I just finished reading this book. Terrific is the word that I immediately think of. Its been some time since Lewis has written anything that I enjoyed reading and this comes as a breath of fresh air. Of course, Liar's Poker takes some beating, but that belongs to another time.
It was hard for me to understand all the chicanery that has gone on in the subprime, CDO, CDS, ratings and other related markets during the last decade and how that led to the near collapse of the financial system as we knew it. What this book brings home forcefully is how much of all this was plain fraud perpetrated by wall street bankers. Knowingly. And nobody could stop them. When the world exploded around them, American taxpayers (forced to do so by the US government) rescued them and the rest of the world. We need to say a big thank you to them for that.
It wasn't that long ago that some of my friends, family and me were thinking of pulling all our money from banks like Credit Suisse, UBS, RBS & others just to keep them at home under the proverbial mattress.
How quickly we forget. The great fall of Q4 2008 & Q1 2009 was led by the great rise and euphoria that led to a 60% retracement of the DJI and the doubling or more of corporate and bank bonds.
Recent events, especially in Europe have shown that we are not out of the woods yet. How long do we have to be afraid?
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
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