This is not a single book, but rather a collection of essays from Jim Grant's Interest Rate Observer. Many financial professionals at hedge funds and other institutions subscribe to Jim Grant for his witty, intellectual approach and macro views on the market. He often finds a bond, stock, or other investment that is over- or under-priced and explains why. He is a value investor, capitalist, and gold bug at heart. A subscription to his newsletter costs nearly $2000 per year, so this book is a bargain if you want to get a taste of his own favorite essays for only $9.99.

Many of these essays are fascinating, especially the ones foretelling certain doom in mortgages, CDOs, CDSs and other derivatives. I found the "book" to be intellectually stimulating and refreshing for the first two-thirds, until at that point I wanted to relax my mind. I found myself saying "I got it, Jim, you like Gold instead of Paper Money!"

If you are looking for an explanation of value investing or a breezy read on the markets, this is not the book for you. If you're the type of reader that relishes the long essays in the New York Times Weekend magazine focused on a specific topic, this book will give you great joy.

For financial professionals, this book is worth the price for the articles on CDS derivatives alone.

One of my favorite quotes:
"How convenient it would be now if mansions and subdivisions could be exported, to improve our foreign trade balance. Since they cannot be exported, perhaps the foreigners who own our massive debts can be repaid by coming to live in our McMansions, with homeowners serving as houseboys and house maids to the visiting Japanese and Chinese owners of our debt"

A typical passage from an essay on CDOs:
"Synthetic CDOs are different. They don't buy actual mortgages, or mortgage slices, as their cash-flow cousins do. Rather, they sell credit protection against such loans and slices. That is, they gain exposure to the subprime market by writing credit-default swaps on it."