John Rothchild vividly portrays the era of the Debtor Barons, the 1980s, when a new breed of undaunted entrepreneurs made untold millions buying companies with virtually no money out of their own pockets. The most astute of these Debtor Barons was Robert Campeau, a Canadian real estate developer, who became a primordial force in the American retail industry. This enticing but sobering book is fascinating reading for anyone who ever had a credit card or applied for a loan.

John Rothchild, a Yale graduate and Fulbright Scholar, is a well-known writer and editor. He has held editorial positions with the New York Times, the St. Petersburg (Fla) Times, the Washington Post, and the Washington Monthly magazine. As a writer he has published in numerous national magazines such as Esquire, the New Republic, Harper's, and the New York Times magazine, to name a few. From 1995-1996 he was Time magazine's chief financial columnist.