In Chain of Blame, authors Paul Muolo and Mathew Padilla, both seasoned financial journalists, skillfully lead readers through the quagmire of what went wrong inside the nation’s subprime-lending firms that led to the current mortgage and credit crises.
Their central premise: “Wall Street’s thirst for profits and its near-total disregard for loan quality inflicted massive damage on the U.S. and world economies.”
Anyone who has turned on the news lately has been bombarded by reports of the government’s 11th-hour bailouts of big insurer AIG, investment bank Bear Stearns and mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
If you wonder what the heck is going on, this compelling tale will help you understand. The authors relay an unbiased take on how Wall Street got tangled up in the world of mortgages. They unravel what went on behind the scenes in the housing and mortgage industry for much of the past decade.