes leveraging of Wall Street; and to the tragedy of lost homes in small-town America. And in his capable hands, we see and understand what went wrong and why.


Lanchester believes that the current crisis gives us an opportunity to bring about much-needed change and that a stronger and more compassionate system can emerge from the wreckage.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    January 18, 2010

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781400195435
      • File size: 214374 KB
      • Duration: 07:26:36

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from January 4, 2010
      With clarity and a conversational style often (sometimes deliberately) lacking in the financial industry and its coverage, British journalist Lanchester (The Debt to Pleasure) takes readers on a comprehensive global tour of 2008's economic meltdown, focusing on each guilty parties' contributions to-and missed opportunities to halt-the worldwide crisis. Starting with the political buildup and then marching through the field of "banksters," regulators, mortgage companies and everyone else in a position to know better, Lanchester illustrates exactly how loans from predatory and incompetent players wound up being sold as triple-A investments, and how a subsequent housing market dip toppled the financial system. By prioritizing the financial sector and tenets of laissez-faire capitalism (to the point that it "became a kind of secular religion"), those in charge of the markets failed to identify the growing systemic dangers; meanwhile, those responsible to the public acted as if benefits for financial institutions also benefited every economic participant, no matter how small. Laypeople seeking to understand the crisis, and what it means for their own bank account, will find Lanchester's volume an oasis of understanding in a sea of partisan spin and convoluted financial language.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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