Customer Reviews

The Great Hangover: 21 Tales of the New Recession from the Pages of Vanity Fair

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Charles Barkley once quipped "You know the world has changed when the most famous rapper is white and the most famous golfer is black", and I might add "when the best book for financial meltdown circa 2008 comes from fashion magazine"

This book is a collection of articles about financial troubles during 2008, including the collapse of Bear Stern, Iceland fiasco, Bernie Mardoff, etc. As it is intended to be magazine article for general audience, the writing style is short, the scope is limited, and the language is plain. People without much of financial knowledge could enjoy this book and gain some valuable knowledge regarding the economic depression of 2008.

Stats buffs may point out that this book has not given much of numbers to support its claim, hence it could be hard to use the book for serious reference. The book also deals with subject in investigative journalism style, which might not be your cup of tea. Lastly, I would like to read more from the economists' point of view (Paul Krugman?).

All in all, I pick this book up to learn something about the financial crisis of the US, and I am surprised that I enjoy reading this book. I would recommend this book as a starting point in learning what happened in 2008. No, it's not as informative as many books in the market, but it covers many subjects that are related to the event.

This is a tremendous collection that captures the reasons, emotions, and impacts of The Great Recession. Housing prices, complex financial offers, lack of regulation and oversight - these will be discussed and debated for decades as a few of the factors that led us to the edge of an economic abyss. Tremendous authors put us in the action while at the same time providing a combination of objectivity and distance to best understand the complexities of the subject matter. Bryan Burrough, Niall Ferguson, Michael Lewis, and Mark Bowden are a few notables who lend their credibility and expertise to this examination.

"Bringing Down Bear Stearns" covers the maverick culture of this iconic casualty. Which is such a shame - I loved their research and brand but they were ignorantly culpable. It is staggering as to how quickly and how broadly the downturn radiated out impacting the larger economy. "Profiles in Panic" captures the `cost' of economic strangulation for limo drivers to caterers. The compensation and wealth of those at top of the food chain is mind numbing and elicits little sympathy in their need to change spending habits. Ferguson lays out the fundamental breakdown of the entire financial system in "Wall Street Lays Another Egg".

"Wall Street's $18.4 Billion Bonus" captures the gross excess of the pre-2008 era. The world of AIG is covered in "The Man Who Crashed the World" and tells the specific story of Joe Cassano who receives significant attribution for big problems. The bailout solution is picked apart in "Good Billions After Bad". Joseph E. Stiglitz's "Capitalists Fools: Five Key Mistakes that Led Us to the Collapse" is incredibly educational and lays out a lucid argument that has incredible perspective given it was written in January, 2009.

The talented Michael Lewis makes us laugh and cringe in "Wall Street on the Tundra" profiling that nation of 300,000 and its own acute economic collapse: Iceland. The blow to the endowment fund of the famous university is well told in "Rich Harvard, Poor Harvard" and it is fascinating. There are stories of Allen Stanford and Marc Dreier whose shenanigans were quickly eclipsed by Bernard Madoff. The latter is the subject of five of the twenty-one stories that feed the public's interest and scorn of Madoff's $65 billion Ponzi scheme (all are written prior to the suicide of one of his sons).

Lawyer Philip K. Howard notes in "Profiles in Panic" that every 30 years or so, the U.S. has to redefine its social values. This is the opportunity presented by The Great Recession but history shows that it is lesson that will be ultimately re-learned.

This book, a collection of Variety stories of the last two years clearly lays out how this economic downturn started, and how circumstances kept it going, almost with a snowball-down-a-hill effect. This book is well written, entertaining and full of surprises and little known information.

The Madoff articles are wonderful. My son is an attorney and also found the book to be great reading. Can't say enough about this book. Fantastic reading on a trip too.

I have no problem with paying a fair price for a book, be it an ebook or physical book...however, this ebook is priced higher than the physical book...really? Why is that? The fact that I don't really own the ebook when I buy it only makes matters worse...I have read most of the content in this book on the Vanity Fair site over the years and have enjoyed all of the articles. If the ebook were priced say at $6.00 or $7.00 I would buy it without too much hesitation...

A great read. Although I had read portions of this book as articles in Vanity Fair I still enjoy every page.