Poof! Our Evaporating Economy (2009): Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books began in 1996 with a simple goal: to bring together the people who create books with the people who love to read them. The festival was an immediate success and has become the largest and most prestigious book festival in the country, attracting more than 130,000 book lovers each year.

Murray Fromson, who has been in journalism and journalism education for 56 years, covered the Korean and Vietnam wars, the former Soviet Union and American politics during the Cold War. He is currently a professor of journalism at USC.

William Cohan, formerly an award-winning investigative newspaper reporter in Raleigh, N.C., worked on Wall Street for 17 years. He is the author of the Bear Stearns expose House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street.

Robert Scheer covered presidential politics for the Los Angeles Times for 30 years. He has written several books including The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America. He participates regularly on KCRW's Left, Right & Center.

T. J. Stiles is the author of Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War, a 2002 Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist. He served as historical advisor for two films in the PBS documentary series American Experience. Stiles' new book is The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt.