Whoops! Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay

<p><b>John Lanchester''s <i>Whoops! Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay</i> is the unbelievable true story of the economic crisis.</b><br><br> We are, to use a technical economic term, screwed. The cowboy capitalists had a party with everyone''s money and now we''re all paying for it. What went wrong? And will we learn our lesson - or just carry on as before, like celebrating surviving a heart attack with a packet of Rothmans?<br><br> John Lanchester travels with a cast of characters - including reckless banksters, snoozing regulators, complacent politicians, predatory lenders, credit-drunk spendthrifts, and innocent bystanders to understand deeply and genuinely what is happening and why we feel the way we do.<br><br> ''Devastatingly funny ... the route map to the crazed world of contemporary finance we have all been waiting for''<br/>  Will Self<br><br> ''Bang on the money'' <br/>  <i>Independent</i><br><br> ''Explains the crisis in a way that actually sticks ... to my amazement, I finally grasp it''<br/>  Janice Turner, <i>The Times</i><br><br> ''Endlessly witty ... will turn any reader into an expert within the space of 200 pages''<br/>  Jonathan Coe <br><br> ''Terrific ... there is no better guide to the crazy world of high finance'' <br/>  <i>GQ</i><br><br> <b>John Lanchester</b> is a journalist, novelist and winner of the Whitbread First Novel Award. His fiction includes <i>Mr Philips</i>, <i>The Debt to Pleasure</i> and <i>Capital</i>. He is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books and the New Yorker, with a monthly column in <i>Esquire</i>.</p>