Chain of Blame: How Wall Street Caused the Mortgage and Credit Crisis - Softcover

Muolo, Paul; Padilla, Mathew

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0470554657 ISBN 13: 9780470554654

Publisher: Wiley, 2010

Synopsis

An updated and revised look at the truth behind America's housing and mortgage bubbles

In the summer of 2007, the subprime empire that Wall Street had built all came crashing down. On average, fifty lenders a month were going bust-and the people responsible for the crisis included not just unregulated loan brokers and con artists, but also investment bankers and home loan institutions traditionally perceived as completely trustworthy.

Chain of Blame chronicles this incredible disaster, with a specific focus on the players who participated in such a fundamentally flawed fiasco. In it, authors Paul Muolo and Mathew Padilla reveal the truth behind how this crisis occurred, including what individuals and institutions were doing during this critical time, and who is ultimately responsible for what happened.

• Discusses the latest revelations in the housing and mortgage crisis, including the SEC's charging of Angelo Mozilo
• Two well-regarded financial journalists familiar with the events that have taken place chronicle the crisis in detail, showing what happened as well as what lies ahead
• Discusses how the world's largest investment banks, homeowners, lenders, credit rating agencies, underwriters, and investors all became entangled in the subprime mess

Intriguing and informative, Chain of Blame is a compelling story of greed and avarice, one in which many are responsible, but few are willing to admit their mistakes.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

Americans are losing their homes at a rate not seen since the Great Depression. Prices continue to fall sharply despite the reassurances of just a few years ago that all was rosy on the housing front. Many factors have been blamed for this crisis, but who is really responsible? And perhaps more importantly, why was everyone so taken by surprise?

In Chain of Blame, acclaimed financial reporters Paul Muolo and Mathew Padilla go behind the headlines to tell the inside story of why Wall Street's established investment banks bear much of the blame for the events that have cost millions of Americans their homes. They show in detail how, from 2000 to 2007, executives from Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and others financed non-bank mortgage lenders that eagerly sold their mortgages to consumers through loan brokers. Wall Street then sold bonds backed by subprime mortgages to overseas investors in Europe and Asia—which led to financial difficulties there as well.

The authors build their compelling story around the key players in this tragedy, first and foremost being Angelo Mozilo, founder and CEO of Countrywide Financial, America's largest home mortgage lender. From Mozilo's July 2007 conference call with a group of top Wall Street equities analysts—which marks the true beginning of this fiasco—to his congressional rebuke in 2008, Chain of Blame chronicles the crisis in detail, showingreaders what happened, who is responsible, and what lies ahead.

As the dust settles around these life-shattering events, the blame game has begun. But as Muolo and Padilla show with stunning clarity, there is really no single entity or individual to point the finger at. It was a mix of factors and participants—the world's largest investment banks, homeowners, lenders, credit rating agencies and underwriters, and investors—that precipitated the current subprime mess.

Chain of Blame ultimately reveals how human behavior and greed drove the demand, supply, and the investor appetite for these types of loans—and how Wall Street was all too willing to satisfy the desires of those who should have known better.

From the Back Cover:

BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS/FINANCE

PRAISE FOR CHAIN OF BLAME

AN UPDATED AND EXPANDED LOOK AT THE TRUTH BEHIND AMERICA'S HOUSING AND MORTGAGE BUBBLES

"A ripping piece of reporting."
—Bloomberg

"A juicy, name-dropping read."
—BusinessWeek

"Two of the smartest, most entertaining investigative reporters alive describe one of the most important financial stories of our time. If you had any skin at all in the housing boom, you've got to read the story of exactly how that boom went bust."
—David Asman, Host, America's Nightly Scoreboard

"Paul Muolo and Mathew Padilla display their deep knowledge of the mortgage industry and all its players. Chain of Blame is a comprehensive examination of a crisis that affects us all."
—Scott Cohn, Correspondent, CNBC

In the summer of 2007, the subprime empire that Wall Street had built all came crashing down. On average, fifty lenders a month were going bust—and the people responsible for the crisis included not just unregulated loan brokers and con artists, but also investment bankers and home loan institutions traditionally perceived as completely trustworthy.

Chain of Blame chronicles this incredible disaster, with a specific focus on the players who participated in such a flawed fiasco. The authors reveal the truth behind how this crisis occurred, what individuals and institutions were doing during this critical time, and who is ultimately responsible.

About this edition

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0470554657
• ISBN 13: 9780470554654
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400