All the Devils Are Here

The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis

De: Bethany McLean, Joe Nocera

Narrado por: Dennis Boutsikaris

The New York Times bestseller hailed as "the best business book of 2010" (Huffington Post).

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.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“For those readers who have not immersed themselves in the murky tale of the way dubious housing finance became entangled with Wall Street’s casino culture, McLean and Nocera offer as legible an overview as exists. More than offering just a backward look, it helps explain the most troubling business headlines of the moment, as well as those that are certain to come.” – The New York Times


"Hard-hitting reporting and fluent writing bring the utter devastation of the Great Recession to life—with John Cassidy's How Markets Fail (2009) an essential aid to understanding where all the money went, and who benefited." - Kirkus Reviews


"Unlike many of the quickie books on the crisis, All the Devils Are Here is tightly written, methodical and unsensationalistic…it's very much worth reading for its damning conclusions and its craftsmanship." – Washington Post

Great overview of the crisis.

Author covers all the parties contributing to the crisis in considerable detail: lenders and rogue loan officers, MBS parties including the GSEs, regulators, credit rating agencies, and all the parties who played both long and short sides of the credit derivatives. Many or most of them did not understand the details of what they were buying.

Would have liked to see more on the culpability of lawmakers who pushed for lower underwriting standards for low income /credit borrowers as well as the many borrowers who knowingly took on too much risk or walked away from underwater properties when the could afford repay their debt. Of course there were many who bought unaffordable homes and got loans out of ignorance (as well as plenty who were intentionally and criminally misled by lenders, but these were covered in the book) .

Very True Title

When I read "Too Big to Fail" about the story of the financial meltdown of 2008, I expected some background information about how this whole mess started. Instead, it was a story about the people participating in that mess.
"All the Devils Are Here" is all about the facts; facts about people, events, corporations, successes and failures. Sometimes your head might hurt from all the financial acronyms, even though they’re all explained in some details. But there’s just too many of them and they all sound the same.
However, it’s still a great a read that has a lot of details about how the financial meltdown and its roots since the Regan administration.
One thing is completely true about this book, the title.

Riveting

Riveting story of the leadup to the financial crisis. Shocking details of industry norms at the time which contributed to the situation.

Excellent Book

Great, well-researched chronicling of the great financial crisis. Excellent job diving into each one of the firms and personalities that played a role in the melt down.

Financial Services Does it Again

Regulators & Financial Companies were up to it again. Good story kind of depressing not because of the author or the narrator but the fact that this should have been seen before it happened.