All the Devils Are Here - Bethany McLean & Joe Nocera

All the Devils Are Here

By Bethany McLean & Joe Nocera

  • Release Date: 2010-11-16
  • Genre: Economics
Score: 4
4
From 80 Ratings

Description

Hailed as "the best business book of 2010" (Huffington Post), this New York Times bestseller about the 2008 financial crisis brings the devastation of the Great Recession to life.
 
As soon as the financial crisis erupted, the finger-pointing began. Should the blame fall on Wall Street, Main Street, or Pennsylvania Avenue? On greedy traders, misguided regulators, sleazy subprime companies, cowardly legislators, or clueless home buyers?

According to Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera, two of America's most acclaimed business journalists, many devils helped bring hell to the economy. All the Devils Are Here goes back several decades to weave the hidden history of the financial crisis in a way no previous book has done. It explores the motivations of everyone from famous CEOs, cabinet secretaries, and politicians to anonymous lenders, borrowers, analysts, and Wall Street traders. It delves into the powerful American mythology of homeownership. And it proves that the crisis ultimately wasn't about finance at all; it was about human nature.
 
Just as McLean's The Smartest Guys in the Room was hailed as the best Enron book on a crowded shelf, so will All the Devils Are Here be remembered for finally making sense of the financial meltdown and its consequences.

Reviews

  • Essential

    5
    By ornwen
    McLean and Nocera explore the creation of mortgage securities and describe the organizations that insisted on having near total carte blanche to create horribly risky investments with no oversight and no rules. They describe the financial instruments that tanked, taking everyone's IRA and 401k with it, and the people who insisted on creating them for profit. Anyone who wants to understand the long road to 2008's meltdown can start here.