Marc Dreier’s Crime of Destiny, by Bryan Burrough (November 2009)

Great things were always expected of Marc Dreier, and he expected them for himself. He needed the hotshot litigating career. He needed a Hamptons beachfront house. Thus began a four-year Ponzi scheme which all unraveled just days before the Madoff scandal broke, bringing the 59-year-old attorney a 20-year prison sentence. Bryan Burrough gets Dreier’s blow-by-blow account of what it’s like to turn bad.

Good Billions After Bad, by Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele (October 2009)

As the Bush administration waned, the Treasury shoveled more than a quarter of a trillion dollars in tarp funds into the financial system—without restrictions, accountability, or even common sense. Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele reveal how much of it ended up in the wrong hands, doing the opposite of what was needed.

Henry Paulson’s Longest Night, by Todd S. Purdum (October 2009)

In 2006, Goldman Sachs C.E.O. Henry Paulson reluctantly became Treasury secretary for an unpopular, lame-duck president. In private conversations throughout his term, as crisis followed crisis, Paulson gave Todd S. Purdum the inside track, from the political lunacy and bailout plans to the sleepless nights and flat-out fear, as he battled the greatest economic disruption in 80 years.

The 100 to Blame, by Bruce Feirstein (September 2, 2009)

Time to stop investigating and point the finger. Bruce Feirstein charts the 100 people, companies, institutions, and vices most responsible for the economic mess.

The Man Who Crashed the World, by Michael Lewis (August 2009)

Almost a year after A.I.G.’s collapse, there still has been no clear explanation of what toppled the insurance giant. Michael Lewis decides to ask the people involved—the silent, shell-shocked traders of the A.I.G. Financial Products unit—and finds that the story may have a villain, whose reign of terror brought the company, the U.S. economy, and the global financial system to their knees.

Rich Harvard, Poor Harvard, by Nina Munk (August 2009)

Only a year ago, Harvard had a $36.9 billion endowment, the largest in academia. Now that endowment has imploded, and the university faces the worst financial crisis in its 373-year history. Could the same lethal mix of uncurbed expansion, colossal debt, arrogance, and mismanagement that ravaged Wall Street bring down America’s most famous university?

Pirate of the Caribbean, by Bryan Burrough (July 2009)

With little more than laserlike ambition and a brash Texas charm, Allen Stanford built an $8 billion Caribbean banking empire, exposed in February as perhaps the second-largest Ponzi scheme (after Madoff’s) in history. How did a bankrupt Waco health-club owner vault onto the Forbes Four Hundred, while the S.E.C., the F.B.I., and others mounted investigation after investigation of his shadowy business?

Wall Street’s Toxic Message, by Joseph E. Stiglitz (July 2009)

When the current crisis is over, the reputation of American-style capitalism will have taken a beating—not least because of the gap between what Washington practices and what it preaches. Disillusioned developing nations may well turn their backs on the free market, warns Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz, posing new threats to global stability and U.S. security.

Hello, Madoff! (What the Secretary Saw), by Mark Seal and Eleanor Squillari (June 2009)

For more than two decades, Bernard Madoff’s secretary sat just outside his office. She knew his clients and his feeders, his moods, habits, and indiscretions. She saw both sides of his wife, Ruth. Until December 11, 2008, she trusted him as a generous, caring boss. Now, in an exclusive collaboration with Mark Seal, Eleanor Squillari describes the madness surrounding Madoff’s arrest—meticulously planned, she believes, by him—her role in helping the feds, and the mysteries of the 17th floor, two levels down, where his massive Ponzi scheme was perpetrated.

Madoff’s World, by Mark Seal (April 2009)

Among Bernard Madoff’s many dupes were his closest friends, including two tycoons he loved as surrogate fathers: the late Norman F. Levy—whose girlfriend, supermodel Carmen Dell’Orefice, would lose her life savings—and the prominent philanthropist Carl J. Shapiro. Amid the sobs, screams, and curses in Aspen, Palm Beach, and New York, with victims sharing their stories, the author gets behind Madoff’s affable façade, to reveal his most intimate betrayals.

Over the Hedge, by Bethany McLean (April 2009)

The five hotshots who took Fortress Investment Group public were worth billions at first. Today they look like arrogant showboats, and their story helps explain why hedge funds are imploding by the thousands—and why there’s still a truckload of money to be made.

Wall Street on the Tundra, by Michael Lewis (April 2009)

Iceland’s de facto bankruptcy—its currency (the krona) is kaput, its debt is 850 percent of G.D.P., its people are hoarding food and cash and blowing up their new Range Rovers for the insurance—resulted from a stunning collective madness. What led a tiny fishing nation, population 300,000, to decide, around 2003, to re-invent itself as a global financial power? In Reykjavík, where men are men, and the women seem to have completely given up on them, the author follows the peculiarly Icelandic logic behind the meltdown.

Wall Street’s $18.4 Billion Bonus, by Michael Shnayerson (March 2009)

After getting $125 billion in taxpayer bailouts, the top officers at Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, and three other banks agreed to forgo their 2008 bonuses. Now they’re awarding billions to their troops. Can government “claw back” that money?

Fannie Mae’s Last Stand, by Bethany McLean (February 2009)

Many believe the government-backed mortgage giants known as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were major culprits in the economic meltdown. But, for decades, Fannie Mae had been under siege from powerful enemies, who resented its privileged status, its hard-driving C.E.O.’s, and its huge profits. Bethany McLean tells of the long, vicious war—involving most of Washington’s top players—that helped propel one of the world’s most successful companies off a cliff.

Capitalist Fools, by Joseph E. Stiglitz (January 2009)

Behind the debate over remaking U.S. financial policy will be a debate over who’s to blame. It’s crucial to get the history right, writes a Nobel-laureate economist, identifying five key mistakes—and one national delusion.

Madoff in Manhattan, by Marie Brenner (January 2009)

Bernard Madoff’s scam was global, but his center of gravity was Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Speaking to longtime residents of the tony enclave, including many who lost millions with Madoff, the author explores the thorny issues of class and religion that the scandal has brought to the surface.

Profiles in Panic, by Michael Shnayerson (January 2009)

With Wall Street hemorrhaging jobs and assets, even many of the wealthiest players are retrenching. Others, like the Lehman Brothers bankers who borrowed against their millions in stock, have lost everything. As the world of the Big Rich collapses, its culture is in shock and its values in question.

Wall Street Lays Another Egg, by Niall Ferguson (December 2008)

Not so long ago, the dollar stood for a sum of gold, and bankers knew the people they lent to. The author charts the emergence of an abstract, even absurd world where mathematical models ignored both history and human nature, and value had no meaning.

The News Blues, by James Wolcott (November 2008)

The author has lived through a lot of hair-raising times—nuclear standoffs, assassinations, 9/11, financial meltdown—but now he’s sure the world is going to hell in a handbasket.

Reversal of Fortune, by Joseph E. Stiglitz (November 2008)

Describing how ideology, special-interest pressure, populist politics, and sheer incompetence have left the U.S. economy on life support, the author puts forth a clear, commonsense plan to reverse the Bush-era follies and regain America’s economic sanity.

The New Establishment 2008 (October 2008)

The economy may be in shambles, but the moguls of the V.F. 100 are still moving, shaking, merging, and acquiring.

The Stock Market’s 25 Biggest Losers, by Peter Newcomb (October 2008)

Bringing Down Bear Stearns, by Bryan Burrough (August 2008)

On March 10, the rumor started: Bear Stearns was having liquidity problems. The speculation created its own reality, and the race was on to keep Bear’s crisis from ravaging Wall Street.

Hamptons Overdrive, by Michael Shnayerson (August 2008)

Amid whispers about which Wall Street casualties will lose their summer spreads, the market for properties below $10 million is grim. The author checks the real-estate temperature of the country’s most celebrated summer retreat to see if its mere mega-millionaires are about to take a cold dip.

The $3 Trillion War, by Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes (April 2008)

The Bush administration’s spending on military operations is merely the tip of a vast fiscal iceberg. In an excerpt from their new book, the authors calculate the grim bottom line.

America’s 50 Richest Paydays: Who, What, and How Much, by Peter Newcomb (April 2008)

Here are the 50 players (and one lucky canine) who enjoyed windfalls thanks to large transactions: stock cash-outs, I.P.O.’s, sales of companies, real-estate deals—even inheritances.

The Economic Consequences of Mr. Bush, by Joseph E. Stiglitz (December 2007)

The next president will have to deal with yet another crippling legacy of George W. Bush: the economy. A Nobel laureate sees a generation-long struggle to recoup.

The People vs. the Profiteers, by David Rose (November 2007)

Americans working in Iraq for Halliburton spin-off KBR have been outraged by the massive fraud they saw there. Dozens are suing the giant military contractor, on the taxpayers’ behalf.

Billions over Baghdad, by Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele (October 2007)

Between April 2003 and June 2004, $12 billion in U.S. currency—much of it belonging to the Iraqi people—was shipped from the Federal Reserve to Baghdad, where it was dispensed by the Coalition Provisional Authority. Incredibly, at least $9 billion has gone missing.

The Sack of Washington, by Cullen Murphy (June 2007)

Comparisons of America and Rome are everywhere these days, whether deploring an over-extended military, social decadence, or illegal immigration. A more disturbing—and largely ignored—similarity lies in the wholesale privatization of the U.S. government, which has blurred the line between public good and personal gain.

The Rise of Big Water, by Charles C. Mann (May 2007)

The water crisis is now. As major cities battle drought and pollution, they are turning to a handful of Western companies to manage the problem.

Serious Money, by Michael Wolff (May 2007)

Everyone who’s anyone is getting into the private-equity bubble—even journalists and rock stars. But there are signs the bubble is about to burst, and smart money may be trying to turn mania into cash.

Washington’s $8 Billion Shadow, by Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele (March 2007)

Mega-contractors such as Halliburton and Bechtel supply the government with brawn. But the biggest, most powerful of the “body shops”—saic—sells brainpower, including a lot of the “expertise” behind the Iraq war.

Empire Falls, by Niall Ferguson (October 2006)

They called it “the American Century,” but the past hundred years actually saw a shift away from Western dominance. Rome 331 and America and Europe 2006 appear to have more than a few problems in common.

Pox Americana, by Michael Wolff (October 2006)

Brand America, which ruled the global marketplace with its vision of cool capitalism, has been discontinued. This is Bush Country now, and the world is recoiling from a new image that makes the U.S. as much a danger to its friends as it is to its enemies.

Panic on 43rd Street, by Michael Wolff (September 2006)

Even as the Times builds a soaring $850 million headquarters, its newsroom, its leadership, and its business are in a crisis of confidence.

Washington Babylon, by Judy Bachrach (August 2006)

California Republican congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham traded military contracts for $2.4 million in antiques, cash, and other booty. His case exposed a world of bribery, booze, and broads that reaches into the Pentagon, the C.I.A., and Congress.

Greenwich’s Outrageous Fortune, by Nina Munk (July 2006)

Greenwich, Connecticut, has attracted some of the biggest, newest, shiniest fortunes in America. Today that money comes from the trillion-dollar hedge-fund business, whose managers are behind a decade of over-the-top real-estate deals, teardowns, and mega-mansions.