Reckless Endangerment describes the players that helped create the housing bubble and bust that were at the heart of the financial crisis. Gretchen Morgenson and Josh Rosner focus on how regulators and other officials were complicit by promoting liberalized housing finance as a way to increase homeownership. Their account chronicles how a naïve vision of the American Dream, that of homeownership as the foundation of upward mobility and stable communities, turned into a nightmare in the hands of a growth driven and increasingly predatory mortgage complex.

A former senior VP at Moody’s wrote an 80 page letter to federal regulators, blowing the whistle on systemic pressures placed by Moody’s business people on the ostensibly objective analysts. To those who are shocked by this, it helps to remember Econ 101: when you get paid by the people whose bonds you are rating, there’s a lot of incentive to keep the customer satisfied.

But it doesn’t stop there. Michael Hudson of UMKC notes that the perverse incentives of ratings agencies lead them to push against raising taxes to pay for things now. Instead, it’s better financially for the ratings agencies if governments keep taxes down but sell bonds . . . ’cause that’s more business for them.

Amazing what basic economics can teach you about the ratings agencies.

FDL’s first “webinar” took place on Monday, April 26, at 8-9 pm EDT.

Marcy Wheeler moderated a panel that included Army Ret. Col Ann Wright and David House, friend of Bradley Manning.

Join us for a special FDL Book Salon tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. ET when FDL’s Ed Walker will host a live chat with Financial Crisis Inquiry Commissioner Byron Georgiou. They’ll be discussing the FCIC’s financial crisis report and take your questions on the same.

Tom Tomorrow is a master of the nutshell who has found an inexhaustible supply of nuts. Every week, he crystallizes deadly accurate criticism of Republican insanity and Democratic insincerity into just a handful or two of pithy cartoon panels, and yet never seems to leave anything out. As anyone who has ever written or blogged can attest, this is a very rare and valuable skill, and I think I can safely say that we all hate him for it.

As 2011 approaches, we’re delighted to announce a new chapter for FDL: the launch of the FDL Writers Foundation, a brand new 501(c)3 non-profit devoted to supporting the groundbreaking work of talented and innovative authors whose clarity of thought and inspiration we desperately need right now. As 2010 ends, this is the perfect time to help the young thinkers and journalists whose energy and imagination will help us overcome the challenges that face us and lead us to a better future with a tax-deductible contribution. Can you please make a tax-deductible contribution of $25 or more to support the FDL Writers Foundation?

Welcome Eli Kintisch, and Host Eric Pooley , author of The Climate War. [As a courtesy to our guests, please keep comments to the book.  Please take other conversations to a previous thread. - bev] Hack the Planet: Science’s Best Hope – or Worst Nightmare – for Averting Climate Catastrophe While the politicians in Washington [...]

Welcome Dave Neiwert and John Amato, Hosted by Watertiger. [As a courtesy to our guests, please keep comments to the book.  Please take other conversations to a previous thread.  - bev] Over the Cliff: How the Obama Election Drove The American Right Insane To say that the election of the first African-American President of the [...]

The attacks on ACORN have been so amplified through the reactionary media that far more people are aware of ACORN via the lens of a pseudo-pimp than by the acres of good works the organization actually has accomplished. When members of the public sees or hears about ACORN, they are more likely to think “corruption” than “people power.” And that’s more than a real shame—it’s a massive loss for millions of America’s low-income people who desperately need the type of empowerment engendered by the ACORN model of organizing.

Welcome lawyer / author,  Thomas Geoghegan, and Host Masaccio. [To go to comments for this Book Salon please click on this link] [As a courtesy to our guests, please keep comments to the book.  Please take other conversations to a previous thread.  - bev] Were You Born On the Wrong Continent?: How the European Model [...]