The Meltdown Years: The Unfolding of the Global Economic Crisis - Hardcover

by Wolfgang Munchau (Author)

The Meltdown Yearsoffers the most lucid and useful explanation todate about why home values, life savings, jobsecurity, and investments around the worldare in peril.

Rather than focus on who is to blame, though, author Wolfgang Münchau takes themore practical approach of focusing on what isto blame. The fact that individuals were stupid, greedy, and corrupt should come as no surprise.What's remarkable is that our world'sfinancial systems--put in place to help staveoff such a crisis--failed so miserably.

What is inherently wrong with the globalmonetary system? What happened to theregulatory process? What role did the creditmarket, hedge funds, and investment banksplay? These are the types of questions onemust answer in order to truly comprehendwhat caused the meltdown and, more importantly, to understand what must be done torepair it.

Münchau dissects the global financial system, exposing its flaws and weaknesses in thecontext of the crisis. A decidedly global perspectiveof the greatest financial crisis of ourtime, The Meltdown Years examines

• The structure of the worldbanking system
• Global events that led tofinancial collapse
• The growth of speculative bubbles
• The descent from financial crisisinto full-out recession

Pointing to an unstable global economicsystem as the root of the problem, theauthor predicts how long the recession willand illustrates long-term consequences ofthe meltdown.

"Apportioning [individual] blame for thiscrisis may be fun," Münchau writes, "butit is a dead-end road for anyone who seeksan understanding of what happened." AIG, Alan Greenspan, Fannie Mae, Bear Stearns...Each is portrayed as a villain responsible forthe state of the economy. In truth, the blame ismuch broader and lies much deeper.

The Meltdown Years is required readingfor anyone who wants to follow the ongoingdebate about economic recovery and understandwhat the collapse means for the future offinancial capitalism.

Back Jacket

Total Systems Failure: The Global Financial Breakdown and How to Repair It

2008 will go down in history as the year the U.S. financial system plunged over the cliff--and pulled the global economy along with it. Nevertheless, says Financial Times editor Wolfgang Münchau, this is not an American problem requiring an American solution. The meltdown was caused by inherent defects in the global economy. It is the world's problem, and it will take international action to fix it.

An updated edition of Verboben, Münchau's award-winning book published in Germany in 2008, The Meltdown Years provides a solid foundation in the structure and workings of the global economy and presents a broad view of the financial crisis.

Münchau focuses on three main questions:

• What were the key events that led to the global financial bubble?
• How did the meltdown start and why did it spread?
• What needs to be done to repair the economy and to avoid future setbacks?

Münchau puts the pieces of the puzzle together to form a remarkably clear picture of an extraordinarily complex subject--while providing actionable advice for creating a more durable financial order.

Author Biography

Wolfgang Münchau is an associate editor of the Financial Times, where he writes a weekly column about the European Union and the European economy. Between 1988 and 1995 he held several posts at The Times newspaper, including Washington and Brussels correspondent. Wolfgang Münchau lives in Belgium.