The Monster: How a Gang of Predatory Lenders and Wall Street Bankers Fleeced America--and Spawned a Global Crisis
Hudson, a former Wall Street Journal reporter who now covers business and finance for the nonprofit Center for Public Integrity, delivers a chilling account of the subprime-loan scandal, which nearly brought down the U.S. and global economies. Starting at ground zero of the scandal—Orange County, California (“Con men hate snow,” one Wall Street Journal reporter put it)—Hudson runs his exposé through its principal players: big-time lenders like Roland Arnall and Russ and Becky Jedinak, juiced-up salespeople who worked for such dubious lenders, Wall Street brokerage houses that supercharged the loans, politicians who weakened once-tough lending laws, and finally, most tragically, the victims themselves. As appalling as it is informative, Hudson’s tale, which hasn’t ended by a long shot, should find a large readership. --Alan Moores