Ocean State Libraries

On March 5, 2008, a Florida hedge fund manager's Web site included a startling statement about Bear Stearns & Co.: In my book, they are insolvent. This seemed a bold and risky statement. Bear Stearns had been a colossally profitable enterprise for eighty-five years. Ten days later, Bear Stearns no longer existed and the calamitous financial meltdown of 2008 had begun. How and why that happened is the subject of William D. Cohan's superb and shocking...

The economic tipping point for the United States is no longer theoretical. It is a reality today. The country has gone from the world's largest creditor to its greatest debtor; the value of the dollar is sinking; domestic manufacturing is winding down - and these trends don't seem to be slowing. Peter Schiff casts a sharp, clear-sighted eye on these factors and explains what the possible effects may be and how investors can protect themselves.

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"Savvy and informative.  . . . The most ambitious treatment of this period yet.  . . . Suskind's book often reads like Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest. But the quagmire isn't a neo-Vietnam like Afghanistan-it's the economy." - Frank Rich, New York "A searing new book.  . . . Suskind has a flair for taking material he's harvested to create narratives with a novelistic sense of drama." - Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times "No book...

Johnson and Kwak examine not only how Wall Street's ideology, wealth, and political power among policy makers in Washington led to the financial debacle of 2008, but also what the lessons learned portend for the future.

Draws on hundreds of hours of interviews and in-depth research to relate the complete story of the nation's financial meltdown, from the trading floors of lower Manhattan to the power corridors inside the Beltway.

A former trader recounts the final years of Lehman Brothers, discussing the outrageous personalities of his co-workers, his own battles with mental illness, and the company's activities during the economic collapse.