getAbstract Summary: Get the key points from this book in less than 10 minutes.

The United States and the rest of the world are still feeling the effects of the economic crisis of 2008. But how did it all begin? According to New York Times Pulitzer Prize winner Gretchen Morgenson and her co-author Joshua Rosner, it all started with a government housing effort called National Partners in Homeownership and a Washington insider named James A. Johnson, the CEO of Fannie Mae. Rapacious Wall Streeters, sleeping watchdogs and unscrupulous businesspeople took it from there. This impassioned book might have benefited from fewer anonymous sources and a more even tone. It covers important and sometimes easily forgotten recent history in a sweeping – but not all-encompassing – explanation of what led the US to the edge of the abyss in September 2008. getAbstract believes that readers will appreciate this explanation of the ticking – and ultimately exploded – time bomb of subprime loans, mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations.

Book Publisher:

Times Books