A Critique of Gambling with Borrowed Chips

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In The Federal Lawyer, themonthly FBA publication, Jane Gravelle of the Congressional Research Servicehas written a critique of my recent book on the financial crisis of 2007-08, Gambling with Borrowed Chips.
Here is a linkto the book.
Here is a link to the reviewsection of TheFederal Lawyer for June. Gravelle’s review begins at p. 3 of that pdf.  If you are reading this after that link has lapsed, try here instead.
As you will see at either site,Gravelle had some kind words about my book as “readable and entertaining.” Sheenjoyed the historical material, and appreciated my explanations of “a lot ofconcepts and practices.” So if my book is ever re-issued with a dust jacket, wemay be able with judicious editing to mine this review for blurbs.
She spends most of her reviewarguing with my book though: arguing in particular that my analysis of thecause of the crisis, and my prescriptions for avoiding its like in the future,are thoroughly misguided. Thus, she has my gratitude for giving me a wonderfulexcuse for discussing that analysis and those prescriptions further, and I willtake advantage of the same in a series of posts you’ll be able to read righthere next week.
For now, though, I’ll limitmyself to an observation about the kindof book this is. Gravelle writes, “Gamblingwith Borrowed Chips is not a scholarly work, in that it has no references orfootnotes.”  
    Yes, it is true that I didnot use the usual scholarly apparatus of footnotes and bibliography. This isn’tbecause I am unfamiliar or disrespectful of that apparatus. I have employed itin earlier books, and may well employ it again if I give this particularargument the fuller work-up I believe it deserves. Still … this book was but a précisfor some later complete scholarly study, and a précis that might indeed attractreaders who are put off my small-print notes and lengthy lists of references. The text itself does containreferences to the works on which I depend, more-or-less explicit or allusive,it is true. Barney Frank’s great whistling-past-the-graveyard quotation, "There’sno immediate crisis,” may be found in TheWashington Post for September 7, 2008, for example, as my book clearlyindicates. As to scholarly works, in mychapter “Sound Money” I allude to the work of economic-historian Robert Higgson the unusual length of the Great Depression and the economic consequences ofthe Second World War. I also cite no less of an authority than Ludwig von Miseson the aftermath of the Bretton Woods monetary conference. My own credentials are notthose of an academic economist (or economic historian).  They are those of a reporter whose beat ithas been for many years now to cover the world of finance, first at HedgeWorld(2000 to 2008) and more recently at The Hedge Fund Law Report and as theproprietor of Enfield Editorial Service. I believe this has been as valuable aperch whence to observe and learn as any other I could have occupied throughthe key period.  That will do for the kind ofbook, and the kind of author, involved. Next week, we shall get to thesubstantive issues between Gravelle and your humble servant.