Book excerpt: The truth behind the causes and effects of America's economic downturn The Complete Idiot's Guide® to the Financial Crisis explains the root causes and connects the events and issues with the problems that have confronted Americans over the course of more than a year, giving readers an unvarnished, unbiased, and in-depth analysis of the factors that lead up to the crisis, the major events that defined it, and the decisions and ramifications that resulted from it. • Interest in the financial crisis continues to build with several high-profile books and an HBO movie due out in 2010, as well as the success of Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story • Much of the financial crisis writing to date has been of the breaking news variety—this book will be one of the first books published after the smoke has cleared to offer a comprehensive analysis of what happened and how