The Short Goodbye : A Skewed History of the Last Boom and the Next Bust

The untold story of a nation forever changed, this unique account reveals how ordinary Australians were affected by the global financial crisis. With verve and wit, this record dissects the myth that Australia dodged a financial bullet by documenting the lives of those discarded on an economic minefield--from bankers to factory workers--and warns that without reform Australia could suffer a more terrible social and economic calamity from the next global rout. Elisabeth Wynhausen was working at her desk in the newsroom of 'The Australian', writing a story about people being given the pink slip, when she was given a pink slip of her own. 'The Short Goodbye' tells the story of the people who were crunched in the 2008 Global Financial Crisis: people like her, who were among the millions retrenched around the world. She talks to former bankers and factory workers, extracting their stories, and along the way, the true cost of the GFC. Above all, she takes apart the rhetoric that the GFC was an essential part of the process of renewal, the destruction that had to happen before a new economy could emerge from the ruins of the old, and global capitalism triumphed again Elisabeth Wynhausen was at her desk writing a story about people being sacked when she was sacked herself. The Short Goodbye is the untold story of a nation forever changed by the global financial crisis and the people whose lives have been glossed over in the grand narratives of politicians and commentators. With verve and wit, she dissects the myth that Australia dodged a financial bullet by documenting the lives of those discarded on an economic minefield, from bankers to factory workers, and warns that without reform Australia could suffer a more terrible social and economic calamity from the next global rout.