Busted

Starred review from April 27, 2009
“As I write in February 2009, I am four months past due on my mortgage and bracing for foreclosure proceedings to begin.” Thus begins this cautionary and critical examination of the housing crisis, a story that turned personal when New York Times
economics reporter Andrews got caught up in the housing bubble after falling in love with a woman and a house. Bringing in $120,000 a year in salary—most of which went to child support and alimony to his ex-wife, Andrews says he was able to get a “don't ask, don't tell” mortgage with the assumption that his new wife, Patty, would be able to get a job to keep them afloat, an expectation that didn't work out as planned. Because of his economics journalism background, Andrews says he “should have avoided the mortgage catastrophe,” and he castigates himself as well as fellow borrowers, the financial industry that took advantage of them and a government that didn't put the brakes on the crisis that many economists warned about but that Alan Greenspan, the Bush administration and others ignored. This deeply personal exposé is timely and sobering in its candor.

June 1, 2009
Economics reporter Andrews presents his findings from extensive research on the causes of the current subprime mortgage catastrophe using as a framework his own personal and painful experiences as a subprime borrower. He explains how so many people got caught up in the maelstrom, including mortgage brokers, real-estate appraisers, the lenders and Wall Street securitizers, credit-rating agencies, and institutional investors. Writingin an easy manner, the author does an excellent job detailing the activities of the various players, defining terms and acronyms used in financial markets, and presenting the time line of events leading up to the bursting of the housing bubble and the current recession. He contends that the poor judgment of borrowers as a group is far less worthy of scorn than are the riches accumulated by those on Wall Street and the neglect of Washington regulators. This book provides important information on the recent mortgage debacle and the hazards of consumer debt. A must-read for library patrons.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)