Excellent interview as always by Barry, and an interesting list of suggested readings. His blog, The Big Picture, is among the best.
I would respectfully include ECONned by Yves Smith on the reading list. It adds a dimension of scholarship and detailed analysis found nowhere else.
Barry Ritholtz on the Crisis: Causes, Cures, Corptocracy, and Suggested Reading
When you get bit by a dog, you don’t just look at the dog, you have to look at the owner who is holding the leash.To me, a lot of the regulatory changes, and a lot of what the Federal Reserve did, stand on their own as a major factor. But if you’ve read David Hume, if you’ve studied the philosophy of causation, you have to look at what motivated those changes.
I have these debates with friends. One group blames everything on big government; the other group blames everything on big corporations. The sad news is that there’s really no difference between the two: Big government and big corporations work hand-in-hand. If you want to know who is the puppet and who is the puppet master, it sure looks like Wall Street has been pulling the strings of Congress for many, many, many years.
I remember the Dick Durbin quote, right in the middle of the crisis. He was astonished at all the bankers and bank lobbyists running around the halls of Congress, and said, “I can’t believe these guys – they act as if they own the place.” The fact is, it’s not an act – they do own the place...
Read the rest here.
