Bailout Nation (eBook)

Barry Ritholtz operates one of today's most popular economic blogs,www.ritholtz.com/blog/, which has received over 50 million page views since launching. He is the CEO and Director of Equity Research at FusionIQ, an online quantitative research firm. He is a frequent guest on CNBC; a regular guest on Fast Money, Kudlow & Company, and Power Lunch; and author of the popular "Apprenticed Investor" column at TheStreet.com.

Foreword.

Acknowledgments.

Introduction Bailout Nation.

PART I A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAILOUTS.

Chapter 1 A Brief History of Bailouts.

Chapter 2 The Creation of the Federal Reserve, and Its Role in
Creating Our Bailout Nation.

Chapter 3 Pre-Bailout Nation (1860-1942).

Chapter 4 Industrial-Era Bailouts (1971-1995).

Intermezzo A Pattern Emerges.

PART II THE MODERN ERA OF BAILOUTS.

Chapter 5 Stock Market Bailouts (1987-1995).

Chapter 6 The Irrational Exuberance Era (1996-1999).

Chapter 7 The Tech Wreck (2000-2003).

Chapter 8 The Backwards, Rate-Driven Economy.

Intermezzo A Brief History of Finance and Credit.

Chapter 9 The Mad Scramble for Yield.

PART III MARKET FAILURE.

Chapter 10 The Machinery of Subprime.

Intermezzo A Memo Found in the Street: Uncle Sam the
Enabler.

Chapter 11 Radical Deregulation, Nonfeasance.

Chapter 12 Strange Connections, Unintended Consequences.

Chapter 13 Moral Hazard: Why Bailouts Cause Future Problems.

PART IV BAILOUT NATION.

Chapter 14 2008: Suicide by Democracy.

Chapter 15 The Fall of Bear Stearns.

Chapter 16 Dot-Com Penis Envy.

Chapter 17 Year of the Bailout, Part I: The Notorious AIG.

Chapter 18 The Year of the Bailout, Part II: Too Big to
Succeed?

Intermezzo Idiots Fiddle While Rome Burns.

PART V POST-BAILOUT NATION.

Chapter 19 Casting Blame.

Chapter 20 Misplaced Fault.

Chapter 21 The Virtues of Foreclosure.

Chapter 22 Casino Capitalism.

Postscript Advice to a New President.

Notes.

Index.

"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)