For the majority of people with even the slightest degree of economic intelligence, the real estate bubble’s collapse was like being a beach lifeguard and seeing a massive tidal wave off in the distance. It was frightenly visible, you knew it would create massive chaos when it finally touched down, and there wasn’t a damn thing you could about it. And now that the speculation on whether subprime lending will affect the overall economy is now a reality, we are seeing many people come out with excuses and try to put the blame on one specific group or the other. The truth of the matter however is that we all are to blame, and Confessions of a Subprime Lender by Richard Bitner clearly shows us why.
The book Confessions of a Subprime Lender is written by Richard Bitner, the former president of Kellner Mortgage Investments who was wise enough to get out of the business before things began to implode in the subprime lending industry. The book covers a wide range of topics such as the history of subprime lending, how conflicts of interest in the lending industry came about, how subprime mortgages work, why the industry was fundamentally flawed, and how just about everyone contributed to the problem in their own ways.
The book gives many examples of the horrible lending practices that occurred on a daily basis, and does a great job of painting the entire picture of what led to the real estate explosion and implosion. Everyone from loan officers, to realtors, to arguably the Federal Reserve receive their justified criticism for fueling the real estate bubble in this book. It’s also kindly written in an easy to understand manner so that average joes who aren’t mortgage savvy can easily pick up and book and read through it without any problems.
Overall Confessions of a Subprime Lender is a great read for anyone and everyone. If you love economics, real estate, investing, or even history (because this is history in the making), you’ll enjoy this book. You can tell from the instant you open it that you’re getting an insider view of what went wrong from a very knowledgeable man with a conscious. I’m not claiming Richard Bitner is a saint, but sometimes the best information comes from the criminal with all of the inside information.