In this lively new book, Kathleen C. Engel and Patricia A. McCoy tell the full story behind the subprime crisis. The authors, experts in the law and economics of financial regulation and consumer lending, offer a sharply reasoned, but accessible account of the actions that produced the greatest economic collapse since the Great Depression.

The subprime crisis shook the American economy to its core. How did it happen? Where was the government? Did anyone see the crisis coming? Will the new financial reforms avoid a repeat performance?

Kathleen Engel and Patricia McCoy deserve tremendous credit for being amongst the first to identify the problems of subprime lending and the risks inherent in financing ever growing numbers of low quality mortgages through asset securitization. Nearly a decade ago, they were prescient in foreseeing the toxic potential of combining predatory lending with capital market financing. In this insightful new volume, McCoy and Engel retrace the battles they waged against unscrupulous lending practices and the unwillingness of regulatory authorities to heed their warnings. In so doing, they lay bear the roots of the subprime crisis and offer a host of sensible reform proposals. This time, one can only hope, public authorities will listen.