| In Association With... |  |
|
|
|
The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crash | 
 enlarge | Manufacturer: PublicAffairs
Category: EBooks
List Price: $22.95
Buy New: $9.99
You Save: $12.96 (56%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  52 reviews
Sales Rank: 587
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Dewey Decimal Number: 332.04150973
ASIN: B001ASXQP2
Publication Date: March 3, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
We are living in the most reckless financial environment in recent history. Arcane credit derivative bets are now well into the tens of trillions. According to Charles R. Morris, the astronomical leverage at investment banks and their hedge fund and private equity clients virtually guarantees massive disruption in global markets. The crash, when it comes, will have no firebreaks. A quarter century of free-market zealotry that extolled asset stripping, abusive lending, and hedge fund secrecy will come crashing down with it. The Trillion Dollar Meltdown explains how we got here, and what is about to happen. After the crash our priorities will be quite different. But things are likely to get worse before they better. Whether you are an active investor, a homeowner, or a contributor to your 401(k) plan, The Trillion Dollar Meltdown will be indispensable to understanding the gross excess that has put the world economy on the brink—and what the new landscape will look like.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 47 more reviews...
 Insightful and balanced August 27, 2008
This is a well-written and well-research account of the present financial crisis and it's fun to read as well. The analysis is first class and provides the reader with new insights.
Good Insight Into the Inner Workings of the Current Crisis August 26, 2008
This book was printed with the intention of providing timely information to the general public. If you take that into consideration this book is indispensable. It provides a good background to the current crisis and the author presents information on some of the inner workings of our financial system that I was totally in the dark about. Overall, a quick and great read, order it sooner than later as the information will not do you any good in 6 months.
 Way too technical and I am in the industry August 25, 2008
I kept waiting for a conclusion. 5 cds of "why", but no opinion as to resolution. Also, too technical for those in "banking" but not in "investment banking". Big difference. Securitization discussion became boring, especially when it ended with no real ending. I know it is too soon to know the outcome, but expected some sort of educated opinion of the future.
An opportune volume at an oportune time August 23, 2008
Obtaining a clear cut viewpoint of the unfolded events that brought our current credit crunch can be a daunting task. With many media biased presentations painted with a broad brush, finding the right sources from which to extract the relevant details can be tricky.
Fortunately, Charles Morris lays down a seemiingly fluid account, although a little bumpy at times, of the major events and financial structures that are now causing the U.S. Government to slap away the free market "invisible hand" with great force. As with the many other current books outlaying the roots of the subprime scandals, credit crunches, and the real-estate bubble, this volume takes a convenient chronological approach that is quite easy to follow. So often as he did with his "Money, Greed, and Risk", he links many of the recent debacles with events from the past to great effect. We come to understand towards the end of the volume that clearly, history does repeat itself in the sense that too much of a good thing can wreak havoc later. Here, the good thing is cheap credit in the form of subprime loans and their ensuing credit derivative structures, and the havoc being the government needing to intervene... while low and middle class tax payers cover the tab. (If you read Johnstons "Perfectly Legal" you'll see why upper class and the super rich need not apply).
Although a much easier read than his previous "Money, Greed, and Risk", this slim volume does still demand a keen and sharp understanding of credit derivative jargon. I found myself continuously referring to fixed income texts to remind myself of the origins of some of these structured financial products fabricated by teams of greedy "quantitative phynancial engineers". Morris gives a good account for most of these strucures such as a (1) Credit Default Swap- a credit derivative aimed at hedging against mortgage default and (2) a collection of of Credit Default Swaps divided into tranches according to risk and (3) SIVs - a sleak structure to hide future write-offs.
Although I've read only one book better at explaining the reasons of the subprime crisis and credit cruch (see "Confessions of a Subprime Lender"), this one is definitely worth your opportunity cost.
Real title should be "Why socialism is the better way"... August 20, 2008
This book can be summed up with the words of the late great singer, Jim Morrison, "This is the end...beautiful friend...this is the end...my only friend....the end of our elaborate plans....the end of everything that stands....the end"
I enjoyed the first few chapters where Morris does a good job of detailing the history leading up to the credit crisis; however the last couple of chapters, a waste of paper are Morris' amateurish critique of free markets, Milton Friedman and the band of U Chicago economists, Reaganomics and capitalism in general.
Morris pins the greatest blame on Greenspan and the fed (i.e. a federal agency) yet his solution is to give more power to the government to regulate Wall Street - he doesn't offer an explanation of why we should believe that if one government agency caused the problem, another would be able to fix it.
I suppose when I saw George Soros acknowledged as a contributor, I should have put the book down.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
