The Subprime Solution: How Today's Global Financial Crisis Happened, and What to Do about It

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The Subprime Solution: How Today's Global Financial Crisis Happened, and What to Do about It

Editorial Review

The subprime mortgage crisis has already wreaked havoc on the lives of millions of people and now it threatens to derail the U.S. economy and economies around the world. In this trenchant book, best-selling economist Robert Shiller reveals the origins of this crisis and puts forward bold measures to solve it. He calls for an aggressive response--a restructuring of the institutional foundations of the financial system that will not only allow people once again to buy and sell homes with confidence, but will create the conditions for greater prosperity in America and throughout the deeply interconnected world economy.

Shiller blames the subprime crisis on the irrational exuberance that drove the economy's two most recent bubbles--in stocks in the 1990s and in housing between 2000 and 2007. He shows how these bubbles led to the dangerous overextension of credit now resulting in foreclosures, bankruptcies, and write-offs, as well as a global credit crunch. To restore confidence in the markets, Shiller argues, bailouts are needed in the short run. But he insists that these bailouts must be targeted at low-income victims of subprime deals. In the longer term, the subprime solution will require leaders to revamp the financial framework by deploying an ambitious package of initiatives to inhibit the formation of bubbles and limit risks, including better financial information; simplified legal contracts and regulations; expanded markets for managing risks; home equity insurance policies; income-linked home loans; and new measures to protect consumers against hidden inflationary effects.

This powerful book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how we got into the subprime mess--and how we can get out.

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 3.0 / 5.0
• The Tragicomedy of Finance
  Karl Marx, who burned many a late-night candle in the study of historical dynamics, once said "'Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear twice. He forgot to add: The first time as tragedy, the second time as farce." That may have been true a couple of centuries ago, but a more current assessment might be "No matter how much you have learned from history, and however well you have corrected your historical faults, there are plenty more new, and equally treacherous,... more info
• The Title is Opposite the Message
  This book has a depressing view of our current economic crisis. A good read for anyone that is too cheerful.
  The parallel he makes between the trust lost by promising everyone could own a home to the repartiation payments after WW I is a bit of a stretch.
  Good book though.
• Mostly Blather
  Shiller blames the subprime crisis on the irrational exuberance that drove the 1990s stock bubble and the 2000-2007 housing bubble. Restoring confidence will require bailouts targeted at low-income victims of subprime deals. Longer-term solutions will require inhibiting the formation of bubbles and limit risk - better financial information, simplified legal contracts and regulations, home-equity insurance, income-linked home loans, and new measures to protect consumers against hidden inflationary... more info
• subprime book
  This book is light on new data(a couple of graphs) and heavy on theoretical solutions,many only peripherally related to the present crisis. There is no discussion of resource depletion. The idea of insuring home equity and life income underestimate the cost of administration and fraud. It is a quick easy read,a few interesting ideas such as teaching kids to think in inflation units.

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