For the second time this decade, the U.S. economy is sinking into a recession due to the collapse of a financial bubble. The most recent calamity will lead to a downturn deeper and longer than the stock market crash of 2001.

Dean Baker’s Plunder and Blunder chronicles the growth and collapse of the stock and housing bubbles and explains how policy blunders and greed led to the catastrophic—but completely predictable—market meltdowns. An expert guide to recent economic history, Baker offers policy prescriptions to help prevent similar financial disasters.

Dean Baker is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington DC. A frequent guest on National Public Radio, CNN, and CNBC news programs, Baker has written for the Washington Post, the Atlantic Monthly, and the Financial Times. He writes a column for the Guardian, the American Prospect, and Truthout.org. He is the author of several books, including The Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer and The United States since 1980. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan.

“Dean Baker warned us what was coming. Alas, the government and most economists ignored him. They denied that a housing bubble existed and would soon collapse with devastating consequences. Now we can read why Dean got it right when so many experts were blind. The story is intriguing—and deeply disturbing.”
—William Greider, national affairs correspondent, The Nation, and author of Come Home, America

“Dean Baker foresaw the housing crisis, first, persistently, and almost alone, while Bush fiddled, Congress snoozed, and the media looked resolutely the other way. In Plunder and Blunder, he delivers his trademark one-two punch: clarity and honesty, in the face of vast malfeasance.”
—James K. Galbraith, author of The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too

For Immediate Release
December 2008
Darcy Cohan, (415) 339-4111

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“Dean Baker warned us what was coming…. The story is intriguing—and deeply disturbing.”
—William Greider, The Nation, and author, Come Home, America

“In Plunder and Blunder, he delivers his trademark one-two punch: clarity and honesty, in the face of vast malfeasance.”
—James K. Galbraith, author of The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too

Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of The Bubble Economy By Dean Baker, Foreword by Thomas Frank

In his new book, Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of The Bubble Economy, Dean Baker chronicles the growth and collapse of the stock and housing bubbles and explains how policy changes since 1980 laid the groundwork for catastrophic–but completely predictable–market meltdowns. Baker argues not only that competent economists should have recognized the developing housing bubble, but also that policy makers and the media cheerfully neglected those economists who did predict danger. Baker doesn’t engage in 20-20 hindsight, but he does documents the fundamental policy changes since 1980 that destabilized the economy and eroded the broad prosperity of the post-war period. During an interview, Dean Baker will be prepared to discuss:

• The deepening recession
• Obama’s economic initiative in his first 100 days
• The causes of the current financial crisis
• The economic impact should the big three US automakers all crash
• The current status of the $700 billion bailout bill

Dean Baker is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington DC. He is a frequent guest on National Public Radio, CNN, CNBC and other news programs.

His articles have appeared in the Washington Post, The Atlantic Monthly, the Financial Times, and the Guardian. He writes a column for the Guardian, the American Prospect, and Truthout.org. He is the author of several books, including The Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer and The United States since 1980. He received his Ph.D in economics from the University of Michigan.

Publication Date: Jan 20, 2009 Coincides with the Presidential Inauguration; Pub Date: Jan 20 2009, Price: $15.95 US/CAN, ISBN-13: 978-0981576992, Trim: 5.5″ x 8.5″, Format: original trade paper, Pages: 180