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|  | Creator: Michael Lewis
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.
List Price: $27.95
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as of 11/23/2009 15:12 CST details
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Rating:  40 reviews
Sales Rank: 43920
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 352
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.4
ISBN: 0393065146
Dewey Decimal Number: 338.542
EAN: 9780393065145
ASIN: 0393065146
Publication Date: November 17, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 21-25 of 40
 Retread January 27, 2009
Stephen T. Hopkins (Oak Park, Illinois)
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
There are 55 articles that Lewis selected for his new book, Panic: The Story of Modern Financial Insanity, most of which I have read closer to when they first appeared. I bored quickly, skimmed a little, and then took a pass on reading the book in its entirety. Better from Lewis is the article he wrote for the December 2008 issue of Portfolio, which can be found at [...]
 Fifty panic pieces -- a warm-up for the main event we are now in January 23, 2009
andris virsnieks (Seattle, WA USA)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
If you are mainly interested in our current panic you can save yourself some time and start reading on page 299. You will only have to concentrate on twelve pieces. The one that is more appropriately frightening (even though it was written at the end of 2007) is Paul Krugman's "After the Money's Gone") on page 353. And he may not be scary enough given what has happened since he wrote the article. None of the extraordinary hundred billion dollar remedy's taken by various government agencies are not working. The panic only deepens. The inauguration is a distraction. But economist and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich is not distracted he pronounced that we are in a deep recession headed for a depression. Paul Krugman writes that this is a "rational panic". There is good reason for it. Martin Feldstein estimates Americans lost 11 trillion dollars of net worth. A rational quantifiable reason for rational panic.
According to Paul Krugman, to restore a historically normal ratio of housing prices to rent or income home prices would have to fall about 30 percent from current levels. And with a fall of 30 percent there will be 13.7 million homeowners with negative equity. But my own personal data (contained in my book "How to Invest in Condominiums") and experience in Seattle indicates that the 30 percent may be understated. In Seattle in the late 1970's you could buy new condominiums for a price that was about seven times the gross annual rent. I stopped buying real estate in the 1980's when I could not get a price close to my recommended target price of seven times the gross annual rent. The bubble was beginning to inflate. If millions of other real estate buyers had stopped buying because housing prices were getting outrageously high relative to imputed rents it is difficult to imagine how the bubble could have continued to grow.
Now the bubble has supposedly burst, but yet the minimum selling price at condominium auctions (and they do sell rapidly) are set at about fourteen (14) times the gross annual rent. Twice what was "normal" in the late 1970's. Seattle, of course, is not the whole country but almost everyday there are indications that the panic is getting bigger. Weeks ago the government thought they could stop the panic with a $750 billion injection of capital. But now in senate hearings you hear the number $4 trillion to buy from the banks all the "toxic assets" (a scary label for over-priced real estate used in times of panic). Some economists worry that this massive amount of spending could totally destabilize the dollar. The Inauguration's main theme was hope. But the stock market responded with a crescendo of fear. It fell 332 points, the worst Inauguration Day sell off in 113 years
To more realistically quantify the present level of the panic Paul Krugman's fall in average home prices should be increased to at least 50 percent. Fortunately I don't know how to calculate the number of homeowners with negative equity that would result in. I'm in enough of a panic as it is.
I give Professor Krugman's piece five stars. I give the whole book three stars there are some funny pieces about about poor people and about how easy it is to make money in real estate.
Everyone should read. January 19, 2009
Nazzy
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a good overview on the financial crisis. Gives a great overview of the history of finance and the reasons why the current conditions exist.
Lewis:Panic January 19, 2009
John A. Mccullough (Brookline, Ma USA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
An interesting compilation (he wrote only some of the stories) which makes the point, but not among Lewis's best works--
Disappointed with Collection of Old Articles January 7, 2009
Hal E. Greene (Chicago, IL)
11 out of 17 found this review helpful
I have read and enjoyed other books by Michael Lewis. Unfortunately, I found the collection of articles in Panic: The Story of Modern Financial Insanity to be old news that provided little insight into recent events. It seems more effort by the author on adding fresh perspectives and examples would have helped.
Showing reviews 21-25 of 40
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