Ocean State Libraries

"The financial meltdown from the perspective of a number of players: Michael Burry, a bizarre autistic-like stock-picking genius, and the first to realize that the market's housing boom is based on a 'house of cards' sham; Mark Baum, self-loathing fictional character whose firm picks up insider trading information from a wrong number phone call; Jared Vennet, a smart-aleck broker who confirms the ominous suspicion; and Charlie Gellar and Jamie Shipley,...

The tsunami of cheap credit that rolled across the planet between 2002 and 2008 was more than a financial phenomenon: it was temptation, offering entire societies the chance to reveal aspects of their characters they could not normally afford to indulge. Icelanders wanted to stop fishing and become investment bankers. The Greeks wanted to turn their country into a piñata stuffed with cash and allow as many citizens as possible to take a whack at...

On March 5, 2008, a Florida hedge fund manager's Web site included a startling statement about Bear Stearns & Co.: In my book, they are insolvent. This seemed a bold and risky statement. Bear Stearns had been a colossally profitable enterprise for eighty-five years. Ten days later, Bear Stearns no longer existed and the calamitous financial meltdown of 2008 had begun. How and why that happened is the subject of William D. Cohan's superb and shocking...

The Queen of Versailles is a character-driven documentary about a billionaire family and their financial challenges in the wake of the economic crisis. The film follows two unique characters, whose rags-to-riches-to-rags success stories reveal the innate virtues and flaws of the American Dream.

Offers an intimate look at the epochal financial crisis of 2008 and the powerful men and women who decided the fate of the world's economy in a matter of a few weeks. Centering on Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, the film goes behind closed doors to examine the symbiotic relationship between Wall Street and Washington.

Johnson and Kwak examine not only how Wall Street's ideology, wealth, and political power among policy makers in Washington led to the financial debacle of 2008, but also what the lessons learned portend for the future.

In its hubris, the financial sector has hijacked the American economy and put our very global future at risk. “Bad money” refers not just to the depreciated dollar but to the dangerous attitudes and flawed products of wayward megafinance. Also “bad” are the risk miscalculations and strategic abuses of new multitrillion-dollar products and vehicles like CDOs and SIVs. Phillips lashes out at the “bad money” practices...

Many fine books on the financial crisis were first drafts of history--books written quickly to fill the need for immediate understanding. Alan S. Blinder, former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, held off, taking the time to understand the crisis and create a truly comprehensive and coherent narrative of how the worst economic crisis in postwar American history happened, what the government did to fight it, and what we must do from here--mired...

"What better guide could we have to the 2008 financial crisis and its resolution than our newest Nobel Laureate in Economics, the prolific columnist and author Paul Krugman? In his prescient 1999 classic, The Return of Depression Economics, Krugman surveyed the economic crises that had swept across Asia and Latin America and pointed out that they were a warning for all of us: like diseases that have become resistant to antibiotics, the economic maladies...

Set in the high-stakes world of Wall Street, Margin Call is an entangling thriller involving the key players at an investment firm during one perilous 24-hour period in the early stages of the 2008 financial crisis. When an entry-level analyst unlocks information that could prove to be the downfall of the firm, a roller-coaster ride ensues as decisions both financial and moral catapult the lives of all involved to the brink of disaster.