The End of Wall Street's Boom - National Business News - Portfolio.com

WOW!! Have some time? You may just want to drop whatever your plans were for this. It is that good. By Michael Lewis (he of Liar's Poker and Money Ball fame).

The End of Wall Street's Boom - National Business News - Portfolio.com: "The era that defined Wall Street is finally, officially over. Michael Lewis, who chronicled its excess in Liar’s Poker, returns to his old haunt to figure out what went wrong"

one and only one look-in:

"We always asked the same question,” says Eisman. “Where are the rating agencies in all of this? And I’d always get the same reaction. It was a smirk.” He called Standard & Poor’s and asked what would happen to default rates if real estate prices fell. The man at S&P couldn’t say; its model for home prices had no ability to accept a negative number. “They were just assuming home prices would keep going up,” Eisman says."

What a great writer. You simply have to go read it.

And a HUGE thanks to ClusterStock for pointing it out--and giving long excerpts. Longer than I am comfortable giving--it has quickly become a mandatory morning read for me.