This book was fucking awesome! Originally I heard an NPR podcast recommend this book (the episode was about bonds or something). I put it on my to read list back in 2021 and finally got around to it this year. I am by no means into finance and was expecting a book on ‘this is what bonds are’. Instead I got a book whose central thesis was an American history book from the perspective of two pillars: 1.) credit markets and 2.) securitization; and how the Federal Government used these two tools as an off budget way to affect real structural change to solve all kinds of problems in the US (farm infrastructure development, railroad building in the gilded age, creating housing for prosperity, funding student loans, guaranteeing mortgages, etc.) and to affect massive economic growth in the country. I was not the audience for this book. It was more academic and written by a sociologist, but honestly, it was dense for 212 pages, it forced me to go on a deep dive on concepts outside of its pages to understand it and now I am in awe for seeing a bit of American history from the perspective of using credit markets to practically build the country. I also got a better picture of how history of credit market innovation led to the New Deal policies that is moreso focused on the things other than the stock market that led to the Great Depression (mortgage bonds of 1920s!! Cursed instruments!) Along the way, I got the intended effect (learning about bonds and securitization inside and outside of this book so I could understand it myself) AND a real gem of a bonus of learning an important perspective of American history.
Anyone else read it? I’d totally recommend. Honestly I was hooked on this book for a few months. And the crazy thing is that this not normally my genre.
by YourPureSexcellence