Alexandre Versignassi

Crash – The Weird History of Money How fake bills, insanity and crookery built up the world. And destroyed it. Several Times.

A debut bestselling Brazilian book mixes current affairs and history to explain economic to everyday readers. The award winning author, 36, is a Brazilian journalist based in São Paulo and editor of Superinteressante, the biggest monthly magazine in Brazil, with a circulation of 400, 000. CRASH is his first book and was a best seller in Brazil published by Leya, with sales over 12, 000 and it was also nominated for the Jabuti Award in 2012, the most important literary prize in Brazil. Released in Brasil in 2011, it was the second best selling title on economics in Brazil in the last 12 months, including all foreign titles. 

The author’s voice is ironic and funny and can be compared to Trey Parker/Matt Stone. Think of Alexandre Versignassi as a kind of Brazilian Jon Stewart who uses humor to make his points about the history of the world economy and how we are affected by it. This commercial narrative non fiction helps anyone and everyone understand the complex and oftentimes incomprehensible economic terms and ideas. Illuminating the important information, Versignassi uses tantilizing history such as how the tulip market of the 17th century explains the financial crisis of today and the story of a treasure hunter and a corrupted government raised the first financial bubble, one convicted murder transformed paper in gold, and how Sir Isaac Newton lost US $80 million with the stock market.

CRASH is a fun , page turning read while at the same time teaches readers essential economic information. Alexandre Versignassi has a true gift with his wit and language and he is a unique international writer from the country of Brazil, the hottest upcoming economy in the world and a place where we all want to hear from. Alexandre is the hot, young voice of the media world in Brazil – think Huffington Post, Daily Beast -- and you get Alexandre Versignassi’s voice and talent. He is currently working on his next book, THE POLITICALLY INCORRECT HISTORY OF RELIGION.