Books that Inspire Me
-
2 September 2010
And Then the Roof Caved In: How Wall Street’s Greed and Stupidity Brought Capitalism to Its Knees
Overview
And Then the Roof Caved In lays bare the truth of the credit crisis, whose defining emotion at every turn has been greed, and whose defining failure is the complicity of the U.S. government in letting that greed rule the day. Written by CNBC's David Faber, this book painstakingly details the truth of what really happened with compelling characters who offer their first-hand accounts of what they did and why they did it.
Page by page, Faber explains the events of the previous seven years that planted the seeds for the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. He begins in 2001, when the Federal Reserve embarked on an unprecedented effort to help the economy recover from the attacks of 9/11 by sending interest rates to all time lows. Faber also gives you an up-close look at where the crisis was incubated and unleashed upon the world-Wall Street-and introduces you to insiders from investment banks and mortgage lenders to ratings agencies, that unwittingly conspired to insure lending standards were abandoned in the head long rush for profits.Lesson learned
In my view David Faber is one of the best reporters at CNBC due to the depth of his reporting. When he released this book I purchased it right away. I have always said Warren Buffett is an amazing investor because he is such a student of history. As I aspire to be a great investor I try to be a student of history as well. I want to know everything possible about why our markets crashed. In the book, David took me step by step through all the layers of greed that caused the biggest financial crisis since the great depression. David did an amazing job of highlighting we are all at fault. Our government failed us. Greedy bankers failed us. We failed each other by taking loans we could not afford. Mortgage brokers failed us by bending the rules, and so on.
View & Purchase on Amazon.com
What I learned most from this reading was: our mortgage markets are made up of investors passing the buck. No one really tales any risk anymore. We just passed it on to the next person. I hope in the future we solve this problem of passing risk on to the next guy. I also learned as an investor to keep an eye on all members in the circle of capitalism, as you can make wiser personal investments by knowing what is going on downstream. Had I noticed the problems in the bond markets, stock markets, and bank earnings, I might have purchased one less investment property before the crash.
