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About the Author Mark Gilbert, bureau chief for Bloomberg News in London, has been with Bloomberg News since 1991 and has written a regular column on global financial issues since 1998. He spent more than eighteen months warning about the impending credit crisis, later helping readers disentangle its consequences. He frequently appears as a commentator on Bloomberg Television. Table of Contents Introduction. Bubbles Are For Bathtubs. The Real Estate Boom. Unsafe at Any Rating. CDOs and the Companies that Judged Them. Priced For Perfection. The Financial Gene Pool Economic Darwinism Couldn't Improve. Bubbles, Bubbles Everywhere. Global Liquidity's Search for a Profitable Home. Judgment or Luck. The Profits Banks Couldn't Understand--or Protect Against. Knight in Rusty Armor. An Ill-Advised Rescue Helps Show Banks Just How Much Value Their Collateralized Debt Has Lost. The Noose Tightens. Frozen Money Markets Confound Central Bankers, Hurt Consumers, and Drive Imploding Investments Back onto Bankers' Books. Central Banks, Unbalanced. Caught Off Guard, the Financial Authorities Make Up the Rules as They Go Along. Et Tu, Money Markets and Municipals? The Crunch Catches Vanilla Investments. Giants Fall. The Credit Crisis Reaches Its Climax. Conclusions and Policy Prescriptions. Index.