A review by naddie_reads
Whoops!: Why Everyone Owes Everyone And No One Can Pay by John Lanchester
4.5
Lanchester's "Whoops!" is a great primer on the sequence of events that brought about The Great Recession in 2007, which was mainly attributed to the housing bubble burst in the US (followed by the UK & EU, and subsequently the rest of the world thereafter).
While the focus is on the economic implosion in the US (& UK and EU peripherally), even if you don’t live in the wild wild West, this issue is undoubtedly one that affects everyone globally since whatever happens in the West does have a huge impact on the rest of the world (💀) , so it pays to know the history so that you’re well-armed in the subject, and that’s where this book proved its merits.
Lanchester succeeded in elucidating why the crash happened in simple economic terms, which is a boon for those of us who may require A Guide for Dummies on what went down before and after the 2007 recession. The author does not pretend to have all the answers to the obvious issue of “where do we go from here”, and even now, more than a decade after the events that unfolded, things aren’t looking much better for the US and the rest of the countries affected by this global recession.
It's enraging to read about how willfully blind these financial dudebros can be about the effects of their risky gambling on the rest of the population. The worst thing is that it seems like there have been no lessons learned taken from the 2007 crisis, as the wider issue persists and the balance between the rich and the poor grows ever wider in the face of the recent pandemic and economic crises.
Still, the author insists that all is not lost, as shown in Canada’s restraints and well-regulated financial system, so we can only hope that future legislators take a page from Canada’s books. Who knows, we might not be completely screwed just yet.
Related read(s): The Body Economic: Eight experiments in economic recovery, from Iceland to Greece
While the focus is on the economic implosion in the US (& UK and EU peripherally), even if you don’t live in the wild wild West, this issue is undoubtedly one that affects everyone globally since whatever happens in the West does have a huge impact on the rest of the world (💀) , so it pays to know the history so that you’re well-armed in the subject, and that’s where this book proved its merits.
Lanchester succeeded in elucidating why the crash happened in simple economic terms, which is a boon for those of us who may require A Guide for Dummies on what went down before and after the 2007 recession. The author does not pretend to have all the answers to the obvious issue of “where do we go from here”, and even now, more than a decade after the events that unfolded, things aren’t looking much better for the US and the rest of the countries affected by this global recession.
It's enraging to read about how willfully blind these financial dudebros can be about the effects of their risky gambling on the rest of the population. The worst thing is that it seems like there have been no lessons learned taken from the 2007 crisis, as the wider issue persists and the balance between the rich and the poor grows ever wider in the face of the recent pandemic and economic crises.
Still, the author insists that all is not lost, as shown in Canada’s restraints and well-regulated financial system, so we can only hope that future legislators take a page from Canada’s books. Who knows, we might not be completely screwed just yet.
Related read(s): The Body Economic: Eight experiments in economic recovery, from Iceland to Greece