Reading About the Financial Crisis: A 21-Book Review

41 Pages Posted: 27 Oct 2011 Last revised: 10 Jan 2012

See all articles by Andrew W. Lo

Andrew W. Lo

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Laboratory for Financial Engineering

Date Written: October 26, 2011

Abstract

The recent financial crisis has generated many distinct perspectives from various quarters. In this article, I review a diverse set of 21 books on the crisis, 11 written by academics, and 10 written by journalists and one former Treasury Secretary. No single narrative emerges from this broad and often contradictory collection of interpretations, but the sheer variety of conclusions is informative, and underscores the desperate need for the economics profession to establish a single set of facts from which more accurate inferences and narratives can be constructed.

Keywords: Financial Crisis, Systemic Risk, Book Review

JEL Classification: G10, G18, G20, G28, G30, G38, E60

Suggested Citation

Lo, Andrew W., Reading About the Financial Crisis: A 21-Book Review (October 26, 2011). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1949908 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1949908

Andrew W. Lo (Contact Author)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Laboratory for Financial Engineering ( email )

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