A professor at Columbia University, Mr. Stiglitz uses his experience teaching to give the lay reader a lucid account of how overleveraged banks, a shoddy mortgage industry, predatory lending and unregulated trading contributed to the meltdown, and how, in his opinion, ill-conceived rescue efforts may have halted the freefall but have failed to grapple with more fundamental problems.<\/p>\n
He is eloquent on how the American economy was sustained before the crisis by \u201ca debt-financed consumption binge supported by a housing bubble\u201d\u009d and impassioned in describing what he sees as the government\u2019s failure to make substantial reforms to the economic system: though \u201cexcesses of leverage will be curbed,\u201d\u009d he writes, \u201cthe too-big-to-fail banks will be allowed to continue much as before, over-the-counter derivatives that cost taxpayers so much will continue almost unabated, and finance executives will continue to receive outsized bonuses.\u201d\u009d In each case, he writes, \u201csomething cosmetic will be done, but it will fall far short of what is needed.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n