http://www.portfolio.com/news-markets/national-news/portfolio/2008/11/11/The-End-of-Wall-Streets-Boom#page1this guy wrote "liar's poker" which was an infamous expose of wall street in the 80's. this is 9 pages long but a real page turner or page clicker as it were.
long story short: in the 80's investment banks went public which allowed them to transfer risk to their shareholders. despite the human face you see on CNBC and so forth, they have absolutely no scruples in most places and they created a time bomb and milked it for as long as they could.