It is, for some chapters, a depressing read, but a compelling one, and useful to place the otherwise mystifying ascendancy of the tea party movement, and its subsequent near-takeover of the Republican party, in context. Frank has a breezy way with comparative history: his description of the differences between how Roosevelt managed the 1929 crash, and how the 2008 disaster was handled, is concise - and enough to make you weep.

There is hope: the Occupy movement, the reclamation of populist outrage (the 99 per cent vs the one per cent); and (although Frank's book came out too early for this) the astonishing crassness of just about everything Mitt Romney said during his election campaign. Then again, when you have people claiming universal healthcare is tantamount to communism or euthanasia, or that Europe, in its adoption of "socialism" after the second world war, became a stranger to freedom of speech and thought ever after - and any number of flat-earthers and Fox News ranters peddling similar distortions - you have to worry. This is a deeply troubling book but as a clear picture of the problem, it's important.