An inside look at a liberal economist's view of the nature of the American economy up to and including the housing and debt crises of 2008. ( )

I heard about this book on Leonard Lopate's radio show on NPR. He described it as a wonderfully simple guide to practical questions about the economy and how it works. When I started reading it, I was a bit put off by the informal jokey tone and the obvious gimmicks ("snappy summary crunchpoints" and economic haikus at the end of each chapter). But I decided to give it a chance and it certainly improved after the first two sections when Bernstein finally gets into policy questions. The concluding section is particularly interesting with its practical suggestions for how things can be changed for the better. This is a book most of us could learn from although you may not be able to restrain yourself from occasionally rolling your eyes at the over-the-top prose.