Written By: Michael Lewis
Read By: Jesse Boggs
Background: After reading this, I feel like I know way more about Collateralized Debt Obligations , Credit Default Swaps, and the Sub-Prime Mortgage meltdown then I probably should. Michael Lewis' recounting of the time leading up to the financial system melt down in 2008 is an incredibly detailed recounting of the events. Lewis comes at this from 3 different financial professionals perspectives. All of whom seemed to see the melt down happening years before everything blew up. And all of whom were able to profit from the melt down by shorting the sub-prime mortgage bond market.
It really was staggering how the big banks like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, AIGFP (the Financial Products division of AIG) were simply creating Bonds literally out of Crappy mortgages, then getting the rating agency's to rate them at AAA , which essentially made investors feel like they couldn't lose. So naturally they had to create more bad mortgages to create more bonds to increase sales to investors. In the end, no one has gone to prison for any of this. It was all legal. Morally and ethically wrong, but legal.
I've been interested in the American Financial system ever since reading up on the founding of the Federal Reserve System. It was clear when the system was founded that large banking families wanted to control this country. And the events of 2008 clearly show that they are still in control. Except now their control has spread to financial markets worldwide. Scary stuff.
It's also interesting just how close we came to a complete collapse of the Dollar. It could have happened , but someone , somewhere decided that it wasn't the time yet. I wonder when and if that time will come. I would think it has to happen eventually. After all, the principle of "what goes up, must come down" is never wrong. They can keep propping the dollar up, but eventually the props will fail and the system will come crashing down. I don't think this will be the end of the world though. I think it will simply usher in a new currency, something more universal. It will still be based on a Central Banking model, which means that system too will eventually fail. It's just how financial markets work. If you tried to create a static system, I'm not sure how it would work. Even societies based on Gold have never lasted. I do not believe that a perfect system exists. There will always be someone who will use the financial system for their own gain, even at the cost of hurting or killing others.
The Review: The audio book starts out with the author doing the intro. And if I had to choose between the author reading this or Jesse Boggs, I think I would have taken the author. Jesse does a fine job reading, but I think that Michael Lewis would have been better. Not sure why I always seem to like the author reading his own material.
It's a good read , if you're into Finance.
Rating 4/5
-B
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