Published by Penguin, 2010, softcover, illustrated, index, 617 pages, condition: new.
They were masters of the financial universe, flying in private jets and raking in billions. They thought they were too big to fail. Yet they would bring the world to its knees.
Andrew Ross Sorkin, the news-breaking New York Times journalist, delivers the first true in-the-room account of the most powerful men and women at the eye of the financial storm - from reviled Lehman Brothers CEO Dick 'the gorilla' Fuld, to banking whiz Jamie Dimon, from bullish Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to AIG's Joseph Cassano, dubbed 'The Man Who Crashed the World'.
In the span of just a few months, the shape of Wall Street and the global financial system changed almost beyond recognition. Each of the former Big Five investment banks failed, was sold, or was converted into a bank holding company. Two mortgage-lending giants and the worlds largest insurer were placed under government control. And in early October [2008], with a stroke of the presidents pen, the Treasury and by extension, American taxpayers became part-owners in what were once the nations proudest financial institutions, a rescue that would have seemed unthinkable only months earlier
One of the ways high finance accomplished this feat was to bundle up subprime mortgages into a new kind of investment security. This security could then be sold to investors, and the fees pocketed. Because this security was filled with mortgages that might possibly and quite probably would default, investment firms took out insurance as a hedge. Of course, the majority of all such insurance came from a single company, but la-dee-da.
Dont understand how this all works? Dont worry, you can be the CEO. But be warned: If you do a bad job if you destroy your company, your shareholders, the investments of millions you will have to face the consequences. You will be fired, and then you will be given millions of dollars in severance, apparently to remind you of the millions of dollars you lost. As to your company? Well, there is an old debtor's trick in borrowing so much money that your creditors cannot allow you to go bankrupt. The analogue here is in becoming such an integral part of the system that even though you took massive risks, and caused massive losses, someone - perhaps even the United States Government - will rescue you.
If this setup seems a bit grotesque, sort of like the consequence-free realm inhabited by very small children, I have to warn you, you wont like what you read in these pages. Despite being powered by magical thinking, the high financiers of Wall Street are quite real. And in 2008, just a small handful of them almost destroyed the countrys entire economy.
