★★★★★ 5
Excellent history of 2008 financial crisis
Format: Kindle
As a non-economist, I wanted to learn about the causes and consequences of the 2008 financial crisis. Overall, Tooze has created what will likely become the definitive history of the crisis. He tells an incredibly detailed story of the rise of power among international banks, and how these banks created securities around mortgages that concealed their riskiness. The blow by blow story often had me in high suspense, testifying to the power of how Tooze put together the background events - and fininacial instruments of mass destruction - that nearly gave us WW Depression 2.0. Personally, I come away with great respect for Paulson, Berneke, Geitner, to name the key actors in this drama - for saving the world economy from ruins. I also come away with an unsolved mystery: why did America not fill its jails with crooked bankers? Yes, I understand from Tooze that the US Fed and Treasury were bankers, and disliked immensely turning in their own. But, zero bankers in jail, after causing what Tooze argues was the greatest bank crisis, ever, including Great Depression 1.0.? It makes no political sense that banks and their leaders nearly destroyed the world economy, but zero went jail, when millions across the world lost homes to foreclosure, suffered severe unemployment, had Democratic election results ignored by financial authorities (mainly in Europe). I am personally convinced this lack of fairness and justice has given us not only Trump but a broad range of autocratic political parties. They claim to protect everyday people, but of course do not. In sum, this rather masterpiece of historical financial analysis is a surefooted guide across the tricky lengthy and politically dangerous terrain of the 2008 financial crisis. Five stars.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2019
