The Sellout - by Charles Gasparino

So, being in the industry I'm in (lawyer focusing on real estate and bankruptcy), the collapse of the financial system which stemmed from the real estate collapse has been an interesting topic for me. I've read a few books that detail the "reasons" why things collapsed. Here, Charles Gasparino (who is a reporter who previously worked for CNBC during the time period covered by the book) writes about the Wall Street folks and government officials who created the "sub-prime mortgage mess." He does a great job at describing the historical background of Wall Street, explaining to a layman what a CDO is, etc. (For those that don't know what a CDO is - this would be a good time to get the book and read it to figure it out!)

Towards the end of the book, he's explaining why he picked his title - "The Sellout." His basic premise was that Wall Street executives and the government officials who were supposed to monitor them, "sold out" the long-term principles and goals that they should have had. One of his interviewees commented that his premise assumes that those individuals had any principles or long-term goals to begin with. I think Gasparino does a decent job at telling the stories of some of the individuals who retained their principles throughout the crisis - while at the same time placing blame with those who were ignoring (deliberately, inadvertently, or passively) the signs that led up to the mortgage crisis and collossal bank failure that resulted.

A very interesting book (that I finished while working out each morning at the YMCA). Also, because it's written by a reporter, the book flows pretty well. I don't know about y'all, but I've found that reporters tend to write pretty decent non-fiction.