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60 of 66 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A concise and unbiased look at what happened to our economy, February 1, 2009
This is the first book I have read on my new Kindle. The author, Dave Kansas, is a former editor of the Wall Street Journal. The book is a concise and unbiased examination of what exactly has happened to the economy as well as a brief discussion on what an individual should currently do to protect their investments.
The book starts by giving a brief history of risk - specifically examining how changes in investment strategies created new risk markets and thus new avenues for profit, leading to the bundling and selling of high risk mortgages that largely kicked off the economic decline. From there proceeds a discussion of derivatives, private-equity, and leverage.
Chapter three deals with the 'canaries in the coal mine' that should have been taken note of before the collapse of Bear Stearns. Chapter four deals with the cascading impacts such as the takeover of Fannie and Freddie and the death of Lehman Brothers.
Chapter five is about where we go from here. Chapter six shifts to the individual and which types of investments are protected. Chapter seven is about debt and Chapter eight provides advice for the individual, based on their age.
Scattered throughout the book are mini-biographies of the names and faces involved, such as Timothy Geithner, Warren Buffett, and Alan Greenspan. At the end of each chapter is a summary in the form of an FAQ.
I found the book very interesting and well written. What to many would sound like a rather dry subject is given in a fast paced narrative.
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33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Learn from this Crisis and make it Your Opportunity, February 10, 2009
I stopped cold when I saw "The Wall Street Journal Guide to the End of Wall Street as We Know It" on a bookstand in the Pittsburgh Airport in January 2009. Browsing through it, not only could I scarcely believe how quickly it was written and brought to market, I could barely believe how clearly it outlined our current economic environment.
Another thing became clear - that Dave Kansas, from his perch as a journalist with The Wall Street Journal, TheStreet.com, and FiLife is one of the few writers who could have written this book.
Kansas captures the historical background to the cataclysmic month of October 2008 using the recent examples of the Asian financial crisis of 1997, the Russian crisis of 1998, the U.S. internet and technology bubble of 2000-2001. More pointedly, he delves into the implosion of hedge fund Long Term Capital Management (LTCM), the shortsighted policies of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the creation of, and dependence on, credit-default swaps (CDSs), collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), and collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs).
Kansas's conclusion: October 2008 was predictable. In fact, many of the firms swirling at the epicenter of the current crisis knew they had serious trouble brewing, but couldn't, or wouldn't, take action to avert their fate.
In early 2009, nothing can hide how much our world and our financial markets have changed. Venerable financial firms have either ceased to exist or been swallowed up by stronger, more prudent, players. We are all left to deal with the aftermath.
We've got to deal with the aftermath as we deal with our individual and collective behavior. I say that because most of us have scant knowledge of the role that complex financial products played in this mess and, to a large degree, that's okay. What's not okay is our intimate, yet often unrecognized or unacknowledged, knowledge of our human frailties. Human frailties that Kansas intimates underlie the real problem.
As human beings, we do chase returns. We do act on our greed and overconfidence. We are often guilty of employing hope rather than sound strategy. And, if human beings approach the financial market in this way, what does that portend for a financial system run by human beings?
I learned a great deal from "The Wall Street Journal Guide to the End of Wall Street as We Know It." I found it as important as a chronicle of the human frailties that led to our current crisis as it is an explanation of the nuts and bolts of how it happened. It cut through the hype and explained very complex terms in a straight forward and easily understood manner. But, it went even further by aiming to arm me with usable information.
The bottom line is it's a true feat to produce a book this good so quickly. My only question is: Will we, individually and collectively, learn from it just as quickly?
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Bringing clarity to chaos and complexity, March 17, 2009
If you're still not sure what happened, how we got here, what to expect, and where to turn, it's doubtful you'll find a saner, more concise and user-friendly book than this. The author makes brief references to the growing importance of the stock market in the '80s and '90s, bringing with it more and more derivatives, securitizing, and schemes for extracting money from debt. But primarily the focus is exclusively on this millennium, from the collapse of Worldcom to the failure of financial institutions, one by one--Lehman, AIG, Bear Stearns, etc.
Practically all of the terms that have been in the news during the last half of 2008 are rehearsed and explained along with profiles of some of the chief players in this drama, from Alan Greenspan to Robert Shiller to Tim Geithner, Ben Bernanke, and even Warren Buffett.
What may surprise some readers is that the author makes no references to political parties or to U.S. Presidents. Nor, for that matter, is space allotted to "Dow talk," the stock market averages that seem to be the constant obsession of most financial news commentators and networks. Nor is there any melodramatic handwringing over some socialist/communist path the more outrageous talking heads have accused the political bad guys of leading us down. It's clear that the author, David Kansas, does not confuse the fortunes of Wall Street with the economy or link Presidential politics with a world-wide phenomenon that's far beyond the provocations or solutions of a political party let alone a single individual.
The author manages to play an even hand, basically sticking to the "objective facts" yet injecting enough of a personal voice (in the form of the 2nd-person pronoun and question-answer sections) to appeal to a broad cross-section of readers. He offers nothing close to a panacea or rosy outlook and is almost as careful to avoid pressing any panic buttons, though some readers who have tuned in only recently to controversies surrounding the Obama administration's handling of the crisis may be surprised to learn how dire things had become by September 2008.
He does offer minimal practical advice and guidance to readers of different ages, means, and situations for the new economic realities that, as I write this, are seeming less severe thanks to a 7-day market rally. If, or when, that bubble bursts and we take out yet another low, the book will no doubt seem all the more timely and relevant.
This is certainly not a book for everyone--some will find its coverage scant and limited--too little information about overly familiar material. In fact, most readers should be able to finish the entire volume in several hours (there is no index). The book's title and length, moreover, are undeniably opportunistic (the contents and style are far more commonsensical and matter-of-fact than the "apocalyptic title" would suggest). But if economics was not your strong suit in school or you were simply inattentive to the meltdown of the past year until recently, this small and focused volume should prove a useful primer.
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