Because of his unique position as a former peer, Kasoff was able to speak at length with six individuals who were in key roles in the CDO business as it evolved during the GFC exploring developments from inside the industry. In addition, Kasoff contributed his own extensive interview.
Drawing upon these conversations, Kasoff has written a monograph, Anatomy of a Trade: The Making of a Subprime CDO, a detailed and insightful parable that illustrates the insiders’ points of view—the motives, structural maneuvering, and evolution of this market, which according to the FCIC, played a key role in spreading risk throughout the financial system and in accelerating the crisis. The monograph is engaging reading that makes the complicated topic accessible to a wide audience; all the Inside the CDO Machine project materials, including the full-length interviews, present new and valuable insights for industry professionals and regulators.
The YPFS Lessons Learned Oral History Project: A Special Project: Inside the CDO Machine by Rosalind Z. Wiggins and Andrew Metrick
Wall Street’s Subprime Debacle: Firsthand Accounts from Inside the CDO Machine by Matthew A. Lieber and Steven H. Kasoff
Anatomy of a Trade: The Making of a Subprime CDO by Steven H. Kasoff
Lessons Learned Interview Summaries
Full-length Lessons Learned Interviews
Kasoff was assisted on the “Inside the CDO Machine” project by Matt Lieber, one of our Lessons Learned interviewers.
