The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, Authorized Edition: Final Report of the National Commission on the Causes of the Financial and Economic Crisis in the United States

by Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission

Overview

The definitive report on what caused America's economic meltdown and who was responsible. The financial and economic crisis has touched the lives of millions of Americans who have lost their jobs and their homes, but many have little understanding of how it happened. Now, in this very accessible report, readers can get the facts. Formed in May 2009, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) is a panel of 10 commissioners with experience in business, regulations, economics, and housing, chosen by Congress to explain what happened and why it happened. This panel has had subpoena power that enabled them to interview people and examine documents that no reporter had access to. The FCIC has reviewed millions of pages of documents, and interviewed more than 600 leaders, experts, and participants in the financial markets and government regulatory agencies, as well as individuals and businesses affected by the crisis. In the tradition of The 9/11 Commission Report, "The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report" will be a comprehensive book for the lay reader, complete with a glossary, charts, and easy-to-read diagrams, and a timeline that includes important events. It will be read by policy makers, corporate executives, regulators, government agencies, and the American people.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781610390415
Publisher:	PublicAffairs
Publication date:	01/27/2011
Pages:	576
Sales rank:	505,239
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission

Table of Contents

Commissioners vii

Commissioner Votes viii

Commission Staff List ix

Preface xi

Conclusions of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission xv

Part I Crisis on the Horizon

Chapter 1 Before Our Very Eyes 3

Part II Setting the Stage

Chapter 2 Shadow Banking 27

Chapter 3 Securitization and Derivatives 38

Chapter 4 Deregulation Redux 52

Chapter 5 Subprime Lending 67

Part III The Boom and Bust

Chapter 6 Credit Expansion 83

Chapter 7 The Mortgage Machine 102

Chapter 8 The CDO Machine 127

Chapter 9 All In 156

Chapter 10 The Madness 188

Chapter 11 The Bust 213

Part IV The Unraveling

Chapter 12 Early 2007: Spreading Subprime Worries 233

Chapter 13 Summer 2007: Disruptions in Funding 246

Chapter 14 Late 2007 to Early 2008: Billions in Subprime Losses 256

Chapter 15 March 2008: The Fall of Bear Stearns 280

Chapter 16 March to August 2008: Systemic Risk Concerns 292

Chapter 17 September 2008: The Takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac 309

Chapter 18 September 2008: The Bankruptcy of Lehman 324

Chapter 19 September 2008: The Bailout of AIG 344

Chapter 20 Crisis and Panic 353

Part V The Aftershocks

Chapter 21 The Economic Fallout 389

Chapter 22 The Foreclosure Crisis 402

Dissenting Views

By Keith Hennessey, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Bill Thomas 411

By Peter J. Wallison 441

Appendix A Glossary 451

Appendix B List of Hearings and Witnesses 457

Notes 465

Editorial Reviews

Slate, December 2010
"With those books, you'll never need to read anything that emerges from the FCIC. But if you do, read the good stuff: the interviews in which it grilled executives from Wall Street and the housing industry. The commission called in the loan-makers and bankers that caused the crisis and forced them to answer questions about their businesses—all for the public record. (It also subpoenaed thousands of pages of documents from Wall Street firms, though it is not clear if it will make those public.) There's no need to get the narrative from the FCIC. But if you want, say, to hear former Lehman CEO Dick Fuld try to defend himself, that's the place to go.”

NPR’s Morning Edition
“The majority report reads a lot like a book, and a bit of a potboiler at that. The commission conducted hundreds of hours of interviews, with industry insiders, policymakers, whistle-blowers and regulators. And the pages of the majority's report are strewn with quotes from these interviews — foreboding, eye-popping quotes.”

New York Times, February 2, 2011
“The report is full of fascinating information, rich detail and fine documentary evidence.”
 
New York Times, January 30, 2011
”The report still makes for compelling reading because so little has changed as a result of the debacle, in both banking and in its regulation.”
 
Minneapolis Star-Tribune, January 29, 2011
“At 662 pages, the FCIC report amounts to a sweeping forensic examination of a crisis that the commission says could have been avoided. The conclusions are written with style and infused with an appropriate tone of outrage, buttressed by more than 700 interviews (including one with Minnesota lawyer Prentiss Cox) and millions of documents.”
 

New York Times, February 13, 2011
“full of fascinating detail”

New York Times, February 17, 2011
“Actually, the report — and the online archive of testimony, interviews and documents that are now available — is a treasure trove of invaluable information about the causes and consequences of the Great Recession.”
 
New York Review of Books, April 28, 2011
“The most comprehensive indictment of the American financial failure that has yet been made…The definitive history of this period.”
 

Forbes, April 18, 2011
“The report is very comprehensive, is well written and provides study material for much more extensive analysis.”

CHOICE, August 2011  “Anyone interested in studying the causes of the financial crisis that reached a critical mass in 2008 must read this report… It is a Herculean research effort that deserves recognition.”

From the Publisher