Peter

Interesting and detailed, but has a very very strong bias against any non ultra-free market findings.

One warning is that the author is somewhat homophobic and pro-theism(most obvious in talking about the early 1900's period and for Keynes). This seeps into some of his analysis and colors his opinions on the character of economists he talks about. Going outside of detailing the figures, he goes into simple vitriol and disdain for the figures he obviously has issues with.

As long as you know that this is a specifically pro-free market analysis, the book is very interesting. But don't let the authors irrational points effect you, and keep an eye on all his analysis. This is only one side of the argument, but he does do a somewhat complete job of explaining that side. Buy this and a book that matches it but from a less supply/free market approach and you'll get a nicely balanced view.

The book itself is quite good. It follows an interesting group of people, focussing on one in particular, (Martin Eeks). One especially interesting point the book brings up is that alot of the dodgy practicies that caused this whole mess really were a case of people doing things thats weren't totally wrong (ie sub-prime lending). But were clear cases of businesses in dire need of regulation for their own sake.

The reading of the actual audio is the biggest problem that the book has. For some reason, the producer decided to include accents all the way through. I can totally understand reading accented words and using their words. But entereing into wild accent swings is very hard, jarring and not at all helpful apart from being an obvious attempt to add color. I almost turned the book off when the accents began about 20 minutes in, but managed to percievier. This was a good thing to do, given it ended up being worth the time.