For most of us one of the big questions about the economic chaos of 2008 is how in the world did it all happen ?
Although to a degree it is still something of a mystery to even the best experts there is a fascinating book that tries to explain the story in relatively understandable language.
The title of the book is Too Big To Fail by Andrew Sorkin.
The book follows the story during the fall months of 2008 but also gives some background on the characters, the events that led to the collapse. Perhaps the best part of the story is the fact that it does not take the easy route of saying that it was all because of <insert cause here>
Instead it looks at all of the factors that played into the events.
Certainly greed and lack of proper regulation were factors but so were some seemingly positive things like the goal of expanding home ownership (which led to weakened loan standards) or the low interest rates brought on by a good economy (which led to a credit bubble problem).
Even proper regulation may have played a part in the problem. For example when AIG was first having problems they actually had a surplus of nearly 80 billion dollars. But these funds were tied up in state insurance funds which could not be sold without permission from each state regulator and that was next to impossible.
It is a long read that sometimes gets a little dry, but it is well worth your time