And Then the Roof Caved In: How Wall Street's Greed and Stupidity Brought Capitalism to Its Knees

CNBC's David Faber takes an in-depth look at the causes and consequences of the recent financial collapse And Then the Roof Caved In lays bare the truth of the credit crisis, whose defining emotion at every turn has been greed, and whose defining failure is the complicity of the U.S. government in letting that greed rule the day. Written by CNBC's David Faber, this book painstakingly details the truth of what really happened with compelling characters who offer their first-hand accounts of what they did and why they did it. Page by page, Faber explains the events of the previous seven years that planted the seeds for the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. He begins in 2001, when the Federal Reserve embarked on an unprecedented effort to help the economy recover from the attacks of 9/11 by sending interest rates to all time lows. Faber also gives you an up-close look at where the crisis was incubated and unleashed upon the world-Wall Street-and introduces you to insiders from investment banks and mortgage lenders to ratings agencies, that unwittingly conspired to insure lending standards were abandoned in the head long rush for profits. Based on two years of research, this book provides deep background into the current credit crisis Offers the insights of experienced professionals-from Alan Greenspan to prominent bankers and regulators-who were on the front lines Created by David Faber, the face of morning business news on CNBC, and host of the network's award winning documentaries From regulators who tried to stop this problem before it swung out of control to hedge fund managers who correctly foresaw the coming housing crash and profited from it, And Then the Roof Caved In shows you how the crisis we currently face came to be.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments xi Prologue “On the Verge” 1 Chapter 1 Bubble to Bubble 11 Greenspan’s Shock and Awe 13 Houses Built on Cow Dung 19 Chapter 2 Home Sweet Home 23 Opening Doors 24 An Industry Is Born 27 Subprime Returns 29 Chapter 3 The Subprime Machine 33 From Delivering Pizza to Delivering Mortgages 41 Living the Dream 44 Diving into Deep Trouble 45 Chapter 4 Eyes Wide Shut 49 A Warning Unheeded 50 A Dream No More 55 Chapter 5 The Great Enabler 57 Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Hit the Scene 61 Fannie and Freddie Get a Timeout 63 Wall Street Takes Over 66 A Tsunami of Mortgages 71 From Ownit to Out of It 74 Back from the Grave 77 Chapter 6 Complicity 81 Moody’s the Money Maker 85 Repeat Customers 88 Chapter 7 The Securitization from Hell 95 The Making of a CDO 96 Tough to Kill 98 Turning “Crap into Triple-A” 101 From CDS to CDO 103 Insanity Sets In 106 Chapter 8 Narvik and Me 111 CDOs: An American Export 113 The Truth Revealed—But Does It Matter? 118 Chapter 9 Mortgaging Merrill’s Future 121 Climbing Out of Poverty 122 A Strong Start 124 The Secret Weapon 125 Raking It In 127 Taking Big Risks 130 Chapter 10 A House of Cards 135 Digging for Gold 136 Building a Case 139 The Investment of a Lifetime 147 Chapter 11 And Then the Roof Caved In 155 The Wheels Coming Off 157 The Call 159 A Crisis Begins 161 The CDO Blues 165 Lights Out 167 Epilogue 171 A Note on Sources 181 Resources from CNBC 183 Index 187

About the Author :
DAVID FABER, an Emmy, Peabody, and duPont Award winner, is the anchor and coproducer of CNBC’s acclaimed original documentaries and long-form programming as well as a contributor to CNBC’s Squawk on the Street. He has been reporting on Wall Street and corporate America for over twenty-two years, sixteen of them as the foremost reporter at CNBC. Faber has broken numerous stories including the massive fraud at WorldCom and News Corp.’s hostile bid for Dow Jones. He was a founding member of CNBC’s signature morning show, Squawk Box. Faber also blogs at FaberReport.cnbc.com.

Review :
"David Faber is known as one of the cooler heads on financial news channel CNBC… True to his reputation, calm prevails through most of the book... Faber explains rather than rants about these mortgages, as well as securitizations and bogus credit ratings, making the case that greed and stupidity caused the financial crisis…" —Lisa Von Ahn, Reuters a" fantastic book on the housing meltdown . . . —The Motley Fool “CNBC’s David Faber delivers a clear-eyed look at the origins of the crisis. . . As an anchor of the Faber Report, the author was on the front lines of the financial crisis and spoke with many of its key players. —Fortune magazine "A slim yet substantial book based on Faber's riveting (and horrifying) CNBC special "House of Cards" that takes readers from the mosquito-ridden swimming pools of option-ARM ghost towns to a Norwegian town bankrupted by ill-advised investments in "synthetic" bonds on the mortgages left behind." —NY Mag, Daily Intel "…we wound up liking Faber’s book. He writes simply and well. He also uses real people to demonstrate the insanity of the housing boom. While this may not be the deepest book about the crash, it could be the most accessible." —MoneySense magazine