HELEN THOMPSON is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge, UK. Her most recent book is Might, Right, Prosperity and Consent: Representative Democracy and the International Economy 1919-2001.

• Introduction Asian Savings and American Borrowing The Domestic Politics of American Home Ownership Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the Mortgage Boom The Crisis of 2007-8 Conclusions Index