Firefighting: The Financial Crisis and Its Lessons

by Ben S. Bernanke, Timothy F. Geithner, Henry M. Paulson Jr.

Overview

"Should be required reading for all policy makers.” —Warren Buffett

From the three primary architects of the American policy response to the worst economic catastrophe since the Great Depression, a magnificent big-picture synthesis--from why it happened to where we are now.

In 2018, Ben Bernanke, Tim Geithner, and Hank Paulson came together to reflect on the lessons of the 2008 financial crisis ten years on. Recognizing that, as Ben put it, "the enemy is forgetting," they examine the causes of the crisis, why it was so damaging, and what it ultimately took to prevent a second Great Depression. And they provide to their successors in the United States and the finance ministers and central bank governors of other countries a valuable playbook for reducing the damage from future financial crises. Firefighting provides a candid and powerful account of the choices they and their teams made during the crisis, working under two presidents and with the leaders of Congress.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780525506270
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/16/2019
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	297,388
File size:	12 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Ben Bernanke, currently a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, was the chairman of the Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2014. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for economics in 2022. Timothy F. Geithner is currently President of Warburg Pincus and was the 75th Secretary of the Treasury for President Obama's first term. He is the author of Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises. Hank Paulson is the founder and chairman of the Paulson Institute, and served as the 74th Secretary of the Treasury under President Bush. He is the author of On the Brink and Dealing with China.

Editorial Reviews

★ 04/01/2019

Key U.S. government policymakers during the 2008 financial crisis, Bernanke (The Courage To Act), Tim Geithner (Stress Test), and Hank Paulson (On the Brink) follow up their individual memoirs with this work discussing their collaboration and lessons learned along the way. The authors use the analogy of fires and firefighting to describe how financial crises arise and are suppressed. According to the authors, the crisis's tinder included easy credit, market overconfidence, shadow banking, opaque mortgage securitization, excessive leverage, and fragmentary regulation. They recount how the sparks from subprime defaults created panic that spread out of control, threatening one financial institution after another. Ending the fear and preventing a depression was very difficult within the context of the regulatory limits and political atmosphere. Postcrisis reforms, they warn, strengthened safeguards to prevent another crisis but weakened the tools needed to deal with one. VERDICT All kinds of readers will find this work a readable summary of the crisis, but its paramount value comes from the authors' explanations and defenses of their whatever-it-takes actions and assessment of current financial system risks. A complementary account is Andrew Sorkin's riveting Too Big To Fail.—Lawrence Maxted, Gannon Univ. Lib., Erie, PA

Library Journal

There are a number of forms a book by central players in a historic episode can take. Firefighting could have been a juicy tell-all; it could have been an exercise in boasting about how its authors saved the world; it could have been a litany of excuses, explaining why none of what went wrong was the authors' fault. And the truth is that there's a little bit of each of these elements—but not much, considering. What Bernanke et al.…have given us, instead, is a primer on why the crisis was possible (and why, even so, almost nobody saw it coming); a ticktock on how the crisis and the financial rescue unfolded; and a very scary warning about the future.

The New York Times Book Review - Paul Krugman

Longlisted for the Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award

“If what these three men did during the financial crisis had not been done, the world would, in my view, have experienced a second great depression. This makes the story told in this short book fascinating and important.” —Martin Wolf, Financial Times

“A primer on why the crisis was possible (and why, even so, almost nobody saw it coming); a ticktock on how the crisis and the financial rescue unfolded; and a very scary warning about the future.” —Paul Krugman, New York Times

“I'm glad I didn't have to do the job that these three ‘fire chiefs’ did. I learned much from this book I had not previously known. Its cautions for the future should be required reading for all policy makers.” —Warren Buffett

“A clear, concise account illustrating why financial fires must be anticipated if they’re to be controlled.” —Kirkus

“All kinds of readers will find [Firefighting] a readable summary of the crisis, but its paramount value comes from the authors’ explanations and defenses of their whatever-it-takes actions and assessment of current financial system risks.” —Library Journal, starred review

From the Publisher

2019-02-03

Three principal policymakers and "firefighters" during the 2008 financial crash describe the crisis and suggest policies to prepare for an inevitable return.

The fire metaphors flare brightly in the first half of this brief, cogent account of the near collapse of the American economy near the end of the presidency of George W. Bush and the beginning of Barack Obama's. Bernanke (The Courage to Act, 2015, etc.), Geithner (Stress Test, 2014), and Paulson Jr. (Dealing with China, 2015, etc.) mention themselves by first name throughout (Ben, Tim, Hank) and are occasionally heavy on self-congratulation, but they also express humility. For example, they note how a Geithner speech, intended to calm markets and investors, had the opposite effect. The authors are also generally nonpartisan, though several times they allude to the dangers of today's "bitterly polarized politics," and they praise Obama more than those on the right will probably enjoy. They also respond several times to critics from a decade ago who assailed them for saving Wall Street and largely ignoring Main Street. The authors' approach is straightforward and easy to digest: Describe what caused the collapse; tell about the measures the government took to contain it; comment on what worked and what didn't; discuss the fallout; speculate about what needs to be done now. They take care to clarify such terms as "derivatives" and "leverage" so that readers unclear about them (and numerous others) can easily follow the text. They are admonitory toward the end, reminding us of a truth that applies not just in the financial-crisis world: "The enemy is forgetting." The authors—each of whom has published a memoir about the crisis—are not especially memorable stylists, too often relying on clichés—e.g., "fallen through the cracks," "get ahead of the curve."

A clear, concise account illustrating why financial fires must be anticipated if they're to be controlled.

Kirkus Reviews