 2009-01-03 - Extremely misleading
As noted by others, this book is merely edited by Michael Lewis. It is a collection of articles by others. Clearly the author means to take advantage of his name recognition and trade on the economic uncertainty present today with the use of the title PANIC. Don't bother to read this.
 2008-12-28 - dense read but worth it
this book will take you awhile to get thru as its dense reading with alot of detail. i have an advanced engineering degree, work in finance and this book still provided me insight into some basic math i was lacking and more importantly some of the big-picture details behind how we got here.
it was an enjoyable book i found satisfying but remember i have a capacity for detail to things many would find boring and dry.
 2008-12-28 - Amounts to a marginal blog post
That'll teach me to pull the trigger before reading the reviews. I expected a Michael Lewis book and ended up with an interesting but extremely disjointed collection of articles that I could have found in 10 minutes on Google.
They rushed this thing out to capitalize on the ongoing crisis. It reminds me of the paperbacks that are cranked out in 2 weeks to take advantage of a sensational news story...only this one has 0 original content.
2008-12-26 - Unless you're an economist.
Tedious and boring. Thought this might be helpful in understanding what is happening today. Maybe for academics.
2008-12-24 - Misleading, Aggravating, and Useless
Lewis believes that recent costly financial upheavals (crash of 1987, Russian default of 1987,, the Asian currency crisis of 1999, and the current subprime) were caused by a recurring problem of models underestimating the risk of rare events, thereby encouraging investors to take more chances than they rationally would. However, substantiating that conclusion through this book of readings is difficult.
I selected this book to help understand the latest financial collapse, as seen through the eyes of a credible writer. The unfortunate reality, however, is that the reader's mind is jerked back and forth from one author (about 50) to another (each with varying degrees of credibility), moving from one fairly recent financial crisis to another. The result is that it is very difficult to discern and assimilate a train of thought.
The value of this book is nil; spare yourself the aggravation.
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