Michael Lewis, the author of Liar’s Poker, is the ideal writer
to analyze the behavior that led to the current credit crisis. The bad news is
that he is only the editor of this collection of articles. The good news is that
he has not been constrained by false modesty and has chosen six of his own
pieces for this book. As one would expect, they are witty, incisive and
original. Mr. Lewis also contributes an introduction to each of
the sections dealing with the four main panics of the last 21 years; the stock
market crash of 1987, the Asian crisis of 1997-98 , the bursting of the dotcom
bubble after 2000 and the current housing and banking bust. It is worth
remembering, as we think the gloomy economic future, how each of the previous
three crises was greeted with apocalyptic (天启的) headlines. "How many times does
the end of the world as we know it needs to arrive before we realize that it’s
not the end of the world as we know it" Mr. Lewis writes, in perhaps the most
telling sentence of the book. The compiler’s contribution apart,
the selection is a mixed bag. The aim was to give readers a flavor of sentiment
before the bubbles burst, as well as analysis of the result. But the result is
too much flat news stories and the book only really comes to life with the last
two sections ,perhaps because the follies of dotcom valuations and subprime
loans(次级抵押贷款) seem so fresh in the memory. It is hard not to miss days when
Computer.com( a website for new users of technology) was able to spend 60% of
its seed funding on a 90-second ad during the 2000 Super Bowl. Or when the
shares of Books-A-Million, a retailer, rose tenfold within three days on
the back of an upgrade to its existing website. What is the aim of the book --- Liar’s Poker according to the passage
【参考答案】
Give readers a flavor of sentiment and analysis of the resul......