I just started reading Andrew Ross Sorkin's Too Big to Fail, which chronicles the collapse of the financial industry in the fall of 2008. It's an excellent read. Unlike many of the professorial types who have written analyses or other accounts of the financial crisis, Sorkin can really write. Too Big to Fail reads more like a detective novel than a boring academic treatise, and, for those who do not speak financial-ese, Sorkin limits his use of confusing financial jargon.

The book is not illuminating solely because it does a good job of walking the reader through the events leading up to the big bank bailouts and breaking down the complicated chain of events that led to the bailouts. Too Big to Fail avoids the petty politics that have colored the debate over the bailouts and bank regulation. It also helps one form a more nuanced view of the government intervention and the role of banks. Rather than painting executives like Lehman's Richard Fuld or firms like Goldman Sachs, purely as incompetent or villainous, Sorkin more or less sticks to the facts.

Highly recommended.