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The Two Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crash Paperback – February 10, 2009

by Charles R. Morris (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 254 ratings
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Previously published as The Trillion Dollar Meltdown

Now fully updated with the latest financial developments, this is the bestselling book that briefly and brilliantly explains how we got into the economic mess that is the Credit Crunch. With the housing markets unravelling daily and distress signals flying throughout the rest of the economy, there is little doubt that we are facing a fierce recession. In crisp, gripping prose, Charles R. Morris shows how got into this mess. He explains the arcane financial instruments, the chicanery, the policy misjudgments, the dogmas, and the delusions that created the greatest credit bubble in world history. Paul Volcker slew the inflation dragon in the early 1980s, and set the stage for the high performance economy of the 1980s and 1990s. But Wall Street's prosperity soon tilted into gross excess. The astronomical leverage at major banks and their hedge fund and private equity clients led to massive disruption in global markets. A quarter century of free-market zealotry that extolled asset stripping, abusive lending, and hedge fund secrecy will go down in flames with it. Continued denial and concealment could cause the crisis to stretch out for years, but financial and government leaders are still downplaying the problem. The required restructuring will be at least as painful as the very difficult period of 1979-1983. The Two Trillion-Dollar Meltdown, updated to include the latest financial developments, is indispensable to understanding how the world economy has been put on the brink.
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  1. Print length
    208 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    February 10, 2009
  4. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.6 x 8.25 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    1586486918
  6. ISBN-13
    978-1586486914
  7. See all details
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4.3 out of 5 stars
254 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book's information quality impressive and well-explained. They describe it as a great read that helps them understand financial matters in a balanced manner. Readers find it easy to understand and say it's a must-read for investors. However, opinions differ on its value for money - some find it worth the cost while others feel it's not worth it.

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Information qualityReadabilityReadableBalanceValue for money
28 customers mention "Information quality"28 positive0 negative

Customers find the book provides useful information about the financial crisis. The facts and figures are explained clearly, and the author's insights into financial matters are appreciated. The book is well-written and researched, helping readers understand the current situation better.

"...Morris gives a brief but excellent history of events that led up to the current credit crunch that is paralyzing global financial markets...." Read more

"...I found the book to be particularly helpful as an historic account, his ability to predict, and his closing remarks about trade and government...." Read more

"...But this book has helped me understand today's financial crisis far better than anything else I have encountered...." Read more

"...the most comprehensive source to understand the causes and the impact of this crisis ...." Read more

25 customers mention "Readability"20 positive5 negative

Customers find the book easy to read and enjoyable. They say it's a great way to get up to speed on the financial crisis and a must-read for investors. The first chapter provides perspective on the US economy. Overall, readers consider it a worthwhile starting point for readers looking to understand the topic.

"...It's worth a look." Read more

"...is so important, Morris has written and gotten to market a very worthwhile starting point for readers looking to understand the fundamentals of what..." Read more

"...Most of the book is interesting to read, except at some points where author goes into nitty-gritty details of things like Mortgage Backed Securities..." Read more

"...CDS, LIMBOR, and SIVs throw you for a loop, this is a great book to get up to speed...." Read more

23 customers mention "Readable"23 positive0 negative

Customers find the book easy to understand. They say it explains the origins of the financial crisis in a concise manner. The book is well-written and detailed without being boring. Readers appreciate the clear English and quick read, though some find it slightly dense with acronyms.

"...Morris' writing is prescient telling us what would happen before it happened. (The book was written in 2007 and went to press the following year)...." Read more

"...That said, taken as a whole, his analysis is much more sophisticated than that which any economist could offer if he stayed within his own..." Read more

"...important events of the last century, I highly recommend this quick read book as a starting point for understanding what is transpiring." Read more

"...The style is easy and readable; however, I doubt that he presents any new material or conjectures that would shed light beyond the many other book-..." Read more

3 customers mention "Balance"3 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's balance.

"...One thing that makes this book more authentic and balanced may be, Author doesn't seem to come from any particular ideology like conservative or..." Read more

"...He updated the book for its second printing. I thought it was a balanced book, not pushing a particular political ideology...." Read more

"Insightful and balanced..." Read more

6 customers mention "Value for money"3 positive3 negative

Customers have different views on the book's value for money. Some find it useful and say it leads to quick, juicy profits, while others feel it's not worth the cost, especially when housing prices started falling.

"...instruments in good, clear English and that in itself makes the book worth the price...." Read more

"...The bubble started to deflate last summer when housing prices began to fall and homeowners began to default on their mortgages...." Read more

"...to create complex, world-spanning organizations that led to quick, juicy profits, and how the assumptions upon which these structures were based..." Read more

"...book after reading five pages but I toughed through it and it was not worth it. Such a bore. Save your money." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Izaak VanGaalen
    5.0 out of 5 stars The Perils of Unregulated Finance
    Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2008
    Verified Purchase
    As a lawyer and former investment banker, Charles Morris can appreciate the power of free-market capitalism to drive economic growth and financial innovation. Now, however, he believes the era of market fundamentalism has come to an end, just as Keynesian interventionism came to an end in the 1970s. He estimates conservatively that the recent writedowns and defaults of residential mortgages, corporate debt, credit card debt, and bonds will be about $1 trillion. But this book was written before even more recent revelations such as the Bear Sterns insolvency. It is now estimated that the bill could be 3 or 4 times as high.

    Morris gives a brief but excellent history of events that led up to the current credit crunch that is paralyzing global financial markets. Disasters have many fathers, but Morris lays much of the blame on bond rating agencies, financial insurance companies and the Federal Reserve under Alan Greenspan. After 9/11 the Federal Reserve lowered the interest rates below the rate of inflation, essentially giving banks free money. Banks then lent money for fees up front and then repackaged the loans - turned them into securitized debt - and sold them to investors. It was basically cost free and risk free, so they lent money as if there was no tomorrow.

    These securitized debts or CDOs (collaterilized debt obligations) were sold and resold throughout the global financial system and no longer did anyone know how to measure their value or their risk.

    Add to this the fact that homeowners were using the rising equity of their homes as atms and pumping another $4 trillion into the economy.

    Also add to the mix $700 billion annual trade deficit that indicates that much more consumption over production. The party was really in full swing.

    But the party couldn't last forever. The bubble started to deflate last summer when housing prices began to fall and homeowners began to default on their mortgages. The government initially thought it was just a typical market adjustment, but with the imminent collapse of Bear Stearns they finally took decisive action. Bear Stearns was holding $46 billion worth of securitized mortgages with an estimated value of 30 cents on the dollar.

    As the crisis has been unfolding, it has been estimated that the federal government has authorized about $1 trillion in new lending through agencies such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Federal Housing Finance Board, and the Federal Reserve. This was done solely to keep the economy afloat. But no one knows yet where this will end. Massive infusions of money will lead to a weaker dollar, as we have already seen. A weaker dollar against the background of rising oil and food prices tells us the crisis is far from over.

    Morris does not tell us exactly how we will get out of this mess, but he is sure that in the end a new system of financial regulation will be in place.
    30 people found this helpful
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  • Edwin C. Pauzer
    4.0 out of 5 stars Worth a Look
    Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2011
    Verified Purchase
    When does it start? When does a drink turn a person from a drinker to an alcoholic? When does a bettor become a compulsive gambler? When does a smoker reach for a cigarette out of habit instead of choice, and when does a country begin its downward economic and social slide without realizing it?

    Author Charles Morris tells us when that pendulum began its reverse swing. Some of us have forgotten them or were too young to remember: the complacency of American industry for decades while foreign entrepreneurs were gearing up to challenge our supremacy, the first time productivity and wages started to diverge, the deregulation of pension fund constraints which sent venture capitalism soaring, the Savings and Loan scandal that cost taxpayers billions, the introduction of supply-side economics or the preeminence of the Chicago School of Economics, and that with the expansion of deregulation came the expansion of derivatives and the mathematization of trading, as he calls it.

    It was the "mathematization" of trading where the author lost me to some degree and I had a hard time following. What I was able to follow from it was that numbers can lie and be manipulated. Trading, especially in derivatives, became so complex that the most accomplished accountant would be hard pressed to unravel its complexities.

    Morris' writing is prescient telling us what would happen before it happened. (The book was written in 2007 and went to press the following year). When others were saying the economy was expanding he foresaw a bubble that went far beyond a mere housing bubble. It was a credit bubble that would have worldwide repercussions like a worldwide tsunami. This credit bubble affected everything and was the closest we have come to revisiting a great depression that our parents and grandparents knew 70 years ago. One of his predictions is that the economic swing toward conservatism and free trade is peaking. It will now head the other way.

    His prophecy has its appeal, but it was his message at the end that I found particularly moving. Thirty years of supply side economics doesn't work. The free market place does not work. Those who believe it still does no longer accept it on faith but push it as dogma. It is time that people stop complaining or blaming big government but do something to make it better and operate more efficiently.

    I found the book to be particularly helpful as an historic account, his ability to predict, and his closing remarks about trade and government. I also rate it helpful if I found one thing from it that I didn't find in other books--I found several.

    It's worth a look.
    9 people found this helpful
    Helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • JB
    5.0 out of 5 stars If you like money, i'ts a most read book
    Reviewed in Mexico on March 30, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    Need to know finance history book
    Report
  • NinjaReader
    1.0 out of 5 stars Arrependi
    Reviewed in Brazil on August 26, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    Não gostei mesmo... não gosto de ficar falando mal de livro, mas este é um que me arrependi de ter comprado. Achei bem fraco.
    Report
  • SHAMEEK DHANDA
    5.0 out of 5 stars ... used in the business world is broken dwn nd easy to
    Reviewed in India on October 27, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    A laymans guide to what happened in 2008 meltdown nd the so many words used in the business world is broken dwn nd easy to understand
    Report
  • Dogpatch
    5.0 out of 5 stars A very important book which (first edition) saw the GFC ...
    Reviewed in Canada on August 29, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    A very important book which (first edition) saw the GFC meltdown coming in some form or other half a year ahead, but which unfortunately too few read and took advantage of
    Report
  • Andreas Kaempf
    5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent, readable account
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 10, 2008
    Verified Purchase
    I found this very short book (169 pages plus notes) very helpful in understanding what the "credit crunch" is about--what caused it, what the current imbalances in the financial system are, and how it may unravel. It starts further back in time than I would have expected (the 1950s to 1970s), but does this to explain the regulatory and financial stage on which the bubble of credit was born. Financial and economic terms are explained, without dumbing things down. Really excellent.
    Report