BANGER OF THE WEEK: Crashes & Crises

Perhaps the least relevant to the banking sector per se, but the most educational of the books this week. This one goes into the various financial crises that shook the western world since the 1600s. From the south sea bubble, tulip mania, to various bank panics and crashes through the 19th, 20th and into the 21st century: a tour-de-force of financial history.

Learning about the evolution of US government regulation when faced with the exploding financial world, how traders and enterprising individuals made off (Madoff) with untold wealth, and much else had me smiling ear-to-ear as the book went on. Particularly, I noted that I best understood the crises up until the 1970s, after which the derivative nature of finance becomes too much for me.

It's a wild ride through the thoughts of some of the greatest economists out there, from Krugman to Friedman and many others. I can't recommend enough a book that explains with perfect clarity what caused the 2008 financial crisis, as well as stock pushers of the late 1800s. An absolute BANGER OF THE WEEK.
10/10