Ian Bright from ING has just sent me a review of Raghuram Rajan's Fault Lines which I commissioned for the next issue of The Business Economist. I'll post a link to the journal when it's available, but Ian's summary is:

“

This is a book that is intriguing, depressing and annoying
simultaneously.
“

He also pointed me to a highly critical review of the book by Paul Krugman and Robin Wells, in the New York Review of Books. Their main complaint about Fault Lines is:

“The idea that the government did it—that government-sponsored loans,
government mandates, and explicit or implicit government guarantees led
to irresponsible home purchases—is an article of faith on the political
right. It’s also a central theme, though not the only one, of Raghuram
Rajan’s Fault Lines.”

They disagree, and are not mollified by Rajan's emphasis on the malign role of massive income inequality in the US.

I reviewed it on this blog, and heartily recommend it. I have no problem with the suggestion that government policies distorted lending in the US, and found the book thought-provoking, putting together separate strands of argument in a way that sheds fresh light on the Great Financial Crisis.