Wall Street Fall Down Go Bust

In response to the utter chaos and confusion resulting from what Senator John McCain has so aptly described as "excess and greed" -- among other factors -- we offer a special selection of new and classic titles on the subject of Wall Street.

The display is in the middle of the first floor, appropriately enough, very near the cash registers. Just look for the Wall Street sign (and the weeping stock-brokers, huddled 'round, furiously reading, reading, reading... hoping to understand the errors of their ways, before it is too late.)

Included are the three titles featured on a recent NPR story on "essential reading" to understand the crisis:

The Great Depression & the New Deal: A Very Short History, by Eric Rauchway, one in the series of "very short Introductions" from Oxford University Press.

Liar's Poker, by Michael Lewis. This is a now classic first-person account of when the go-go eighties went "bust" on junk-bonds, "excess and greed," etc.

Traders Guns & Money: Knowns and Unknowns in the Dazzling World of Derivatives, by Satyajit Das. This was described as the "toughest" of the three to read, but perhaps the most important.