Review Essay - Safe as Houses

摘要

Each week, a few books are published dealing with the financial crisis that started in 2007, which according to some ended in 2009 and according to others is still rampant at the time of writing (October 2010). Many of these books are written by people who jumped on the crisis, as they have jumped on other hot topics before. Many of these books also deal almost exclusively with the financial sector and/or the government response, but not really with the broader implications of the crisis beyond finance. Surprisingly few books deal extensively with the housing market, which was undeniably a major trigger (although not necessarily a major cause) of the crisis. In this book review essay I will review two books that explicitly engage with the housing market: Robert J. Shiller's The Subprime Solution and Dan Immergluck's Foreclosed. In addition, I also review two books that were mostly written before (but published during) the crisis that may shed light on the bigger picture: Gerald F. Davis' Managed by the Markets and Niall Ferguson's The Ascent of Money.