House of Debt: How They (and You) Caused the Great Recession, and How We Can Prevent It from Happening Again

Radical. If your mortgage is underwater, you may become even more depressed after reading Atif Mian and Sufi Amir’s book titled, House of Debt: How They (and You) Caused the Great Recession, and How We Can Prevent It from Happening Again. The authors’ key point is that the financial crisis of 2008 came about because there was too much debt taken on by Americans. They assemble ample data to support their presentation, and offer possible ways to prevent this from happening again, including what they call the “shared responsibility mortgage.” While I found this to be an engaging book that readers interested in public policy, especially housing policy, will enjoy reading, the analysis presents a focused point of view that may exclude other perspectives, and their solutions are likely to be viewed as radical. Nonetheless, this is another good contribution to the discussion of what happened and what should be done differently. Rating: Four-star (I like it) Click here to purchase House of Debt from amazon.com.