As Americans continue to clamber over the rubble of their collapsed portfolios, sniffing for signs of life amongst the shards of shattered assets, Richard E. Goldman arrives with “Luck by Design: Certain Success in an Uncertain World,” two hundred pages of economic and emotional search and rescue. »more»

Author John F. Wasik’s The Cul-de-Sac Syndrome serves up a double-dose of economic pathology. First, it offers a postmortem on the gruesome death of The Housing Bubble, finding a cadaver covered in fingerprints – the whorls of Wall Street and Washington elites – and inside the carcass, the toxic bile of hideous mortgage products and manic borrowers. »more»

The Pitch: Jeffrey Zaslow (coauthor of The Last Lecture) spends a couple of years with ten childhood friends from Ames, Iowa. The women, now in their forties, have scattered across America, yet they’ve maintained their friendship through a dedicated commitment to phone calls, letters, emails and annual reunions. »more»