Many fine books on the financial crisis were first drafts of history--books written quickly to fill the need for immediate understanding. Alan S. Blinder, former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, held off, taking the time to understand the crisis and create a truly comprehensive and coherent narrative of how the worst economic crisis in postwar American history happened, what the government did to fight it, and what we must do from here--mired as we still are in its wreckage. Blinder shows how the U.S. financial system, grown far too complex for its own good--and too unregulated for the public good--experienced a perfect storm beginning in 2007. When America's financial structure crumbled, the damage proved to be not only deep, but wide. It took the crisis for the world to discover, to its horror, just how truly interconnected--and fragile--the global financial system is. Blinder offers clear-eyed answers to the questions still before us, even if some of the choices ahead are as divisive as they are unavoidable.--From publisher description.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [455]-462) and index.

It happened here. What's a nice economy like you doing in a place like this? Finance goes mad. In the beginning ; The house of cards ; When the music stopped ; From Bear to Lehman : inconsistency was the hobgoblin ; the Panic of 2008

Picking up the pieces. Stretching out the TARP ; Stimulus, stimulus, wherefore art thou, stimulus? ; The attack on the spreads The road to reform. It's broke, let's fix it : the need for financial reform ; Watching a sausage being made ; The Great Foreclosure Train Wreck ; The backlash Looking ahead. No exit? : getting the Fed back to normal ; The search for a fiscal exit ; The big aftershock : the European debt crisis ; Never again : legacies of the crisis.