All the Devils Are Here

The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis

By: Bethany McLean, Joe Nocera

Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris

Length: 15 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

As soon as the financial crisis erupted, the finger-pointing began. Should the blame fall on Wall Street, Main Street, or Pennsylvania Avenue? On greedy traders, misguided regulators, sleazy subprime companies, cowardly legislators, or clueless home buyers?

According to Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera, two of America's most acclaimed business journalists, the real answer is all of the above-and more. Many devils helped bring hell to the economy. And the full story, in all of its complexity and detail, is like the legend of the blind men and the elephant. Almost everyone has missed the big picture. Almost no one has put all the pieces together.

All the Devils Are Here goes back several decades to weave the hidden history of the financial crisis in a way no previous book has done. It explores the motivations of everyone from famous CEOs, cabinet secretaries, and politicians to anonymous lenders, borrowers, analysts, and Wall Street traders. It delves into the powerful American mythology of homeownership. And it proves that the crisis ultimately wasn't about finance at all; it was about human nature.

©2010 Bethany McLean (P)2010 Penguin Audio

Excellent Recap of 2008 Financial Crisis

I’ve read many books on the 2008 financial crisis but I think this is the best. It makes clear that it wasn’t true that “no one saw it coming.” Almost everybody in the know should have seen it coming and people were putting out warnings from the start.

It is thorough and goes back to the 90s (and even further in the case of Fannie Mae) to set-up all the pieces in this saga. It is accessible but never condescending.

It may not be as fun as The Big Short (which I did enjoy) but it is much more thorough. And this book doesn’t pretend there are many heroes in this saga but there are also few pure villains in this telling. It’s about how a system failed.

The backstory behind the bailouts

Having worked in the NYC area, and exposure to mortgage backed securities, I got a clearer picture of the true race to the bottom. I'm not sure if bailing out homeowners instead of the lenders would have been better for the country, but morally it should have been what was done. The book timelines the events in a "Frontline" fashion but requires a bit of foreknowledge into financial knowledge to really appreciated the events. It documents the path from Wall Street to the White House. Presuming the parties involved weren't duped, and they weren't, one has to worry about what the real underlying horror would have been realized had the bailouts not occurred. If we could turn back the clock and chosen the moral choice, that might have resulted in a longer recovery but our country would have been better for it. Time will tell.

Excellent all around.

What did you love best about All the Devils Are Here?

It did an excellent job covering a complicated subject. I would have to listen to it several more times to really understand all the things that contributed to the finanacial system meltdown, but not due to any shortcoming of the book.

What about Dennis Boutsikaris’s performance did you like?

It's not a work of fiction with multiple characters so the reader does not have to do multiple voices or anything, but he read it like he was telling a story and sounded like he was interested in what he was telling. That makes a big difference over a dead pan recitation.

If you could give All the Devils Are Here a new subtitle, what would it be?

The Financial System Perfect Storm

Any additional comments?

This is a pretty long audiobook and often with long fact-filled non-fiction books, I grow tired of them before they are over, even when I am intrigued with the subject matter. Not with this one. It was written well and read well and held my attention throughout.

Excellent listen

This book would have been difficult to follow if it were not for Dennis B’s delightful narration.

He can make a subject that may be dull for some-interesting.

The story is very telling if nothing else but pointing out a blissful marketplace with greedy financial few. Very telling, on both sides.

Recommend.

Great deep dive BUT some background is helpful

This book goes deep into the financial crisis. The depth can be difficult to understand without some knowledge of the industry. I wouldn’t advise this book for finance beginners.

educational

I feel like I better understand all of what happened and more than anything you understand you know nothing lol

Excellent!

I agree with the earlier reviewer -- this isn't a light read and you have to focus. But the book offers unique insights on how decisions that were made decades ago, when mortgage-backed securities were first created, ultimately led to the recent financial meltdown. As much as I enjoyed The Big Short, I found this book much more informative and interesting. I also thought the narrator was perfect for the content.

Great book!

Great explanation of the financial crisis in the rooms that I could understand, one of my most favorite books on the economy

Everyone Should Read This Book

A complete history of everything that went wrong.

This book provides a reasonably unbiased view of the policies, the good intentions, the abuses and the sheer ignorance that preceded the financial crisis of 2008. It discusses the American Dream and how it evolved into the current ideal of home ownership and how politicians flew that flag in order to curry favor with voters and how the financial institutions rushed in to take advantage. It doesn't point fingers as much as it tells the story about a system built to fail from the start.

I've read a couple of books about the financial crisis and what makes this book stand out is the fact that it goes way back in time, long before anyone had ever thought of a credit default swap or even the sub-prime bubble and details the policies, government infighting and good intentions that formed the foundation for what was to transpire much, much later.

A great overview of the housing bubble

A wonderful account on how the housing bubble was set in motion (a long time ago) and how everyone -- Fannie Mae, politicians ("The American Dream" of home ownership), credit agencies (Moody), mortgage companies (Countrywide), insurance underwriters (AIG), investment bankers (Merrill Lynch, Solomon Brothers), investors -- were responsible for putting one of the most complex and potentially devastating financial bubbles in history.