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Confidence Men was cited on various “ best book ” lists, and named an Esquire 2011 Best Book of the Year, with David Granger commenting: “ Journalism like this is all too rare .” In the March 2012 issue of The Atlantic, James Fallows cited Confidence Men in his article “ Obama, Explained ,” writing that the Obama administration ’ s “ early failure of accountability ” in its “ apparent coddling of Wall Street in 2009 ... is the main theme of Ron Suskind ’ s Confidence Men … it created a substantive and symbolic problem the administration has never fully recovered from.

Substantive, because of the moral hazard created by using public money to guarantee the bonuses and repay the losses of people who had been so recklessly destructive.

Symbolic, for all the reasons that eventually came to a head with last year ’ s Occupy movement.

An official familiar with the administration ’ s economic policy told me: ' The recapitalization of the banks was a good idea, and necessary.

But we did not put enough conditions on getting the money.

Ultimately not being tougher with the guys that got the money is the thing that overthrows the government twice — in 2008 a reaction against Bush ’ s TARP plan and again in 2010.

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