I Owe You: Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay

I am about 1/3 of the way through John Lanchester's I Owe You: Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay and am enjoying it. This is an account of the recent meltdown of the world's financial system written in terms that are understandable by those among us who are not derivatives traders. We've all heard and read about credit default swaps and hedge funds and derivatives. But if you are like me, much of this goes in one ear and out the other. I get the gist, but the details escape me. I Owe You is the perfect tool to put the whole financial crises in perspective and explain, in some detail, how we got into the mess we are in. While the book is written for the average reader, it requires some concentration and re-reading to get all the facts straight, so it might not be the thing to bring to the beach.

Given the complexity of modern finance, it is not surprising that many of the financial products described here ended up being so Byzantine that the people who cooked them up could not keep them straight. No wonder the rest of us are confused.

-Paul