The Asylum is the story of how the defunct Maine potato market morphed into the worlds oil market - the place that sets world oil prices. It is the history of how this came about and the men and women who play the game in a very dog eat dog culture.
I remember several years ago watching Fox's Bill O'Reilly yelling at oil industry representative John D'Agostino. O'Reilly was maintaining that there is surely a secret organization that sets the price of oil. My thought then was that O'Reilly reads too many Ludlum novels. D'Agostino tried to educate Bill on energy markets and how prices are determined, but of course Bill knew better. This exchange is part of the prologue to Leah McGrath Goodman's book on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), which then moves on to more completely explain what D'Agostino could not.
If you are at all curious about how the price of oil is determined and the personalities that inhabit this world, then this is a read that will educate and entertain you. Goodman has been reporting on the industry for years and knows her material.
