San Antonio College Library

This surprising narrative goes back more than twenty years to reveal, in rich, anecdotal detail, how Wall Street, the mortgage industry, and the government conspired to change the way Americans bought their homes, creating a perfect storm. The authors take us inside elusive institutions such as Goldman Sachs, AIG, and Fannie Mae, to reveal who changed the game and why.

As Pogo once said, "We have met the enemy and he is us." In this book the author offers a scathing assessment of fiscal blunders in foreign lands, and details how economic repercussions are sure to be felt on American soil. Financial bubbles grew and burst, not only in the U.S. but in countries as diverse as Iceland, Germany, and Greece. Mixing humor with prescient insight, he depicts a precarious situation that demands attention. The tsunami of cheap...

The Great Recession that began in 2007 is now more than 4 years old, and counting. Some 24 million Americans are unemployed or underemployed, and at recent rates of job creation we won't be back to normal levels of production until late this decade. Here the author pursues the questions of how bad the "Great Recession" really is, how we got stuck in what can now be called a depression and, above all, how we can free ourselves. He explains the financial...

You know what happened during the financial crisis--now it is time to understand why the financial system came so close to falling over the edge of the abyss and why it could happen again. Journalist Suzanne McGee examines the forces that transformed Wall Street from its traditional role as a capital-generating and economy-boosting engine into a behemoth operating with only its own short-term interests in mind and with reckless disregard for the broader...

Discusses financial cycles, the influence of the American financial system, the causes of the current economic situation, globalization, and financial geniuses.

"In 2008, America went through a terrible financial crisis, and we are still suffering the consequences. Families lost their homes, had to give up their pets, and struggled to pay for food and medicine. Businesses didn't have money to buy equipment or hire and pay workers. Millions of people lost their jobs and their life savings. More than 100,000 businesses went bankrupt ... [Former FDIC chairman Bair] describes the many ways in which a broken system...

"Peter Hartcher's careful investigation of the most financially expensive event in American history results in a gripping tale of failed leadership, excess, and the bizarre politics behind the world's most powerful economy."--[Pg.] 2--Cover.

The financial collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2008 led to one of the most sweeping government interventions in private financial markets in history. The bailout has already cost American taxpayers close to $150 billion, and substantially more will be needed. The U.S. economy--and by extension, the global financial system--has a lot riding on Fannie and Freddie. They cannot fail, yet that is precisely what these mortgage giants are guaranteed...

U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's first-person account of the key decisions that had to be made with lightning speed as he stood at the epicenter of the world's most cataclysmic financial crisis since the Great Depression. Includes sections on Freddie Mac, Freddie Mae, Lehman Brothers, AIG, Merrill Lynch, and Citigroup.