Several books have examined the recent economic crash and a few have put the meltdown into the context of previous bubbles. What Smith does here is recount events in the recent past (since 1989) that created the circumstances for the extended boom and the bust.

As economics editor at the Sunday Times for the entire time, he has followed events in detail. Anyone familiar with his precise and lucid columns will know what to expect here.

Smith details events starting with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of communism and the Asian financial crisis of 1997/1998 before moving to the property-fuelled boom that turned to bust in 2007. He manages to show the links between these events, their impact on the world economy and how they led to the crash.

He attacks the world's central bankers and a hubristic government still congratulating itself on ending the cycle of boom and bust as the cracks appeared. Gordon Brown is given a rough time, notably in the way he presents Smith with the book's title, by suggesting he write a book called "The Age of Stability".