The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers and the Great Credit Crash by Charles R. Morris.

A pretty short book (169 pages not including end notes) that talks about the recent history of financial innovations like securitized debt obligations and credit default swaps that were created in the 1980s and 1990s with the advent of fast desktop computers and the use of mathematical models to create extremely complex investment portfolios. Those very innovations -- and the actions of a very arrogant man named Alan Greenspan -- are the reasons why the world is currently fucked financially and why this will make the S & L bailout in the 1980s seem very small.

You don't need a finance degree to understand and enjoy this book. It is written in everyday English and not at all mathematical or technical.