On the Money

"Let the good times roll" was the mantra for the 1980s. Easy money flowed like Perrier and Americans had an unquenchable thirst for attaining fabulous wealth. This was the era of champagne wishes and caviar dreams. Junk bonds on steroids. And very big scandals that famously included the Keating Savings and Loan. Nowadays, it's Enron, Arthur Andersen, and Martha Stewart that are wearing the Scarlet "G" for greed.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley dives deep into the delusional waters of the '80s in a sharply funny new novel "Good Faith" Tonight, On Point: risky speculation and what happens when the American dream morphs into a seven-figure fantasy.

Guests:

Jane Smiley, author of the novel "Good Faith." In 1992, she won a Pulitzer Prize for "A Thousand Acres"