A good juxtaposition of two disasters in Ron Suskind’s book on the Obama economic team, Confidence Men.

Like so many other disasters in this period, the spill was the result of executives pushing themselves to the very edge of legal limits, and then beyond, in the name of short-term profit.
—Suskind, Ron (2011-09-20). Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President (p. 427). Harper Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

Very fitting parallel here.  Suskind hits the nail on the head.  “Beyond the very edge of legal limits”,  and for me (and probably for Suskind as well)  WAY beyond the moral limits, on both counts (BP AND Wall Street).

Suskind ,  author of three previous books that I’ve read (and also of others I haven’t)  is a great storyteller  (not in the sense of fibs,  but in the sense of letting us in on the conversations,  gleaned from many accounts and interviews).  I knew back in 04 whenI read “The Price Of Loyalty” (about Bush’s Sec of Treaury Paul O’Neill)  that I would be coming back to future Suskind works.  Suskind also has this style of taking us back into the relevant past experiences of the players in the story he tells.  And in the case of the financial disaster,  he takes a highly appreciated amount of time to fill us in on all the most important elements of the disaster.

Big time recommendation.