Two recently read books cite This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly, so it seemed worth trying. Since it is part history and part economics, it seemed right up my alley.

The premise of the book is pretty clear: debt is bad, and governments seem to become addicted to debt no matter how often history shows they should not be. And sooner or later that debt creates a financial crisis that can topple a government … or at least send shockwaves across an entire country.

The interesting part about the book is how each time this happens the governments (or the economists of the age) seem to say, “This time it’s different….” The authors argue otherwise, saying there are consistencies in every major financial crisis the world has seen. And they make a well researched and informed case for their position.

Unfortunately, it was a dry book to read. I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as I had hoped and felt like I was reading a text book. The information is first rate, and the insights are invaluable, so I can see why the book was cited. But it’s definitely not casual reading. The title is meant for a popular audience; the content is not.

If you want to go a bit deeper into the financial crisis and understand it from a historical perspective, and if you have a working knowledge of economics so you can navigate through the terminology, you’ll appreciate the insights. For everybody else … this book might be a reach.