Summary

The author refers to the Wall Street meltdown in 2008, and its consequences. There have been a couple of authors (Dean Baker, William Black, Charles Morris, Kevin Phillips and Gary Weiss) who have documented how Wall Street institutions have been corrupted, even before the crash.
There is as yet no national conversation on essential questions, such as:

* Are Wall Street institutions so vital for US interest that it justifies the showering them with trillions of dollars at the expense of the tax payer?

* Is it possible that these institutions are built on an illusion and in reality have detrimental effects on society (economical, social, environmental)?  

* Are there other ways to provide necessary financial services that are more effective and cost less?
David argues for no, yes and yes, respectively. It is all a matter of values we believe the economy should serve. Is the economy to serve a few wealthy people or all of us? Is the goal of economy to make money or to serve life?The way it is now organized is a path to collective suicide (think of the biosphere). New institutions are needed to replace the current ones on Wall Street.

 Two schools of economic thought

Market fundamentalism and Keynesianism are the two best known schools of economic thought. David briefly refers to these and calls for an honest public examination of above mentioned questions. He believes that this will lead to "a unifying political consensus that, rather than repair and restrain the Wall Street institutions that have brought down the global economy, we can and should replace them with institutions that serve our real values andare appropriate to the needs and realities of the twenty-first century." 

He has written the book in the hope "that it may help to provoke and frame such a conversation".