The Default Line

Front-line despatches on the global crisis – China to Cyprus, Madrid to Moscow, Iraq to Iceland – from Channel Four's prize-winning Economics Editor.

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How can a banking system become so unregulated that it offers a gold credit card to a dog? For Channel 4's Economics Editor Faisal Islam, these are examples of nations, institutions, and individuals crossing the 'default line', the point at which the optimism of economic boom flips into fiscal madness.

Having exposed the Icelandic banking crisis, watched Lehman Bros crash, investigated emerging economies in India and China and interviewed a host of key international players from the Governor of the Bank of England to the head of the the Chinese sovereign wealth fund, Faisal Islam is the perfect guide to the global economic crisis.

Juxtaposing vivid anecdotes with high-level exclusive interviews and trenchant economic analysis, THE DEFAULT LINE is a really accessible way of understanding the economic shape of the contemporary world.