Thursday, September 17, 2009

Options for Reading on Crisis

For those of you looking for readings about the financial-economic crisis/meltdown of 2008-2009, there are many options available. I will begin a list here, and will update periodically, perhaps reposting this entry to keep the list current. Feel free to offer suggestions or to ask questions in the comments.

Some initial ideas for good selections:

Akerlof, George & Robert Shiller. Animal Spirits
Cooper, George. The Origin of Financial Crises
Fox, Justin. The Myth of the Rational Market
Krugman, Paul. The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008.
Lewis, Michael. Panic: The Story of Modern Financial Insanity.
Morris, Charles. The Two Trillion Dollar Meltdown
Shiller, Robert. The Subprime Solution
Wessel, David. In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke's War on the Great Panic
Zandi, Mark. Financial Shock

Just to note from the outset, I would want you to read books that have some discussion of the macroeconomy, and not those that focus on one brokerage or investment house. Unless you can determine from previews that the book will relate the collapse of an individual investment house to the broader questions of crisis in the larger economy. Thus, the following book might be of interest:

Muolo, Paul & Mathew Padilla. Chain of Blame: How Wall Street Caused the Mortgage and Credit Crisis

But not so much the following:

Cohan, William. House of Cards: a Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street

Kelly, Kate. Street Fighters: the Last 72 Hours of Bear Stearns, the Toughest Firm on Wall Street

Macdonald, Lawrence & Patrick Robinson. A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: the Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers

Some fall in the middle, and we can discuss individually:

Tett, Gillian. Fool's Gold: How the Dream of a Small Tribe at JP Morgan Was Corrupted by Wall Street Greed and Unleashed a Catastrophe.

More to come. Please let me know if you are looking for books.

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