Joseph E. Stiglitz - Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy

Stiglitz is the worlds leading scholarly expert on market failure, and this crisis vindicates his lifes work. There have been other broad-spectrum books on the genesis and dynamics of the collapse, but Freefall is the most comprehensive to date, grounded in both theory and factual detail. The tone of this book is good-humored and public-minded.

Robert Kuttner, The American Prospect

Bankers are born no greedier than the rest of us. That assertion alone makes Joseph Stiglitzs comprehensive postmortem stand out from the reams of books published so far about the financial crisis.

Barbara Kiviat, Time

Asks some basic and provocative questions. Freefall is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the roots of the financial crisis. Stiglitz brilliantly analyzes the economic reasons behind the banking collapse, but he goes much further, digging down to the wrongheaded national faith in the power of free markets to regulate themselves and provide wealth for all.

Chuck Leddy, Boston Globe

As a Nobel Prize winner, member of the cabinet under former President Bill Clinton and chairman of his Council of Economic Advisers, Joseph E. Stiglitz has some practical ideas on how to ease the pain of the Great Recession and maybe help prevent the next one.

Carl Hartman, Associated Press

An excellent overview from a Nobel Prizewinning economist of what caused the crisis and what reforms should be enacted. I can only hope Obama makes room for it on his nightstand.

James Pressley, BusinessWeek

Mr. Stiglitz uses his experience teaching to give the lay reader a lucid account of how overleveraged banks, a shoddy mortgage industry, predatory lending and unregulated trading contributed to the meltdown, and how, in his opinion, ill-conceived rescue efforts may have halted the freefall but have failed to grapple with more fundamental problems. His prescience lends credibility to his trenchant analysis of the causes of the fiscal meltdown.

Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

Freefall is a spirited attack on Wall Street, the free market and the Washington consensus.

David Smith, The Times

Stiglitzs polemic commands special attention.

The New Yorker

This is a useful and timely book. Joseph E. Stiglitz is one of the two or three score pundits, economists and historians who more or less predicted the disasters that have overtaken the American economy. A powerful indictment of Wall Street.

Kevin Phillips, New York Times Book Review

[Stiglitz] has managed to clarify deftly and intelligently almost all the relevant and perplexing issues that have arisen from the crisis.

Jeff Madrick, New York Review of Books

This is the best book so far on the financial crisis. Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prizewinning economist, is knowledgeable about the historical background, immersed in the policy debate and a pioneer of the economic theories needed to understand the origins of the problems.

John Kay, Financial Times

Joseph Stiglitz has written an indispensable history of the emergence of market fundamentalism (or economism) in the United States and its pernicious social consequences.

John Palattella, The Nation

If anyone is going to produce a bold new economic theory and vision to guide the centre left beyond the financial crisis, its going to be Joe. It is to Stiglitzs lasting credit that, while other economists have already moved back into the realm of algebra and Greek letters, he has remained in the trenches of policy.

Paul Mason, New Statesman

It requires bravery to take on the vested interestsalong with good ideas and a strong sense of the right trajectory. At present we have too little of any of them. Stiglitzs book successfully redresses the balance. It is very welcomeand important.

Will Hutton, The Observer

This inquest into the recession of 200709 lashes many designated villains, banks above all. Writing in a spirit Andrew Jackson would have loved, Stiglitz assails financial institutions size, their executive compensation, the complexity of their financial instruments, and the taxpayer money that has been poured into them. Zinging the Federal Reserve for good measure, Stiglitz insistently and intelligently presses positions that challenge those of rightward-leaning economists upholding the virtues of markets. Amid animated contemporary economic debate, Stiglitzs book will attract popular and professional attention.

Gilbert Taylor, Booklist

[W]hat brings this book to life is [Stiglitzs] formidable grasp of economic policy and strong sense of conviction about the blunders that have been made, especially with respect to the bank bailouts.

Jim Zarroli, NPR