Bailout for Bailout Nation

Yesterday, Jesse Eisinger reported that McGraw Hill dropped Barry Ritholtz’s book, Bailout Nation. Barry said that it’s due to his harsh treatment of the ratings agencies (Standard & Poor’s is owned by McGraw Hill).
McGraw Hill says that it’s dropping the book due to editorial conflicts. This strikes me as an exceedingly lame excuse. Jesse quotes Barry, “All the conversations I had with them, they made apparent this was all about S&P’s role as sister company.”
Felix says that the relationship probably fizzled due to chemistry as well, and I think he’s right. McGraw Hill certainly didn’t want the book to be dropped. I think they underestimated dealing with a blogger like Barry who’s not going to let himself get pushed around. They pushed too hard and he walked.
The bottom line is that McGraw Hill is making a big mistake. The book was going to be a hit and now it’s going to be an even bigger hit. My bet is that a publisher will pick it up by the end of the week.

Posted by on February 11th, 2009 at 11:27 am


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