John Lanchester wrote one of the best books about the crisis, [amazon_link id=”014104571X” target=”_blank” ]Whoops!: Why everyone owes everyone and no one can pay[/amazon_link]! Michael Lewis wrote another, [amazon_link id=”0141043539″ target=”_blank” ]The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine[/amazon_link]. In the current New York Review of Books the former has a characteristically wise and clear review of the latter’s new book, [amazon_link id=”1846144841″ target=”_blank” ]Boomerang: The Meltdown Tour[/amazon_link], which he praises. Lanchester makes this interesting point: that most of us, rightly, feel we have no economic agency in our own lives. There *is* nothing we can do individually, which perhaps explains the absence of a sense of responsibility. He writes:
The evidence is clear: it is easy to mislead people about money, and easy to lead members of the public astray both individually and en masse, because when it comes to money, most of us, most of the time, don’t know what we’re doing. The corollary is also clear: the whole Western world misled itself over debt, and the road back from where we are goes only uphill.

[amazon_image id=”B005PR44XC” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Boomerang: The Meltdown Tour[/amazon_image]