This is a great, and very quick, book. I read it in just three commutes to work. I also think it's spectacular both in its delivery of complex subjects such as how CDOs work and about some of the characters at the heart of what was going on from 2005 through 2008.
I confess I know most of the names already and have even met a couple of these guys and this book rings completely true. My own work environment at the time was somewhat morally sound - compared to these guys it was pretty much like working for the Archbishop of Canterbury - but I know people across the industry, both on the buy and the sell side and this account is accurate in many respects.
For sure I definitely know many of the people who were churning this crap out like it was going out of fashion and in my current role I deal day in, day out, with the aftermath of what was being done in that period in the Capital Markets.
Now, this book does deal with the instruments and the actual events but what makes it compelling and a book I would recommend to anyone who's even slightly interested in why we're living in an Age of Austerity, is that Lewis brings alive the characters, their adventure in this period of history and in many ways it will be the definitive history of a time that probably won't be repeated for at least a generation (I hope).
Get this book and read it, you owe it to yourself to understand what happened out there.
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