The Default Line

Book excerpt: How does the economy of a Western nation-state simply run out of money? Why did the London arm of a US corporation bet an amount more than the total GDP of the European Union on US housing? How can a banking system become so unregulated that it offers a gold credit card to a dog? For Channel 4's Editor Faisal Islam, these are examples of nations, institutions, and individuals crossing the 'default line', the point at which the optimism of economic boom flips into fiscal madness - with far-reaching and disastrous results. Having exposed the the Icelandic banking crisis, watched Lehman Bros crash, investigated emerging economies in India and China and interviewed such players as the UK premier and the President of the World Bank, Faisal Islam is the perfect guide to the new landscape of the global financial crisis. From New York to Singapore and from Moscow to Merseyside, he identifies and explains its causes and describes its impact on the lives of ordinary people with exemplary clarity.