Figures and tables                         xix
Prologue: Hubris                                   1  (1)
Sub-prime dialects                                 1  (22)
      Best in show                                 3  (3)
        The Physical Impossibility of Death in     4  (1)
        the Mind of Someone Living
        Retreat                                    5  (1)
      Swiss inquisitions                           6  (1)
      Idea of an investment                        7  (1)
      Ambush                                       8  (2)
      Mega presentations                           10 (1)
      Fording streams                              11 (1)
      Liquidity and leverage                       12 (1)
      Democracy of greed                           13 (1)
      Pick and pay                                 14 (1)
      Black Sea real estate                        15 (1)
      Life on the margin                           16 (1)
      Racing days                                  17 (1)
      Dr Doom                                      18 (2)
      Extreme money                                20 (3)
  Part 1 Faith                                     23 (92)
    1 Mirror of the times                          25 (20)
      Some kinda money                             25 (2)
      Trading places                               27 (1)
      The invention of money                       28 (2)
      Barbarous relic                              30 (2)
      The real thing                               32 (2)
      The Hotel New Hampshire                      34 (2)
      Collapse                                     36 (2)
      Money machines                               38 (1)
      Debt clock                                   39 (2)
      Money is nothing                             41 (1)
      The mirrored room                            42 (3)
    2 Money changes everything                     45 (16)
      Mrs Watanabe goes to Wall Street             45 (1)
      FX Beauties Club                             46 (2)
      Plutonomy                                    48 (1)
      Trickling down, trading up                   49 (1)
      I shop, therefore I must be!                 50 (2)
      Spend it like Beckham!                       52 (3)
      Golden years                                 55 (1)
      Tax avoidance                                56 (2)
      Japanese curse                               58 (1)
      The god of our time                          59 (2)
    3 Business of business                         61 (14)
      Limited consciences                          61 (1)
      A brilliant daring speculation               62 (2)
      Dirty tricks                                 64 (3)
      Marriages and separations                    67 (2)
      The house that Jack built                    69 (2)
      Capital ideas                                71 (1)
      WWJD - watch what Jack did!                  72 (2)
      Business dealings                            74 (1)
    4 Money for sale                               75 (16)
      It's a wonderful bank!                       75 (2)
      Pass the parcel                              77 (3)
      Loan frenzy                                  80 (1)
      Plastic fantastic money                      81 (2)
      Casino banking                               83 (2)
      Confidence tricks                            85 (1)
      The Citi of money                            86 (2)
      Sign of the times                            88 (3)
    5 Yellow brick road                            91 (12)
      Monumental money                             92 (1)
      The battle of the `pond'                     92 (2)
      Cool Britannia                               94 (1)
      Barbarian invasions                          95 (1)
      Unlikely centres                             96 (2)
      El-Dollardo economics                        98 (1)
      The unbalanced bicycle                       98 (1)
      Foreign treasure                             99 (2)
      Fool's gold                                  101(1)
      Liquidity vortex                             102(1)
    6 Money honey                                  103(12)
      Printing it                                  103(1)
      Column inches                                104(2)
      Video money                                  106(1)
      Studs, starlets                              106(2)
      Financial porn                               108(1)
      Speedy money                                 109(2)
      Literary money                               111(3)
      Money for all                                114(1)
  Part 2 Fundamentalism                            115(38)
    7 Los Cee-Ca-Go boys                           117(16)
      Dismal science                               118(2)
      Chicago Interpretation                       120(2)
      Economic politics                            122(1)
      Academic warfare                             123(1)
      The Gipper and the Iron Lady                 124(2)
      Political economy                            126(3)
      New old deal                                 129(1)
      The monetary lens                            130(1)
      Unstable stability?                          131(2)
    8 False gods, fake prophecies                  133(20)
      Mystery of price                             134(1)
      Demon of chance                              135(1)
      Corporate M&Ms                               136(2)
      Risk taming                                  138(2)
      Slow and quick money                         140(2)
      Corporate practice                           142(2)
      Everything is just noise                     144(2)
      Perfect worlds                               146(1)
      Financial fundamentalism                     147(2)
      Fata morgana                                 149(4)
  Part 3 Alchemy                                   153(152)
    9 Learning to love debt                        155(22)
      Fixed floor coverings                        155(2)
      By the bootstraps                            157(1)
      Leverage for everything                      158(1)
      Cutting to the bone                          159(1)
      Professor Jensen goes to Wall Street         160(2)
      Drowning by numbers                          162(2)
      Censored loans                               164(2)
      High opportunity bonds                       166(1)
      Fallen angels                                167(1)
      Junk people                                  168(1)
      Milken's mobsters                            169(2)
      The sweet envy of bankers                    171(1)
      Thank you for borrowing                      172(1)
      One bridge too far                           173(2)
      National treasure                            175(2)
    10 Private vices                               177(18)
      Excess returns                               177(2)
      Sexy private equity                          179(1)
      Inflight entertainment                       180(2)
      Selling the family silver                    182(1)
      Holey dollar                                 183(2)
      Money for nothing                            185(1)
      Public squalor, private profits              186(1)
      Locust plagues                               187(2)
      Vain capital                                 189(1)
      Amateur hour                                 190(2)
      Turbulence                                   192(3)
    11 Dice with debt                              195(22)
      Securitisation recipes                       195(2)
      Slice and dice                               197(3)
      Almost as safe as houses                     200(1)
      Synthetic stuff                              201(3)
      Get copula-ed                                204(1)
      Sticky mess                                  205(2)
      Several houses of one's own                  207(2)
      Cheaper cuts of mortgage                     209(3)
      ARMs race                                    212(2)
      Heroes for one day                           214(3)
    12 The doomsday debt machine                   217(24)
      Alpha-debt soup                              217(4)
      In the shadow of debt                        221(4)
      Virtual loans                                225(2)
      Counting on the abacus                       227(2)
      Intellectual masturbation                    229(1)
      Used to be smart                             230(3)
      Chain reaction                               233(3)
      Phase transition                             236(1)
      Terra incognita                              237(4)
    13 Risk supermarkets                           241(20)
      Mind your derivatives                        241(2)
      Particle finance                             243(1)
      Hedging your bets                            244(2)
      Sewer bonds                                  246(1)
      Harvard case studies                         247(1)
      The Italian job                              248(1)
      Betting your hedge                           249(2)
      TARDIS trades                                251(1)
      I will kill you later                        252(2)
      First to lose                                254(2)
      Toxic municipal siblings                     256(1)
      Playing swaps and robbers                    256(2)
      The Greek job                                258(2)
      Madman's games                               260(1)
    14 Financial arms race                         261(16)
      Shock-Gen                                    261(1)
      Evil Kerviel                                 262(1)
      Soldier monks                                263(1)
      Mystere Kerviel                              264(1)
      Risk is our business                         265(2)
      Free money                                   267(2)
      Credit's fatal attraction                    269(2)
      Post-modern contradictions                   271(1)
      Derivative deconstruction                    272(1)
      Pinata parties                               273(4)
    15 Woodstock for hedge funds                   277(16)
      Keeping up with the Joneses                  278(1)
      In search of Moby Dick                       279(1)
      Style gurus                                  280(1)
      Magic wand                                   281(2)
      Lucky man                                    283(1)
      Sharpe practice                              284(2)
      Embedded                                     286(1)
      In the long run, we are all dead             287(2)
      The game                                     289(1)
      The more things change                       290(1)
      Hedgestock                                   291(2)
    16 Minsky machines                             293(12)
      Affinities and curses                        293(1)
      Crowded hours                                294(2)
      Crime without punishment                     296(2)
      Fast cars, slow hedge funds                  298(2)
      Fast cornering                               300(1)
      Children of privilege                        301(2)
      Make money not war                           303(2)
  Part 4 Oligarchy                                 305(86)
    17 War games                                   307(18)
      Borrowed times                               308(3)
      Liquidity factory                            311(2)
      Six degrees of separation                    313(2)
      Paper chains                                 315(1)
      Toxic pathologies                            316(1)
      Relying on the Zohar                         317(2)
      Blind capital                                319(1)
      Rent collectors                              320(2)
      Best in best possible world                  322(3)
    18 Shell games                                 325(18)
      Central bank republics                       325(2)
      Games of old maid                            327(1)
      Protection rackets                           328(1)
      Stockholm Syndrome                           329(2)
      Free speech                                  331(1)
      No accounting for values                     332(1)
      Mark to make believe                         333(2)
      Out of sight                                 335(1)
      Creeping crumble                             336(2)
      Management by neglect                        338(2)
      Directing traffic                            340(3)
    19 Cult of risk                                343(14)
      Growth for all seasons                       344(1)
      Financial groupthink                         345(2)
      Celebrity central banking                    347(3)
      Dealing with dissent                         350(2)
      Noneofuscouldanodc                           352(1)
      Je ne regrette rien!                         353(1)
      Last supper                                  354(3)
    20 Masters of the Universe                     357(16)
      Money illusions                              357(1)
      Factories for unhappy people                 358(1)
      War versus money                             359(1)
      Shop floors                                  360(1)
      Misinformed                                  361(2)
      Smiling and killing                          363(1)
      Pay grades                                   364(1)
      Much more than this                          365(3)
      Attached                                     368(1)
      Bonus season                                 369(1)
      Plenty                                       370(1)
      Tipping points                               371(2)
    21 Financial nihilism                          373(18)
      Cosmetic consumption                         374(1)
      The physical impossibility of spending       375(2)
      the amount earned by someone living
      Celebrity finance                            377(3)
      Manque not monkey                            380(1)
      Wizard and muggles                           381(1)
      In the midnight hour                         382(4)
      Last rites                                   386(1)
      Safe as                                      386(2)
      Snuff movies                                 388(2)
      Silent mass murder                           390(1)
  Part 5 Cracks                                    391(38)
    22 Financial gravity                           393(14)
      Air pockets                                  393(1)
      Mass extinction                              394(2)
      ER                                           396(2)
      This is not a seminar!                       398(2)
      ICU                                          400(1)
      Country for sale                             401(2)
      Crying games                                 403(1)
      Newtonian economics                          404(3)
    23 Unusually uncertain                         407(22)
      Botox economics                              407(2)
      China syndrome                               409(2)
      Regulatory dialectic                         411(3)
      Patient zero                                 414(3)
      Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide              417(2)
      Built to fail                                419(2)
      End of Ponzi prosperity?                     421(3)
      Losing the commanding heights                424(2)
      Zen finance                                  426(1)
      Unknown unknowns                             427(2)
  Epilogue: Nemesis                                429(20)
      Marginal                                     429(2)
      Widows and orphans                           431(1)
      Nausca                                       432(2)
      Crunch porn, crash lit                       434(1)
      Economic rock stars                          435(2)
      Showtime                                     437(1)
      Meta money                                   438(1)
      Economic trivialities                        439(2)
      This time, it is no different!               441(3)
      Suicide is painless                          444(2)
      The turning world                            446(3)
Notes                                              449(38)
Select bibliography                                487(2)
Index                                              489