Writing about current events requires that the author be engaged in what is going on in the world in “real time.” You have to live and breathe what is happening. Writing about the Great Recession right from the beginning and then continuing to write through the following period of economic recovery, both in the United States and in Europe, means that you live the events daily. You live the actions of the Federal Reserve System and the European Central Bank. You live through bank failures and bank bailouts. You live through debates on how much economic stimulus to apply to the economy. You live through rising unemployment figures and corporate bankruptcies and real estate foreclosures. You look for “Green Shoots” and other indicators of economic recovery. That is why this book is titled “Living It” because I did! In reading this book you should get some sense of how history unrolled during this remarkable time.