Big Bad Banks

How Did This Happen?

How did our economy come so close to collapse? How did we lose jobs, homes and retirement funds?

I can't tell you how often I get those questions. Ordinary people are angry that they are suffering the grievous effects of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, and they want an explanation about how it happened. They aren't getting if from the big banks that created this mess and that were bailed out with taxpayer dollars, and they aren't getting it from the government officials who were supposed to be guarding against this very disaster that has befallen us.

That's why I decided to write Big Bad Banks. From my humble perch as a banker in Lafayette, La., I have seen this disaster shaping up for many years. While the big bankers and government officials concoct elaborate theories about what happened- theories that always seem to lay the blame on somebody else- I can tell you right now what caused it: pure greed and ego.