A Colossal Failure Of Common Sense

Author : Larry McDonald
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 1407030671
Total Pages : 370 pages
Book Rating : 4.78/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Colossal Failure of Common Sense written by Larry McDonald and published by Random House. This book was released on 2009-11-24 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Lehman Brothers bank went under, the world gasped. One of the world's biggest and most successful banks, its downfall was the event that sparked the slide of the world economy toward a Great Depression II. This is the gripping inside story of the dark characters who ruled Lehman, who refused to heed warnings that the company was headed for an iceberg; the world-class, mid-level people who valiantly fought to get Lehman off its disastrous course; the crash that didn't have to happen. A news-breaking explanation that answers the question everyone still asks: "why did it happen?" Larry McDonald, a former vice-president at Lehman Brothers in charge of distressed debt trading and convertible securities, was right at the centre of the meltdown of the company and gives an intimate look at the madhouse that Lehman became. This book shows beyond a doubt that Richard Fuld, the long-time CEO of Lehman, and his top executives, were totally out to lunch, allowing Lehman's risk profile to reach gargantuan proportions. While the traders, like Larry McDonald, clearly predicted more than two years in advance that the market for packaged subprime mortgages and credit default swaps would evaporate, the high-flying Lehman bosses pushed hard on the gas pedal until the very end.

Author : Bethany McLean
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101551054
Total Pages : 416 pages
Book Rating : 4.59/5 ( download)

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Download or read book All the Devils Are Here written by Bethany McLean and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2011-08-30 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Hell is empty, and all the devils are here." -Shakespeare, The Tempest As soon as the financial crisis erupted, the finger-pointing began. Should the blame fall on Wall Street, Main Street, or Pennsylvania Avenue? On greedy traders, misguided regulators, sleazy subprime companies, cowardly legislators, or clueless home buyers? According to Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera, two of America's most acclaimed business journalists, the real answer is all of the above-and more. Many devils helped bring hell to the economy. And the full story, in all of its complexity and detail, is like the legend of the blind men and the elephant. Almost everyone has missed the big picture. Almost no one has put all the pieces together. All the Devils Are Here goes back several decades to weave the hidden history of the financial crisis in a way no previous book has done. It explores the motivations of everyone from famous CEOs, cabinet secretaries, and politicians to anonymous lenders, borrowers, analysts, and Wall Street traders. It delves into the powerful American mythology of homeownership. And it proves that the crisis ultimately wasn't about finance at all; it was about human nature. Among the devils you'll meet in vivid detail: • Angelo Mozilo, the CEO of Countrywide, who dreamed of spreading homeownership to the masses, only to succumb to the peer pressure-and the outsized profits-of the sleaziest subprime lending. • Roland Arnall, a respected philanthropist and diplomat, who made his fortune building Ameriquest, a subprime lending empire that relied on blatantly deceptive lending practices. • Hank Greenberg, who built AIG into a Rube Goldberg contraption with an undeserved triple-A rating, and who ran it so tightly that he was the only one who knew where all the bodies were buried. • Stan O'Neal of Merrill Lynch, aloof and suspicious, who suffered from "Goldman envy" and drove a proud old firm into the ground by promoting cronies and pushing out his smartest lieutenants. • Lloyd Blankfein, who helped turn Goldman Sachs from a culture that famously put clients first to one that made clients secondary to its own bottom line. • Franklin Raines of Fannie Mae, who (like his predecessors) bullied regulators into submission and let his firm drift away from its original, noble mission. • Brian Clarkson of Moody's, who aggressively pushed to increase his rating agency's market share and stock price, at the cost of its integrity. • Alan Greenspan, the legendary maestro of the Federal Reserve, who ignored the evidence of a growing housing bubble and turned a blind eye to the lending practices that ultimately brought down Wall Street-and inflicted enormous pain on the country. Just as McLean's The Smartest Guys in the Room was hailed as the best Enron book on a crowded shelf, so will All the Devils Are Here be remembered for finally making sense of the meltdown and its consequences.

Author : Patrick Robinson
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1667201298
Total Pages : 414 pages
Book Rating : 4.90/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Diamondhead written by Patrick Robinson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-09-13 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In order to save his son's life, exiled Navy SEAL Mack Bedford will have to take the life of a known terrorist ally. But before he can strike, a jilted mercenary group intervenes. Can Mack succeed...and survive? Navy SEAL Mack Bedford is expelled from the military after recklessly avenging the death of fellow soldiers who were killed by insurgents wielding a deadly Diamondhead antitank missile. Then he learns the weapons were sold illegally by the infamous terrorist abettor, Henri Foche. Meanwhile, Mack has a gravely ill son whose life can be saved only by an expensive and experimental medical procedure. When Mack is asked to assassinate Foche, his hand is forced. His reward: survival—for his son, and for his country. But before Mack can reach his target, mercenaries threaten to thwart his chances. This non-stop action thrill ride is perfect for fans of Vince Flynn, Andy McNab, and Frederick Forsyth.

Author : Lawrence G. McDonald
Publisher : Crown Pub
ISBN 13 : 0307588335
Total Pages : 351 pages
Book Rating : 4.33/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Colossal Failure of Common Sense written by Lawrence G. McDonald and published by Crown Pub. This book was released on 2009 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A former vice president of Lehman Brothers explains the financial collapse of the securities giant in 2008, what led to the financial crisis, and who had been responsible for its downfall.

Author : Giles Chance
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 0470825073
Total Pages : 241 pages
Book Rating : 4.75/5 ( download)

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Download or read book China and the Credit Crisis written by Giles Chance and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2010 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The western world attributed China’s role as world’s largest financer of the developed world and third largest economy in the world to new economic efficiencies, a revolution in risk management and its own wise policies. China and the Credit Crisis argues that if the extent of the role played in the new prosperity by an emerging China, and the fundamental nature of the changes it brought had been better understood, more appropriate policies and actions would have been adopted at the time which could have avoided the crash, or at least limited its impact. China’s Credit Crisis examines the larger role that China will play in the recovery from the current credit crisis and in the post-crisis world. It addresses the major questions which arise from the financial crisis and discuss the landscape of the post-credit crisis world, initially by continuing to provide growth to a world deep in recession, and later by sharing global economic and political leadership

Author : Scott E.D. Skyrm
Publisher : ibooks
ISBN 13 : 1883283353
Total Pages : 259 pages
Book Rating : 4.53/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Money Noose: Jon Corzine and the Collapse of MF Global written by Scott E.D. Skyrm and published by ibooks. This book was released on 2014-10-29 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Skyrm makes complex financial scenarios accessible to all interested readers in an informative and entertaining manner. We can all learn something from this book.” —Thomas Peterffy, Chairman, CEO, and President of Interactive Brokers “Skyrm put together the story of MF Global like no one else could in providing the ultimate autopsy covering destructive financial engineering that’s played such a big role in our capital markets.” —Lawrence G. McDonald, New York Times best selling author of A COLOSSAL FAILURE OF COMMON SENSE “God is in the details...first come the reporters, then the lawyers. Skyrm’s book is the necessary antidote. Only someone who has ‘done’ it can explain it. Perhaps the best ‘counterfactual’ rationale for reading The Money Noose: If John Corzine had been able to before, there would likely have been no after.” —Stan Jonas, Managing Partner, Axiom Management Partners In 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. MF Global was bankrupt less than a year after the law’s passage. THE MONEY NOOSE is a general accounting of the facts that led to MF Global’s collapse, as well as the story of the major players involved. It is a chaotic story, one in which individual actions taken in and of themselves are relatively minor. But the sum of those individual actions equal the same end result. This book is designed to tell the story of MF Global, what went wrong and how things came to an abrupt end. In those regards, it’s an incredible story.

Author : Stefano Massini
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 0062940473
Total Pages : 958 pages
Book Rating : 4.76/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Lehman Trilogy written by Stefano Massini and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2020-06-02 with total page 958 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Basis for the 2022 'Tony Award Best Play' winner Magnificent in scope, internationally lauded, and transcendent, the novel in verse that inspired the sensational West End and Broadway play of the same name. The Lehman Trilogy follows the epic rise and fall of three generations of that infamous family and through them tells the story of American ambition and hubris. After leaving his native Bavaria, Henry Lehman arrives in America determined to make a better life. Sensing opportunity in the Deep South, he opens a textile shop in Alabama, laying the foundation for a dynasty that will come to dominate and define modern capitalism. Emanuel and his brother Mayer begin investing in anything and everything that will turn a profit, from cotton to coal to railroads to oil to airplanes—even at the expense of the very nation that forged them. Spanning three generations and 150 years, The Lehman Trilogy is a moving epic that dares to tell the story of modern capitalism through the saga of the Lehman brothers and their descendants. Surprising and exciting, brilliant and inventive, Stefano Massini’s masterpiece—like Hamilton—is a story of immigration, ambition, and success; it is the story of America itself from a daring and original perspective. Translated from the Italian by Richard Dixon

Author : Vicky Ward
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 111801149X
Total Pages : 310 pages
Book Rating : 4.92/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Devil's Casino written by Vicky Ward and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-04-05 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The inside story of what really happened at Lehman Brothers and why it failed In The Devil's Casino: Friendship, Betrayal, and the High Stakes Games Played Inside Lehman Brothers, investigative writer and Vanity Fair contributing editor Vicky Ward takes readers inside Lehman's highly charged offices. What Ward uncovers is a much bigger story than Lehman losing at the risky game of collateralized debt obligations, swaps, and leverage. A can't put it down page turner that opens the world of Wall Street to view unlike any book since Bonfire of the Vanities, except that The Devil's Casino isn't fiction. Details what went on behind-the-scenes the weekend Lehman Brothers failed, as well as inside Lehman during the twenty years preceding it Describes the feudal culture that proved both Lehman's strength and its Achilles' heel Written by Vicky Ward, one of today's most connected business and finance writers On Wall Street, Lehman Brothers was cheekily known as "the cat with nine lives." But as The Devil's Casino documents, this cat pushed its luck too far and died?the victim of men and women blinded by arrogance.

Author : Laurence M. Ball
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108369081
Total Pages : 297 pages
Book Rating : 4.84/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Fed and Lehman Brothers written by Laurence M. Ball and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-07 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The bankruptcy of the investment bank Lehman Brothers was the pivotal event of the 2008 financial crisis and the Great Recession that followed. Ever since the bankruptcy, there has been heated debate about why the Federal Reserve did not rescue Lehman in the same way it rescued other financial institutions, such as Bear Stearns and AIG. The Fed's leaders from that time, especially former Chairman Ben Bernanke, have strongly asserted that they lacked the legal authority to save Lehman because it did not have adequate collateral for the loan it needed to survive. Based on a meticulous four-year study of the Lehman case, The Fed and Lehman Brothers debunks the official narrative of the crisis. It shows that in reality, the Fed could have rescued Lehman but officials chose not to because of political pressures and because they underestimated the damage that the bankruptcy would do to the economy. The compelling story of the Lehman collapse will interest anyone who cares about what caused the financial crisis, whether the leaders of the Federal Reserve have given accurate accounts of their actions, and how the Fed can prevent future financial disasters.

Author : Oonagh McDonald
Publisher : Manchester University Press
ISBN 13 : 1526100509
Total Pages : 343 pages
Book Rating : 4.04/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Lehman Brothers written by Oonagh McDonald and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2015-11-01 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC) open access license. Using extensive documentary evidence and interviews with former Lehman employees, Oonagh McDonald reveals the decisions that led to Lehman’s collapse, investigates why the government refused a bail-out and whether the implications of this refusal were fully understood. In clear and accessible language she demonstrates both the short and long term effects of Lehman’s collapse.