Reckless Endangerment

How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon

By: Gretchen Morgenson, Joshua Rosner

Narrated by: L. J. Ganser

Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

The New York Times' Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist reveals how the financial meltdown emerged from the toxic interplay of Washington, Wall Street, and corrupt mortgage lenders.

In Reckless Endangerment, Gretchen Morgenson, the star business columnist of The New York Times, exposes how the watchdogs who were supposed to protect the country from financial harm were actually complicit in the actions that finally blew up the American economy.

Drawing on previously untapped sources and building on original research from coauthor Joshua Rosner, who himself raised early warnings with the public and investors, and kept detailed records, Morgenson connects the dots that led to this fiasco.

Morgenson and Rosner draw back the curtain on Fannie Mae, the mortgage-finance giant that grew, with the support of the Clinton administration, through the 1990s, becoming a major opponent of government oversight even as it was benefiting from public subsidies. They expose the role played not only by Fannie Mae executives but also by enablers at Countrywide Financial, Goldman Sachs, the Federal Reserve, HUD, Congress, the FDIC, and the biggest players on Wall Street, to show how greed, aggression, and fear led countless officials to ignore warning signs of an imminent disaster. Character-rich and definitive in its analysis, this is the one account of the financial crisis you must hear.

©2011 Gretchen Morgenson & Joshua Rosner (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Naming names and taking no prisoners, they drill deep into one of the most disturbing scandals of our time, perpetrated in the name of helping "the little guy." Read it and weep. Read it and vow: Never Again! (Bill Moyers)

Interesting read

Any additional comments?

A good analysis of the real estate meltdown, which is overall in line with how I remember things going down.

The unvarnished truth...

The authors take you through a journey into this financial maze and go point by point letting the listener know what happened, who made it happen and what the effects were over the course of many years.

If your understanding of the 2007 to 2008 financial meltdown has anything to do with cars, ditches or keys you need to download this audiobook and listen to it…

Captivating and enlightening story

Would you consider the audio edition of Reckless Endangerment to be better than the print version?

Not necessarily.

Any additional comments?

As a former commercial banker, I had some idea of the events leading up to the Financial Crisis of 2008, but the depth and breadth of the enabling institutions (e.g., Fannie/Freddie, US Congress, the Fed, etc.) on both sides of the political spectrum was at once enlightening and depressing. I think Morgenstern's history and argument structure is terrific and lacks the lazy criticism seen in so many other places.

A DIFFERENT VIEW FROM TOO BIG TO FAIL

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

This is a great book with some good insight to the Financial Crisis. Although I did enjoy Sorkin's Too Big To Fail, Reckless Endangerment takes a look at the push from the government (including Dodd & Frank) for affordable housing. If you have read/listened to other Financial Crisis books and enjoyed them, add this to your list, you will enjoy it.

What other book might you compare Reckless Endangerment to and why?

Too Big To Fail

Required reading

This is an essential look into how Fannie Mae drove down lending standards, leading to the real estate bubble of the last decade and terrible crash that followed. The prose is a bit purple at times, but a great story.

Excellent

A superbly researched and executed story on the financial crisis. Comprehensive in every way, from main street to Wall Street and the regulators and legislators in between.

Outstanding

I’ve read many books about financial crisis from the S&L loan crisis, to the junk bond fiasco, to the Enron and Worldcom accounting scandals, and the mortgage crisis. This book is one of the better books. It’s instructive without being dry. Incisive and interesting.

Name dropping without describing causes

What was most disappointing about Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner ’s story?

The authors believe that individuals (that they name and blame in "Reckless Endangerment") are the cause of systemic failures. If this were true, then by stopping a single person, or small group of people, a system failure could be avoided. Who have we killed/arrested/detained recently? Has that stopped the problem? System problems are caused by culture - "Boomerang" is a much better book describing the cultures that promote economic problems. Laying the blame on a small group of people, without describing the conditions that allowed and promoted them to misbehave is not very prescriptive.

Propaganda, not journalism

I wasn't previously familiar with the author's work, but I figured that a Pulitzer prize winner would make an effort to maintain some semblance of journalistic integrity. I knew from the title that the book would have a point of view, but I wasn't expecting it to be blatant spin.

I don't even necessarily disagree with the premise--Fannie and Freddie were indeed a big part of the problem--I just resent the fact that the book is being sold as something other than partisan hyperbole. The facts that the narrator presented are, from what I can tell, actual facts, but they're not being reported, they're being sold. It's even narrated in a sort of preachy, outraged tone. I got about three hours in, then gave up.

If you're looking for a more balanced examination of the same general events, I recommend The End of Wall Street. If you're just killing time until Glenn Beck comes on, this will probably be to your taste.

Can I have my credit back?

Expected more

Disappointing – I expected more from the NYT columnist. The book begins with what can only be described as a rant attack on the GSE’s specifically Fannie Mae. The evidence? Large spending on lobbying efforts. No mention of the large amount of money spend by financial industry to eliminate the GSE’s. They then point out the capital requirements advantage held by Fannie Mae due to the assumption of credit risk and the implied backing of the US government. Ok, but that advantage was eliminated with the passing of the 2002 financial reforms. They mention the huge percentage of mortgage market held in portfolio but more importantly guaranteed by the GSE’s. True, but that share was dropping fast after the 2002 reform and the replacement private mortgages did not offer credit risk protection. As a result the majority of the mortgages issued by private lenders held significantly higher risk levels. They mention the financial restatement required by their regulator resulting in $9 billion in losses for Fannie Mae. True. But they don’t mention that the restatement was required because of FASB 133 and the assumption of no ineffectiveness and that KPMG, their auditor, felt that the accounting for hedge trades was correct. The restatement did not change the earnings over time, just the timing of the revenue by understating the value of the hedge transactions. They did not mention that a review committee for FASB 133 has since upheld the interpretation Fannie Mae used by issuing further clarification of the rules. They did not mention the billions in fines assessed to banks and financial institutions due to sales of mortgage pools to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac containing fraudulent underwriting data. Nor did they mention the underwriting restrictions placed upon the GSE’s by charter.
I am disappointed in the lack of analysis, the lack of supporting data, the overwhelming use of unnamed sources, the heavy reliance on opinion and the personal attacks on individuals. This book has very little to do with the causes of the 2008 financial collapse. I expected more from Gretchen Morgenson.