David Wessel

By Wiliam Watson, who is fixated on Barney Frank. Read it here

Tuesday, Sept. 22

San Francisco

6 p.m., Commonwealth Club,

595 Market Street

Wednesday, Sept. 23

Mountain View

1 p.m., Authors@Google

Palo Alto

6.30 pm., Stanford's SIEPR

Thursday,  Sept. 24 

Los Angeles

12.30 p.m.,

Occidental

College

Friday, Sept. 24,

11.30 a.m., World Affairs Council,

Westin Bonaventure,

Los Angeles

Two Depression-era histories, two books by serving corporate bosses, a blow-by-blow assessment of the US authorities’ reaction to the financial crisis, and a manifesto for a new economic theory. The shortlist for the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award looks eclectic. But the six books together sum up what went wrong in the crisis and may provide a route map away from the error-strewn past...The crash-hit financiers and politicians of 70 or 80 years ago sound surprisingly similar to the 21st century policymakers and central bankers anatomised by David Wessel in his book, In Fed We Trust. One judge praised it as a “keenly observed” account of the build-up to last year’s US banking crisis. Read more here.

Fuld flew back to New York early Saturday morning on a Delta flight. He had connected through a SkyWest flight from Hailey, Idaho, to Salt Lake City, Utah that was also taken by the Reuters reporter.

On the twin turbo-prop jet, he was reading David Wessel's book, "In Fed We Trust," which looks at the Federal Reserve's role in the financial crisis, and could be seen underlining various passages.

The book examines, among other things, why the U.S. authorities did not rescue Lehman while being prepared to bailout floundering insurance giant AIG.

When asked about his views of the key figures in that decision, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and current Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, he said the reporter should read that book and "go back to my testimony" before lawmakers.

Fuld had told the Congressional panel that he would wonder "until they put me in the ground" why the U.S. government did not rescue his firm, as it helped others.

-- Reuters  Read the Reuters story here

15-minute podcast and transcript of interview conducted July 31. Listen or read it here.

Cspan Book TV was there, and so were a lot of other people.. Here is the link

List to be published Sept. 6: In Fed We Trust at #13. Tied with Evolution of God. Full list here.

At 7 p.m.

Ahead of Michael Jackson book. One notch below the Farrah Fawcett book.See the Aug. 30 NYT list here.

Talking about the book, Bernanke and the economy. Watch it here.