A review by sbaunsgard
All the Devils Are Here by Bethany McLean, Joe Nocera

4.0

Good overview of the financial crisis. Being a longtime listener of NPR's Planet Money, and a former employee of both a bank and an escrow company, I wasn't exactly surprised at most of this. It connected some of the dots for me. For example, it explains why institutions would get involved with financial instruments based on loans with poor underwriting standards and bogus credit ratings. It explains why Goldman survived and Lehman didn't. It also covers why Fannie and Freddy were so hard to criticize, much less change. What I most enjoyed was the insight into the psychology of the parties involved. The book is long. Though it is not difficult to understand, due to the subject matter, it is dense and detailed. I would suggest reading it in chunks to avoid frustration. I think the only issue I had with the book was that I was trying to take it on too quickly, and it was a bit frustrating.