It's What We Call "Good Timing"

... Michael Lewis' new book is also an example of the phenomenon known as "playing the tuba when it rains gold coins."

Watching U.S.'s Growing Insanity

Editor of 'Panic' Anthology Finds He Underestimated Latest Financial Crisis

By JEFFREY A. TRACHTENBERG

• Article
• Comments

more in Markets Main »

• Email
• Printer Friendly
• Share:
• Yahoo Buzz
• facebook
• MySpace
• LinkedIn
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• NewsVine
• StumbleUpon
• Mixx
• Text Size

Michael Lewis is probably best known on Wall Street for "Liar's Poker," his first-person account of trading bonds at Salomon Brothers during the 1980s. He also is the author of one of the most influential baseball books in many years, "Moneyball," a tale of how statistical analysis enabled the Oakland Athletics to compete successfully despite a modest payroll.

W. W. Norton & Company

Michael Lewis

Now Mr. Lewis, 48 years old, has taken a turn at editing. The result, "Panic: The Story of Modern Financial Insanity," examines five recent downturns, starting with the crash of 1987 and ending with today's economic crisis.

The timing appears particularly apt because the global economy continues to dominate headlines. Of course, if bookstore sales collapse this holiday season, "Panic" may end up as one more victim of the crisis it partially chronicles. In addition to including some of his own published work, Mr. Lewis picked articles from some of the country's leading financial journalists, including some at this newspaper.

Mr. Lewis, who lives in Berkeley, Calif., is now at work on a Wall Street nonfiction book. Here are excerpts from a recent phone interview:

The Wall Street Journal: What prompted this book?

Michael Lewis: A pal of mine, Dave Eggers (author of "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius"), came to lunch and asked if I'd put together an anthology for him, with the author's proceeds going to charity. This was in February 2007. I said that I was intrigued by the series of recent cataclysmic financial panics, starting in 1987, that seemed not to have any significant consequences. None of them ended capitalism as we knew it. The last piece in the book was written earlier this year during the subprime collapse.