Financial Fiasco: How America's Infatuation with Home Ownership and Easy Money Created the Economic Crisis
Johan Norberg exposes the abiding hypocrisies of policy that generated this crisis far better than an American insider could. A masterwork in miniature. (Amity Shlaes, Senior Fellow in economic history, Council on Foreign Relations)The subtitle of Johan Norberg's book, Financial Fiasco, is 'How America's Infatuation with Homeownership and Easy Money Created the Economic Crisis,' which captures the root causes of today's financial crisis. This highly readable book, by a historian, gives an unbiased explanation of the various factors leading to the financial meltdown, and says that if we're looking for scapegoats, we need only to take a look in the mirror. Norberg has done a yeoman's job in economic diagnostics. Whether the American people want to take the necessary treatment is another question. (Walter E. Williams, George Mason University)Financial Fiasco, by Johan Norberg, is a penetrating and frightening analysis of the causes and consequences of the 2008 Financial Panic. Norberg lays out with precision and detail how a perfect storm of misguided government policies and private sector exuberance combined to create the worst economic downturn since World War II. This is essential reading for everyone who cares about our economic future, but especially for those who are still not sure what caused the crisis. As Norberg makes clear, private forces jumped willingly on a runaway train, but it was government that built the train and drove it off a cliff. (Professor Jeff Miron Harvard University)Essential reading for everyone who cares about our economic future, but especially for those who are still not sure what caused the crisis. As Norberg makes clear,private forces jumped willingly on a runaway train, but it was government that built the train and drove it off a cliff. (Jeffrey Miron, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Harvard University)