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Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay

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By: John Lanchester
Narrated by: Jonathan Iris
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About this listen

In 2000, the total GDP of Earth was $36 trillion. At the start of 2007, it was $70 trillion. Today that growth has gone suddenly and sharply into decline.

John Lanchester travels with a cast of characters - including reckless bankers, snoozing regulators, complacent politicians, predatory lenders, credit-drunk spendthrifts, and innocent bystanders, to understand deeply and genuinely what is happening and why we feel the way we do.

©2010 John Lanchester (P)2010 WF Howes Ltd Economics Banking Taxation Thought-Provoking Capitalism Global Financial Crisis Socialism Great Recession

Critic reviews

"A valiant and genuinely amusing attempt to describe how finance came off the rails...written with a good heart and a lively intellectual curiosity. ( Independent)
All stars
Most relevant
A complicated subject laid bare in an accessible format that assumes no prior knowledge. Of course it could all be nonsense but it rings true because it doesn't have any overt political agenda.

Listened to it twice, back to back, because there is so much to take in, and the earlier chapters take on new meanings having gone through the whole thing, and I anticipate doing so many more times in the future.

Terrifyingly clear

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Witty, concise, enlightening and perfectly read. Listened to this a good few times over the years.

Brilliant

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A very interesting explanation of why the banks caused the worlds recession. You will be amazed how stupid the system really was.

A easy explanation of why the worlds skint

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This is probably the clearest and most concise explanation of the 2007-2008 financial crisis I've encountered. The origins of the various forces behind it, the relevant institutions, and the nature of the complicated financial products that suddenly became relevant to the lives of millions who had never heard of them - are all eloquently explained in plain english. This is accompanied by helpful analogies, and a healthy does of Lancheter's wit and irreverence that stop it getting too heavy.

My one caveat is the author's propensity for condemning others who treat their dogmas as facts, whilst spending quite a lot of time doing exactly that. "Keynes was the greatest economist who ever lived". Those who advocate for free markets are "ideological", while those who advocate for bigger government are "rational". And, (this one made me snort), "In the good old days Hollywood cared about making films, and now they only care about making money".

I would encourage you not to let this put you off however. The rest of the books is so good you can overlook Lanchester's divergence into pure opinion, and in any case his own personality is part of the books appeal.

The narrator is very good, and captures the tone perfectly.

Excellent, with one caveat.

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I'm not a financial person but have been effected by what happened. I think that when you listen to this book you'll get angry as you hear what these "banks" where up to and how they made so much money at no risk to themselves, just the taxpayers footing the bill if it went wrong. Still no action taken really to stop this from happening again and how our governments and regulators failed us.

You couldn't make this up

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