Americans as a whole view themselves as reasonably prudent and sober people when it comes to matters of money, reflecting the puritan roots of the earliest European settlers. Yet as a community, we also seem to believe that we are entitled to a lifestyle that is well-beyond our current income, a...

"Describes the economic, political and legal antecedents of financial crises in the western market economies. By describing how these events developed in the past and how the markets can be used to gauge the threat of future contagion, the book provides a roadmap for how we can avoid financial...