Originally Published in London by Allen Lane, 2009

Warnings ignored and the conventional wisdom -- Adam Smith's invisib le hand -- Friedrich Hayek's telecommunications system -- The perfect m arkets of Lausanne -- The mathematics of bliss -- The evangelist -- The coin-tossing view of finance -- The triumph of utopian economics -- Th e prof and the polar bears -- A taxonomy of failure -- The prisoner's d ilemma and rational irrationality -- Hidden information and the market for lemons -- Keynes's beauty contest -- The rational herd -- Psycholog y returns to economics -- Hyman Minsky and Ponzi finance -- Greenspan s hrugs -- The lure of real estate -- The subprime chain -- In the alphab et soup -- A matter of incentives -- London Bridge is falling down -- S ocialism in our time.