Publisher Description
"Should be required reading for all policy makers.” —Warren Buffett
From the three primary architects of the American policy response to the worst economic catastrophe since the Great Depression, a magnificent big-picture synthesis--from why it happened to where we are now.
In 2018, Ben Bernanke, Tim Geithner, and Hank Paulson came together to reflect on the lessons of the 2008 financial crisis ten years on. Recognizing that, as Ben put it, "the enemy is forgetting," they examine the causes of the crisis, why it was so damaging, and what it ultimately took to prevent a second Great Depression. And they provide to their successors in the United States and the finance ministers and central bank governors of other countries a valuable playbook for reducing the damage from future financial crises. Firefighting provides a candid and powerful account of the choices they and their teams made during the crisis, working under two presidents and with the leaders of Congress.
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All kinds of readers will find [Firefighting] a readable summary of the crisis, but its paramount value comes from the authors’ explanations and defenses of their whatever-it-takes actions and assessment of current financial system risks.
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Library Journal, starred review
About the Authors
Mark Deakins is an AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator and actor whose television appearances include Head Case, Star Trek: Voyager, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. His film credits include Intervention, Star Trek: Insurrection, and The Devil’s Advocate. He wrote, directed, and produced the short film The Smith Interviews.
Henry M. Paulson served under President George W. Bush as the seventy-fourth secretary of the Treasury from June 2006 until January 2009. Before coming to the Treasury, he had been chairman and chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs since the firm’s initial public offering in 1999. He joined the Goldman Sachs Chicago office in 1974 and steadily rose through the ranks. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Paulson was a member of the White House Domestic Council, serving as staff assistant to the president from 1972 to 1973, and as staff assistant to the assistant secretary of defense at the Pentagon from 1970 to 1972. He graduated from Dartmouth in 1968, where he majored in English, was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and was an All Ivy, All East football player. He received an MBA from Harvard in 1970.
About Mark Deakins
Mark Deakins is an AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator and actor whose television appearances include Head Case, Star Trek: Voyager, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. His film credits include Intervention, Star Trek: Insurrection, and The Devil’s Advocate. He wrote, directed, and produced the short film The Smith Interviews.