Chain of Blame: How Wall Street Caused the Mortgage and Credit Crisis
by: Paul Muolo, Mathew Padilla
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In the summer of 2007, the subprime empire that Wall Street had built all came crashing down. On average, fifty lenders a month were going bust-and the people responsible for the crisis included not just unregulated loan brokers andcon artists, but also investment bankers and home loan institutions traditionally perceived as completely trustworthy.
Chain of Blame chronicles this incredible disaster, with a specific focus on the players who participated in such a fundamentally flawed fiasco. Authors Paul Muolo and Mathew Padilla, well-regarded journalists for National Mortgage News and the Orange County Register respectively, reveal the truth behind how this crisis occurred, what individuals and institutions-from lenders and brokers to some of the biggest investment banks in the world-were doing during this critical time, and who is ultimately responsible for what happened.
In the summer of 2007, the subprime empire that Wall Street had built all came crashing down. On average, fifty lenders a month were going bust-and the people responsible for the crisis included not just unregulated loan brokers andcon artists, but also investment bankers and home loan institutions traditionally perceived as completely trustworthy.
Chain of Blame chronicles this incredible disaster, with a specific focus on the players who participated in such a fundamentally flawed fiasco. Authors Paul Muolo and Mathew Padilla, well-regarded journalists for National Mortgage News and the Orange County Register respectively, reveal the truth behind how this crisis occurred, what individuals and institutions-from lenders and brokers to some of the biggest investment banks in the world-were doing during this critical time, and who is ultimately responsible for what happened.
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- Fragile chain of glass
A colleague referred me to the Chain of blame after explaining how the root behind the global financial crises was the Wall Street Firms.
Intrigued by his explanation, I wanted to hear it from the horse's mouth. The book clearly presents the financial setup with adequate details on dates, names and conversations to make it compelling. It is well written although repetitive.
I advise the readers to fully understand the introduced terms of CDO, MBS, REIT and try to figure out if the Sub ... Read More
Rating: - An excellent study of recent history
An outstanding work despite its wonkish subject matter. Although I am not a financial person (I don't have an MBA in Finance) I found the book rather easy to follow and comprehend. The index of players at the front of the book was helpful, the terminology at the end also. Within the text, the authors back track often and re-explain facts and concepts which was also helpful. In addition, almost every new concept that was introduced was given a layman's definition, making it more understandable. Because ... Read More
Rating: 
- Boring and Incomplete -
"Chain of Blame" purports to line up those contributing to the current mortgage mess, but fails. The book delves too deeply in irrelevant details about Countrywide Mortgage, omits Greenspan, deregulators, regulators, AIG and CDS issuers, rating agencies, and those taking out the mortgages, and skims over Fredie Mac, Fannie Mae, appraisers and Realtors.
About the only sentence of value came near the end, when we get a sense of the size of the problem - in 2006, sub-prime loans represented ... Read More
Rating: - Incomplete chain of blame
Wall street alone could not cause the mortgage and credit crisis. The regulatory environment created by government is also to blame. The government regulators (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac etc.) and the regulators of the regulators (the likes of Barny Frank, Chris Dodd etc.) seemingly held the hand of lenders as they doled out imprudent loans to millions of unwise and irresponsible borrowers. Buyer beware!?Home buyers must share the blame for inflating the bubble. They agreed to pay prices that were much ... Read More
Rating: - extracting meaning from this worthwhile book
Rather than summarizing the overall content of this informative book, which has already been done by some reviews, it's worthwhile to extract a few important conclusions and synthesize them with other aspects to illuminate the larger evolution of what has characterized the U.S. economy. Both authors are ideally situated to provide solid information regarding the beginning and unfolding of the subprime disaster.
l. There was the network of personal cronyism that surfaces strongly in the emergence ... Read More
- Fragile chain of glassA colleague referred me to the Chain of blame after explaining how the root behind the global financial crises was the Wall Street Firms.
Intrigued by his explanation, I wanted to hear it from the horse's mouth. The book clearly presents the financial setup with adequate details on dates, names and conversations to make it compelling. It is well written although repetitive.
I advise the readers to fully understand the introduced terms of CDO, MBS, REIT and try to figure out if the Sub ... Read More
- An excellent study of recent historyAn outstanding work despite its wonkish subject matter. Although I am not a financial person (I don't have an MBA in Finance) I found the book rather easy to follow and comprehend. The index of players at the front of the book was helpful, the terminology at the end also. Within the text, the authors back track often and re-explain facts and concepts which was also helpful. In addition, almost every new concept that was introduced was given a layman's definition, making it more understandable. Because ... Read More
- Boring and Incomplete - "Chain of Blame" purports to line up those contributing to the current mortgage mess, but fails. The book delves too deeply in irrelevant details about Countrywide Mortgage, omits Greenspan, deregulators, regulators, AIG and CDS issuers, rating agencies, and those taking out the mortgages, and skims over Fredie Mac, Fannie Mae, appraisers and Realtors.
About the only sentence of value came near the end, when we get a sense of the size of the problem - in 2006, sub-prime loans represented ... Read More
- Incomplete chain of blameWall street alone could not cause the mortgage and credit crisis. The regulatory environment created by government is also to blame. The government regulators (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac etc.) and the regulators of the regulators (the likes of Barny Frank, Chris Dodd etc.) seemingly held the hand of lenders as they doled out imprudent loans to millions of unwise and irresponsible borrowers. Buyer beware!?Home buyers must share the blame for inflating the bubble. They agreed to pay prices that were much ... Read More
- extracting meaning from this worthwhile bookRather than summarizing the overall content of this informative book, which has already been done by some reviews, it's worthwhile to extract a few important conclusions and synthesize them with other aspects to illuminate the larger evolution of what has characterized the U.S. economy. Both authors are ideally situated to provide solid information regarding the beginning and unfolding of the subprime disaster.
l. There was the network of personal cronyism that surfaces strongly in the emergence ... Read More
