A damning indictment of American capitalism, as exposed through the failures of the government, private sector and overall economic resilience throughout the COVID pandemic. From the author of the modern business classic The Smartest Guys in the Room comes a damning indictment of late-stage capitalism-and the leaders that were brutally unprepared for a global pandemic. In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic made it painfully clear that governments across the world could not adequately protect their citizens. Millions of people suffered and died in just two years, while administrations around the globe blundered; prize-winning economists overlooked devastating trade-offs from the collapse of trade; and elites escaped to isolated retreats, unaffected by - and worse, even profiting from - the worst healthcare crisis to hit humanity in decades. In this page-turning economic, political and financial history, veteran journalists Bethany McClean and Joseph Nocera analyse the American response to the pandemic as a case study, to offer fresh and provocative answers. With laser-sharp reporting and deep sourcing, they investigate what really happened when governments ran out of PPE due to snarled supply chains; and the shock to the financial system when the world's biggest economies stumbled. They zero in on the effectiveness of wildly polarised approaches across states, and they trace why thousands died in hollowed-out hospital systems and nursing homes run by private equity firms, all in the name of "maximising shareholder value". The Big Fail is an expansive, gripping narrative account on what the pandemic did to one economy, and how it forced us to question the fundamental principles of our society

The tenth-anniversary edition of the definitive account of the Enron scandal, updated with a new chapter
The Enron scandal brought down one of the most admired companies of the 1990s. Countless books and articles were written about it, but only "The Smartest Guys in the Room "holds up a decade later as the definitive narrative. For this tenth anniversary edition, McLean and Elkind have revisited the fall of Enron and its aftermath, in a new chapter that asks why Enron still matters. They also reveal the fates of the key players in the scandal.

The "New York Times" bestseller hailed as "the best business book of 2010" ("Huffington Post").

As soon as the financial crisis erupted, the finger-pointing began. Should the blame fall on Wall Street, Main Street, or Pennsylvania Avenue? On greedy traders, misguided regulators, sleazy subprime companies, cowardly legislators, or clueless home buyers?

According to Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera, two of America's most acclaimed business journalists, the real answer is all of the above-and more. Many devils helped bring hell to the economy. And the full story, in all of its complexity and detail, is like the legend of the blind men and the elephant. Almost everyone has missed the big picture. Almost no one has put all the pieces together.

"All the Devils Are Here" goes back several decades to weave the hidden history of the financial crisis in a way no previous book has done. It explores the motivations of everyone from famous CEOs, cabinet secretaries, and politicians to anonymous lenders, borrowers, analysts, and Wall Street traders. It delves into the powerful American mythology of homeownership. And it proves that the crisis ultimately wasn't about finance at all; it was about human nature.

The greatest columns and profiles by the bestselling coauthor of "All the Devils Are Here."

What's it like to be a top tobacco executive when your kid asks you about smoking? How did a young liberal arts major become the hottest tech-stock analyst of the '90s, and why did he self-destruct? How did one family's dysfunction change the media landscape?

Some people think business journalism is all about balance sheets, income statements, and earnings per share. But if you want to answer the really interesting questions-about heroes and hucksters, visionaries and madmen, and other larger-than-life characters-you need a reporter like Joe Nocera.

For more than twenty-five years Nocera has shed new light on the giants of the business world-Warren Buffett, T. Boone Pickens, Bob Nardelli-as well as on the less famous but equally fascinating. He builds stories around their motivations, personalities, and deepest characters. And instead of just pigeonholing them as good guys or bad guys, he explores the gray areas in between.

"America began to change on a mid-September day in 1958, when the Bank of America dropped its first 60,000 credit cards on the unassuming city of Fresno, California." So begins Joe Nocera's riveting account of one of the most astonishing revolutions in modern American life--what Nocera labels "the money revolution." In the decades since, the middle class has gained access to credit cards, to mutual funds, to retirement accounts--and to hundreds of other financial vehicles that have allowed everyone to get "a piece of the action." In this lively, engaging book, some of the great financial characters of modern times--from Charles Merrill to Charles Schwab to Peter Lynch--strut across the stage as the course of this great financial shift is charted.
In an all-new introduction, Nocera takes a look back at the consequences of the money revolution. Were members of the middle class as prepared as the innovators claimed to take control of their financial lives? Or did events like the dot-com and the housing bubbles suggest something else: that far too many of us lacked the wherewithal to make sound investment decisions?