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  • The Housing Boom and Bust

  • Written by: Thomas Sowell
  • Narrated by: Robertson Dean
  • Length: 4 hrs and 41 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (75 ratings)

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The Housing Boom and Bust

Written by: Thomas Sowell
Narrated by: Robertson Dean
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Publisher's Summary

There was no single, dramatic event that set the current financial crisis off. A whole series of very questionable decisions by many people, in many places, over a period of years, built up the pressures that led to a sudden collapse of the housing market and of financial institutions that began to fall like dominoes as a result of investing in securities based on housing prices.

This book is designed to unravel the tangled threads of that story. It also attempts to determine whether what is being done to deal with the problem is more likely to make things better or worse.

©2009 Thomas Sowell (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

What the critics say

"Among economists of the past thirty years, [Sowell] stands very proud indeed." ( Wall Street Journal)

What listeners say about The Housing Boom and Bust

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A MUST read book !!!

Very informative and insightful. I never trusted the government personally and I never got involved in politics because of its corruption. Nevertheless, this book sheds the light on how much damage government intervention can affect our lives.

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Brilliance of America's foremost Economist!

Brilliant analysis of the factors and cofactors leading to the 2000s housing bubble. As always excellent, logical reasoning applied to a subject that most people have no clue how to assess for themselves.

As always Thomas Sowell explains both the facts and the harmful mechanisms of human thinking and statesman politics that lead to that collapse that also apply to mostly any bubble and subsequent pop.

This is knowledge for the ages and yet, it will, largely ignored and will continue to happen over and over again.... We ignore the lessons of the past bat our own peril but as humans we are doomed to repeat them learning only from our own experiences rather than those of others who have come before.

Another feather in the cap of Sowell.

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A very worthwhile listen

Informative, well-organized, nicely presented. The role of government in the debacle of 2008-9 has been given short shrift in most accounts. Not so in this book.

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A must read.

This book is a great book to own. It teaches how to look for the signs of history repeating itself. Awesome I love it.

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another great title from Sowell

i really enjoyed this as expected from Sowell. looking to next title right away

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Awesome!

loved it, great perspective on the GFC. Definitely a different opinion from what I've read before but very convincing & worthwhile to hear

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Great as always

Underlines the fundamental driving forces behind many of the "crisis" decried by politicians. Learned some things I didn't know even after reading basic economics, intellectuals and society and knowledge and decisions.

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Very informative and thought provoking

A great book. Thomas Soul puts forward a strong compelling and straightforward case for what lead to the housing crisis and how we are still continuing down that same path.

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    2 out of 5 stars

shallow and poor sources

honestly wanted so much more from this. I mean I get that he doesn't like particular senators but spending so much of your book quoting news interviews in the middle of a crisis and trying to assign retrospective blame is just lazy.

really not up to his past works

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