In 2006 residential real estate prices peaked and started to fall, then
threatened the world's financial institutions in 2007, and confronted the
global economy with disaster in 2008. In the past few years, millions of
people have lost very substantial portions of their wealth. And while the
markets have rebounded considerably, they are still far from a full
recovery. Now, professional economists, policy experts, public
intellectuals, and the public at large are all struggling to understand
the crisis that has engulfed us.
In The Financial Crisis of Our Time, Robert W. Kolb provides an essential,
comprehensive review of the context within which these events unfolded,
arguing that while the crisis had no single cause, housing finance played
a central role, and that to understand what happened, one must comprehend
the mechanism by which the housing industry came into crisis. Kolb offers
a history of the housing finance system as it developed throughout the
twentieth century, and especially in the period from 1990 to 2006, showing
how the originate-to-distribute model of mortgage financing presented
market participants with a "clockwork of perverse incentives." In this
system, various participants-simply by pursuing their narrow personal
interests-participated in an elaborate mechanism that led to disaster.
The book then gives a narrative of the crisis as it developed and analyzes
all of the participants in the housing market, from the home buyers to
investors in collaterialized debt obligations (CDOs). At each step, the
book explains in a nontechnical manner the essential relationships among
the market participants and zeroes in on the incentives facing each party.
The book also includes an extensive glossary and a detailed, authoritative
timeline of the subprime financial crisis.
Offering a unique look at the participants and incentives within the
housing finance industry and its role in the biggest financial catastrophe
in recent history, Robert W. Kolb provides one of the most comprehensive
and illuminating accounts of the events that will be studied for decades
to come as the financial crisis of our time.
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