Praise for Extreme Money

“A true insider’s devastating analysis of the financial alchemy of the last 30 years and its destructive consequences. With his intimate first-hand knowledge, Das takes a knife to global finance and financiers to reveal the inner workings without fear or favor.”

—Nouriel Roubini, Professor of Economics at NYU Stern School of Business and Chairman of Roubini Global Economics

“Das describes the causes of the financial crisis with the insight and understanding of a financial wizard, the candor and objectivity of an impartial observer, and a wry sense of humor that reveals the folly in it all.”

—Brooksley Born, Former Chairperson of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)

“This is the best book yet to come out of the financial crisis. Das is a graceful, witty writer, with an unusually broad range of reference. He is also a long-time master of the arcana of the netherworlds of finance and nicely balances historical sweep with illuminating detail. Extreme Money is lively, scathing, and wise.”

—Charles Morris, Author of The Two Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crash

“Like Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Extreme Money launches you into a fascinating and disturbing alternative view of reality. But now greed predominates, the distorted world of finance is completely global, and the people making crazy decisions can ruin us all. This is an informative, entertaining, and deeply scary account of Hades’s new realm. Read it while you can.”

—Simon Johnson, Ronald A. Kurtz Professor of Entrepreneurship at MIT Sloan School of Management and Author of 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown

“You know when Lewis Caroll, Max Weber, Alan Greenspan, and Sigmund Freud all appear on the same early page that you are about to read an intellectual tour de force. Das is an authoritative and colorful critic of modern markets, and here he weaves financial history and popular culture into an entertaining and blistering social critique of how so many people have come to chase endless financial reflections of the real economy. Extreme Money speaks truth to power.”

—Frank Partnoy, George E. Barrett Professor of Law and Finance at the University of San Diego and Author of F.I.A.S.C.O, Infectious Greed, and The Match King

“Extreme Money is a highly entertaining, richly detailed account of how fools and charlatans, masquerading as investment professionals, pillage the world economy. Das is modern finance’s Candide: a cool, precise, globetrotting observer of decades of delusion and rapacity. The serial revelations of his picaresque tour will amuse, enlighten, and enrage both lay people and market insiders.”

—Yves Smith, Founder of www.nakedcapitalism.com and Author of ECONned: How Unenlightened Self Interest Undermined Democracy and Corrupted Capitalism

“Most books written about the global financial crisis have been written by those who only became wise after the event. Das is not one of them. Long before the collapse of Lehman Brothers, he warned about the flaws in modern finance. Extreme Money is his account of what went wrong. Read it!”

—Edward Chancellor, Member of GMO’s Asset Allocation Team and Author of Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation

“A rich analysis told with color and verve.”

—Philip Augar, Author of Reckless: The Rise and Fall of the City