This is a rundown of the financial meltdown with details, specific stories and names of all the key players. Greed, lack of ethics, stupidity and naiveté all play important roles in this sad and at times humorous story of staggering incompetence. The politicians started the mess by pushing impossible policies of home ownership for nearly everyone and then the bureaucrats put in place impossible lending policies. Next the mortgage brokers go crazy giving mortgages to anyone with a pulse and then the greedy Wall Street bankers buy the bad mortgages and pawn them off on any investor who will hold still long enough. On top of that the regulators are mostly out to lunch and the few who do speak up are ignored.
The writing is excellent and unfortunately the author’s conclusion is that this could happen all over again someday.
