Adjusted Upward for Inflation

If you wanted to try to make sense of the global banking crisis, instead of merely weeping openly at your A.T.M. balance, 2009 was a very good year. Bookstores were filled with volumes that, with expert 20-20 hindsight, explained how capitalism went to hell.

For the New York Times, Dwight Garner reviews John Lanchester’s I.O.U.: Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay.