The Great Recession has colored global life for years, yet few grasp its deep causes and many worry it can happen again. In this compelling book, economist Daniel Friedman and author Daniel McNeill reveal the underpinnings of such disasters. They arise when morals sabotage markets, or vice versa. Morals and markets exist in a dangerous balance that has deeply influenced corporate life, terrorism, the War on Drugs, and global warming, among other issues related to our happiness. It is a core dynamic of our world. It touches the lives of people everywhere. The ethical compass is a poor guide to the market landscape. As Friedman and McNeill demonstrate, our moral sense developed over eons in tribes on the African savanna, yet markets are quite recent. This book traces the rise of markets from ancient moral straitjackets to the freewheeling semi-morality that led to the 2008 crash. It addresses issues such as the Greek riots, the agony of the eurozone, and the ethics of bailouts, as well as acid rain, the Russian Mafia, poker, and the rescue of the halibut fishery. China went through a moral whipsaw over the last century and this book describes how its astonishing rise as a world market paralleled that of Europe. Morals and Markets also profiles figures such as Bernie Madoff and Bo Xilai, the Icarus of recent Chinese politics. As Friedman and McNeill show, we must understand the dangerous balance of morals and markets—or we're in for debacles again and again