Bailout Nation

Reviews / Votes

"Ritholtz's book seeks to explain how the United States, once so proud, became "a nanny state for well-paid bankers. Ritholtz may be just the right person to explain the transition to both the disillusioned amateur and the finance junkie. He doesn't pull his punches or bury the truth in layers of finance-speak, caveats, and disclaimers. Since he began blogging seven years ago, in-the-know readers of his popular blog, The Big Picture , have turned to Ritholtz for his prescient, refreshingly honest commentary on the economy. Anyone interested in understanding the roots of our current crisis should check out the book, but while you wait by the mailbox, here are some highlights." (Freakonomics Blog, New York Times)"Succeeds in laying out all that transpired in easy-to-understand language. If you want to know how we got into this mess and what might still be coming, this is the book for you." (The Wall Street Journal)"Mr. Ritholtz has written an important book about a complicated subject, and yet you could still read it at the beach. Here's hoping that some policy makers in Washington take it with them on vacation this month." (The New York Times)"These are some of the provocative and even dangerous questions that Barry Ritholtz takes on in Bailout Nation...Above all, Bailout Nation is about the socialization of risk and the privatization of profits. Bailouts are always unfair. Small businesses and individuals are left to the mercies of bankruptcy courts all the time. (Forbes.com)"Before the housing and credit bubbles popped, Barry Ritholtz, a lawyer turned blogger and money manager, was one of the voices crying in the wilderness. His caustic (and occasionally profane) blog, The Big Picture, dissected macroeconomic news and relentlessly cut through spin. His book, Bailout Nation: How Greed and Easy Money Corrupted Wall Street and Shook the World Economy (Wiley), takes a long view of the roots of the economic crisis, tracing the history of a series of ever more expensive taxpayer-funded bailouts of failed industries." (Newsweek.com)