????每次舉國危機過后出現的歷史敘事總是充斥著批判之辭，同時不乏教訓總結。但是這種敘事取材于大眾媒體的揣測，充其量只能算是歷史的初稿，它們往往只描述了事實真相的表面——甚至歪曲了真相。2008年的金融危機便是其中的一個例子。

????《魯莽有罪》的作者格瑞琛?摩根森是《紐約時報》（New York Times）的財經記者并獲得過普利策獎（Pulitzer Prize），該書的另一位作者喬舒華?羅斯從事金融顧問工作。人們一度普遍認為喬治?布什總統和華爾街的貪婪沆瀣一氣，最終將世界經濟拉入了泥沼。然而該書卻推翻了這一看法，認為罪魁禍首另有其人——同時，該書還一進步剖析了民主黨的權力架構。

????沒錯——當奧巴馬總統抱怨他接手了一堆亂攤子時，他沒有說錯；但關于造成該局面的始作俑者，他卻搞錯了。

????房利美（Fannie Mae）前任首席執行官詹姆士?強森在作者所描述的恥辱柱前居于顯要位置。他是一個十分有權勢的經紀人，多位總統的密交，同時擔任肯尼迪中心（Kennedy Center）的主席。從1991年至1998年，直到富蘭克林?萊恩斯接替他的職位之前，強森將房利美公司變成了克林頓執政時期“住者有其居”政策的幕后引擎。該政策的擁躉包括當時的總統、財長羅伯特?魯賓、住房部部長亨利?瑟斯納羅斯和安德魯?庫默以及眾議院金融服務委員會（House Banking Committee）主席巴尼?弗蘭克等。為了讓更多的人住有其居，“靈活”的借貸標準成了房利美公司的運營模式，推動了次貸的激增以及房市的崩盤。

????Behind every national crisis is a narrative that assigns blame and offers up lessons learned. But this first draft of history, drawn from popular media assumptions, often turns to be superficial -- even wrong. Such is the case with the 2008 financial collapse.

????Reckless Endangerment, by Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times business reporter Gretchen Morgenson and financial consultant Joshua Rosner, upends the widely held belief that George Bush and Wall Street greed combined to bring down the world economy. The book offers an alternate list of culprits -- one that doubles as a grand tour of the Democratic Party's power structure.

????Yes -- President Obama is right when he complains that he inherited this mess; he's just wrong about who he inherited it from.

????Front and center in the authors' hall of shame is a figure who has largely escaped scrutiny: Former Fannie Mae CEO James A. Johnson, power broker, friend to presidents, Kennedy Center chair. From 1991 to 1998 -- before he was succeeded by Franklin Raines -- Johnson transformed Fannie Mae into the engine behind Clinton-era "homeownership for all" policies -- enthusiastically backed by the President, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, housing secretaries Henry Cisneros and Andrew Cuomo, and House Banking Committee Chair Barney Frank, among others. "Flexible" lending standards designed to get more people in homes became the Fannie Mae template that led to a rash of subprime mortgages-and a housing crash.

????作者還在書中寫道，對于質疑“適用房”這一怪獸政策的敵人和官員，強森和他的房利美民主黨幫兇極力打壓，然而對于支持者，他們不遺余力地給予獎賞（1989年至2009年獻金1億美元用于贊助游說和相關運動）。強森之后與國家金融公司（Countrywide Financial）首席執行官安吉羅?莫茲羅聯手（他所創立的抵押貸款模式成為了次貸的代名詞）在房利美公司建立了一個十分誘人的獎勵機制（據作者估計，他1998年一年的收入就達到了2，100萬美元，之后該機構因會計造假而遭到調查）

????作者記載的這幕現代傳奇中還揭示了很多“幫兇”：投行對于抵押貸款的資金支持，美聯儲主席阿蘭?格林斯潘的貨幣政策，1986年稅種的變化使得上百萬房主加入了房屋凈值貸款的消費債務大軍中，銀行跨行交易不再受蕭條時代所推行的格拉斯-斯蒂格爾法案（Glass-Steagall）的限制，以及1999年共和黨國會議員和克林頓陣營官員（例如魯賓，他仍在利用相關法律變化從花旗集團（Citicorp，C）牟利）的聯盟所帶來的變化。

????然而作者明確表示，如果房利美沒有充當放寬征信標準并取消傳統的盡職調查（所有這些都是以擴大有房者比例為幌子）的急先鋒，因房市泡沫而引發的金融危機將不會發生。

????令人遺憾的是，《魯莽有罪》一書敘述手法不夠流暢，缺乏對核心當事人的采訪，這也使得它缺乏扣人心弦的魅力。正因為如此，這部記錄金融史上重要篇章的著作將損失不少讀者。民主黨占多數席位的金融危機調查委員會（Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission）幫助房利美和房地美（Freddie Mac）開脫了大量的罪名，因此，更多的美國人有必要了解這兩家公司的故事。作者認為必須將強森這樣的角色公布于眾，他目前所受到的唯一“懲罰”就是自從落選奧巴馬副總統候選人之后他也未能獲得財長提名。

????在了解“多德-弗蘭克”（Dodd-Frank）的大名之前，我們也有必要閱讀此書【Dodd-Frank是奧巴馬總統華爾街改革法案（Wall Street reform bill）的簡稱】，這樣我們便能充分體會其中的諷刺意味：兩位被委以立法重任以預防下一次金融危機發生的人選竟然曾經是“房利美事件的忠實擁躉”。

????Along the way, the authors write, Johnson and his mostly Democratic cohorts at Fannie Mae threatened enemies and regulators who questioned the behemoth's "affordable housing" initiatives, while rewarding supporters (spending $100 million on lobbying and campaign contributions between 1989 and 2009). Johnson courted Countrywide Financial CEO Angelo Mozilo, "founder of the mortgage lender that became synonymous with subprime" and instituted a fabulously rich bonus system at Fannie Mae (the authors estimated he earned $21 million in 1998 alone, and the agency later came under investigation for accounting fraud).

????The authors cite plenty of "enablers" in this saga: Investment banks whose spigot of money flowed through mortgage lenders, Fed chief Alan Greenspan's monetary policies, a 1986 tax change that led millions of homeowners to run up consumer debt on home equity loans, and the fall of the Depression-era Glass-Steagall wall between bank operations, a 1999 change resulting from an alliance of Republican lawmakers and Clinton officials like Rubin (who went on to take advantage of the law's change at Citicorp (C)).

????But they make clear that the financial collapse, the result of a dangerous housing bubble, would not have happened without Fannie Mae leading the way in relaxing underwriting standards and eliminating traditional due diligence -- all in the name of expanding homeownership.

????Reckless Endangerment lacks the rich story-telling style, or interviews with principals, that could have made the book a gripping read. That's too bad, because it will limit the audience for this important contribution to financial history. More Americans need to know the story of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were largely absolved of blame by the Democratic majority on the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. More people need to read about figures like Johnson whose only "punishment" so far is that he hasn't been named Treasury Secretary and was dropped from candidate Obama's vice presidential search team.

????And more people need to read this book before they hear the name "Dodd-Frank," short-hand for President Obama's sweeping Wall Street reform bill, so that they can fully appreciate the "irony of having two of the nation's most strident defenders of Fannie Mae" sponsoring legislation designed to prevent the next financial meltdown.