The Monster: How a Gang of Predatory Lenders and Wall Street Bankers Fleeced America--and Spawned a Global Crisis

by Michael W. Hudson

"Magnificently and heartbreakingly told. . . . [Hudson] shows vividly that really filthy, face-to-face fraud and hard-sell bullying . . . brought the economy down around our ears."- The Boston Globe

In this page-turning, true-crime exposé, award-winning reporter Michael W. Hudson reveals the story of the rise and fall of the biggest subprime lender and Wall Street's biggest patron of Ameriquest and Lehman Brothers. They did more than any other institutions to produce the biggest financial scandal in American history.

It's a tale populated by a remarkable cast of a shadowy billionaire who created the subprime industry out of the ashes of the 1980s S&L scandal; insatiable Wall Street executives; ensnared home owners; investigators who tried to expose the fraud; politicians who turned a blind eye; and, most of all, the drug-snorting, high-living salesman who tell all about the money they made, the lies they told, the deals they closed.

Provocative and gripping, The Monster is a searing look at the bottom-feeding fraud and top-down greed that fueled the financial collapse.

384 pages, Paperback

Published September 13, 2011

About the author

Michael W. Hudson is a Pulitzer-Prize winning American investigative journalist. He is currently on his second stint as a senior editor with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.