Draws on hundreds of hours of interviews and in-depth research to relate the complete story of the nation's financial meltdown, from the trading floors of lower Manhattan to the power corridors inside the Beltway.

Someone is telling the story of the life of Charlie Barnes, and it doesn't appear to be going well. Too often divorced, discontent with life's compromises and in a house he hates, this lifelong schemer and eternal romantic would like out of his present circumstances and into the American dream. But when the twin calamities of the Great Recession and a cancer scare come along to compound his troubles, his dreams dwindle further, and an infinite past...

Krugman pursues the questions of how bad the "Great Recession" really is, how we got stuck in what can now be called a depression and, above all, how we can free ourselves.

A sharp critique of the ultra-wealthy Americans who have contributed to today's economic conditions and heightened economic inequities.

A history of financial crashes in the United States offers concise explanations of little-understood principles about consumer debt that were at the core of each recession, recounting lending practices and schemes that triggered large-scale crashes and controversies.