The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crash
by Charles R. Morris
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 24)
Read in July, 2008
This was a great explanation of how we got ourselves into this credit crisis. It was very thorough and really put our current financial mess into context, coming from someone who had very little idea of what was going on in the banking world. I like his overall premise of a swinging pendulum: the lefty Keynesians got us into our financial crisis of the 70s (embodied by price controls on oil) and since then the Chicago School free market right-wingers got us into the financial crisis we're in n...more
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Read in June, 2008
This book is deceivingly short. It is dense, like...a black hole or something. A black hole about the mortgage crisis.
Anyway, the author goes into detail about the financial mess we're currently in and how we got there. He's a banker, so I trust he is qualified to discuss such things. He also used complicated terms that I can only pretend to understand. The gist is this: several factors, most notably the increased use of complex mathematical formulas to process loans resulted in an ex...more
Anyway, the author goes into detail about the financial mess we're currently in and how we got there. He's a banker, so I trust he is qualified to discuss such things. He also used complicated terms that I can only pretend to understand. The gist is this: several factors, most notably the increased use of complex mathematical formulas to process loans resulted in an ex...more
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Read in June, 2008
recommended to Mark by:
Read an ad in the "Wall Street Journal" and thought it looked in
This is not an easy book to understand. The author describes the new financial asset-instriments that are currently the cause of our credit crisis. I am amazed how the sharpest minds on Wall Street can create these financial instruments, sell them, and understand how they work. As for me, if I can't understand how the investment works, I won't invest. Too bad so many others did invest and lost a "pile" of money. The author obviously knows his stuff but you better read this book twice t...more
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Explaining the current sub-prime crisis. The crazy world of derivatives, financial instruments, credit, and the economy. The world economy on the brink. Some of the terminology is hard to follow, but the story of how the greedy and naive acquire and extend excessive credit makes some of these "world-class" bankers seem like people educated far beyond their intelligence. Scary.
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Read in August, 2008
recommends it for:
Non-finance people
Let's be clear, I am not a finance person by any means, but I still found this book to be gripping and slightly frightening. Although the author is highly opinionated and gets slightly strident who he blames towards the end, this book offers a great overview and explanation of many of the events that led up to the current crisis in the financial markets.
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Read in July, 2008
recommends it for:
budding economists
The best explanation of the current state of the financial market I've read so far. The author explains, simply and concisely, the causes and effect relationships that led to the 1987 stock market crash, the CMO crisis, the S&L bailout, the LTCM implosion, and the current credit crisis. Highly recommended!
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I'm attempting to understand what happened, and my conclusion is that it's way over my head (and I did give up after half way through). My friend lent me this book ... we may part ways when it comes to enthusiasm over following the market.
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Has a copy to sell/swap
I bought this book since it directly relates to me in my career. I don't know how much it would appeal to those not interested in reading about business and how we got to be in our current ecomomic state.
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Read in August, 2008
Based on the source (to the right), a strong argument that we have reached the extreme of unregulated markets introduced during the Reagan administration. Tell Steve Forbes not all regulation is bad.
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Read in August, 2008
recommended to Al by:
NYT
Great overview of the credit crisis - how we got here and some ideas for where to go in the future. Well-written, crisp and informative. I feel much better about my financial future having read it.
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Read in May, 2008
The problem with this book is that it was at least 2 years premature. Otherwise, interesting (if breezy) explanation of the credit mess we're currently in.
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Read in August, 2008
Excellent overview of how the economy got into its current mess. Greed and hypocrisy: No surprise there.
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Read in June, 2008
The fastest book out on the subject of the great credit meltdown. Good writing and informative.
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current events and economics. find out why wall st execs make $28M more dollars than you.
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Well, maybe "want to read" is the wrong term... how about "feel as if I must."
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Read in June, 2008
Timely and compact, but not quite the book it might have been.
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