A vivid and personal account of 21st century banking excess.

How I Caused the Credit Crunch traces seven years at the forefront of the credit markets  a tale from the heart of the bewildering banking maelstrom whose catastrophic collapse has plunged the world towards the worst recession since the 1930s.

Tetsuya Ishikawas story reveals how a young Oxford graduate finds himself in command of vast sums of other peoples money; how a novice to the mysteries of hedge funds, subprime mortgages and CDOs can fix complex deals for billions of dollars in the exclusive bars, brothels and trading floors of London, New York, Frankfurt and Tokyo, and reap the benefits in a colossal annual bonus and an international luxury lifestyle.

Ishikawas book, which deftly explains the arcane financial instruments now grimly associated with the credit crunch, is both a powerful tale of lost innocence and an exposé of the disturbing truth of the collective folly, frailty and greed at the heart of the banking crisis.

Tetsuya Ishikawa, Japanese by birth, grew up in London, and attended Eton College before reading Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University.

Throughout his banking career that included Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and ABN AMRO, he structured, syndicated and sold Credit Derivative, CDO and Securitisation (including subprime) products to investors globally. He was made redundant by Morgan Stanley in May 2008.

He currently lives in London with his wife and children.