Book Review: Complicit by Mark Gilbert

There aren't many people who can say they've sailed through this latest financial blip unscathed. Most of us have been impacted in some way or another. Many of us have looked for someone to blame the credit crisis on. Mark Gilbert thinks we're all to blame either by active participation or by being bystanders.

In Complicit: How greed and collusion made the credit crisis unstoppable, he explains why. The securities industry grew with leaps and bounds over the past few years and society as a whole reaped the rewards of freely available credit at super-low interest rates. The global financial authorities like the government, the banks and the money managers all looked the other way while lining their pockets.

The list of those to blame doesn't stop there. Realtors freely took advantage of the increase in home buying and appraised houses at fictitious levels. Banks and credit unions lent money to people who had no hope of paying back their mortgages. Homeowners bought properties at rates they knew they wouldn't be able to afford to repay. The average price of a U.S. single family home doubled in the period from 1989 to 2003 from $113,000 to $229,000.

In 2006, at the same time the US housing marketed rocketed, the global derivatives market grew at the fastest pace on record. The total outstanding amount grew by 40% to an amazing $415 trillion according to Gilbert. This unchecked growth could only continue as long as people kept ignoring the warning signs of a coming collapse. In 2006, some markets began to make the connection and the impact of years of risky financial decisions began to be felt.

Mark Gilbert offers an in depth explanation of how this credit crisis grew to the point where it was felt around the world. He explains how each segment of the market was involved in the crisis and backs up his findings with facts, figures and percentages.

If you want to understand how this became a crisis so that you can be aware of the warning signs if it happens again, I highly recommend this informative read.