Praise for After the Music Stopped

“If you want to understand every aspect of our economic crisis—how we got into it, how we escaped a depression, why we haven't fully recovered, and what we have to do now—read this book. It's a masterpiece—simple, straightforward, and wise.”

—President William J. Clinton

“Alan S. Blinder is one of America's leading economists. One of the few economists who writes really well, he is also a master storyteller.... [ After the Music Stopped ] is one of the best books yet about the financial crisis.”

— The Wall Street Journal

“Blinder's book deserves its likely place near the top of reading lists about the crisis. It is the best comprehensive history of the episode.”

— Financial Times

“The best general volume on the subject that has been published to date.”

—J. Bradford DeLong, Foreign Affairs

“Alan Blinder is one of the world's best informed and most balanced, sensible economists. His credentials include years as a senior adviser in the Clinton White House, then as vice chairman of the Federal Reserve and as regular op-ed contributor to the Wall Street Journal . After the Music Stopped is the best account available of what really happened in the 2008 financial crisis, why, and what it now means for the future.”

—Bob Woodward

“[ After the Music Stopped ] is the single best and wisest book about the global financial crisis and its aftermath. Blinde.... challenges many of your assumptions about the crisis, shows the real causes and consequences, and does it all in easy, conversational prose.”

—Fareed Zakaria

“[An] illuminating, clear-as-a-bell bestselle.... Get After the Music Stopped , and read it right through, and then think deeply about it. I kept nodding my head in agreement.”

—Robert Lenzner, Forbes

“[ After the Music Stopped ] benefits from Mr. Blinder's clear-eyed prose and nimble gifts as an explainer—gifts that sometimes approach those of Bill Clinton, when it comes to making complicated economic issues and policies understandable to the lay reader. Direct and concise, Mr. Blinder tells it as he sees it.”

—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“Of all the books that I have read on the topic—and I have read quite a few— After the Music Stopped provides the most authoritative account of the why, how, and what of the global financial crisis.... Read this book if you want an expert and well-written analysis of how economics and politics interacted to create one big mess, not just for America but also for the global economy.”

—Mohamed A. El-Erian

“Alan S. Blinder is a national treasure.... He invariably sees what's really going on and has a gift for explaining it without being blinded by party or ideology.”

— The Washington Post

“For a reader wondering how we got here, and why the people in charge have seemed, often, to be so chary of stringing up the culprits, or tearing down the system, Blinder's book—not least because his fair-minded approach and pragmatic mind-set evokes that of America's current regulators—gives us an invaluable insight.”

— The New Republic

“True to his scholarly roots and informed by his practical insights, Alan Blinder has produced in After the Music Stopped both a comprehensive and, mirabile dictu, engagingly readable analysis of the great financial crisis. Whether or not one agrees with every particular judgment, the force of the argument is clear: here we are, four years later, still short of reforms that are needed.”

—Paul A. Volcker