In Chain of Blame, acclaimed financial reporters Paul Muolo and Mathew Padilla go behind the headlines to tell the inside story of why Wall Street’s established investment banks bear much of the blame for the events that have cost millions of Americans their homes. As the dust settles around these life-shattering events, the blame game has begun. But as Muolo and Padilla show with stunning clarity, there is really no single entity or individual to point the finger at. It was a mix of factors and participants—the world’s largest investment banks, homeowners, lenders, credit rating agencies and underwriters, and investors—that precipitated the current subprime mess. Mathew Padilla is a business reporter for the Orange County Register. His work, and that of two other colleagues, on the implosion of the Southern California subprime industry was selected by the paper’s editors as a submission for the Pulitzer Prize and recognized by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. His blog, “Mortgage Insider” is available at: www.ocregister.com/mortgage This event took place on October 17, 2008