I heard a lot about Alan Greenspan, but never understood his role and philosophy before reading this book. Not that this is a biography or even an even-handed evaluation of the man – this book is absolutely a screed, written by someone extremely disappointed with Greenspan, the Federal Reserve, and the big banks. It’s written in the voice of finance and by someone who was intricately involved in trading – Ritholtz had short positions in some of the companies involved. But it’s almost a companion piece to Occupy Wall Street in its attitude.
Overall, I enjoyed it: the jargon never gets too bad, and there are plenty of fun historical anecdotes scattered throughout. It was definitely written to be read in 2010 or 2011, though: it’s all about that particular crash, and the lessons that it draws have some uneven applications to our current problems.