|
FIASCO: Blood in the Water on Wall Street |  | Author: Frank Partnoy
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.
List Price: $16.95
Buy New: $9.96
as of 11/24/2009 10:24 CST details
You Save: $6.99 (41%)
New (31) Used (11) from $7.30
Seller: turningnewleaf
Rating:  44 reviews
Sales Rank: 120283
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Pages: 272
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0393336816
Dewey Decimal Number: 332
EAN: 9780393336818
ASIN: 0393336816
Publication Date: April 6, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Features:
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
The game of Russian roulette is alive and well and living on Wall Street, where it's known as the derivatives market. In his aptly named book F.I.A.S.C.O., Frank Partnoy, a former derivatives trader at Morgan Stanley, exposes the seamier side of high-stakes finance. Derivatives are securities whose worth is determined by the value of other securities; according to Partnoy, however, the derivatives market is an elaborate illusion performed with smoke and mirrors. In fascinating, frightening detail Partnoy describes several of Morgan Stanley's slick deals that, in his eyes, are just this side of outright fraud. More than just dishonest, the bait-and-switch tactics Wall Street traders employ to rig the markets are downright dangerous, since the massive debt these deals conceal will inevitably come back to haunt the dealmakers. F.I.A.S.C.O. could be subtitled Portrait of the Trader as a Young Man, for Frank Partnoy is indeed young, and his short tenure on Wall Street left him sadly disillusioned but much wiser. His book will leave you wiser, too--and probably very worried.
Product Description
“Applies an intelligent, clinical eye to [an] excruciatingly complex corner of the financial world.” —New York Times A classic of its kind, Frank Partnoy’s best-selling FIASCO takes readers inside the rollicking world of derivatives on Wall Street during the mid-1990s. The book tracks Partnoy’s success as a young Morgan Stanley employee who quickly becomes steeped in a culture that treats client as targets to be “blown up” or have their faces “ripped off.” A decade later FIASCO remains one of the most damning and prescient pictures of the speculative frenzies that grip Wall Street and the victims they can leave in their wake. In Partnoy’s case they include well-publicized losses at Orange County, Barings, and Procter & Gamble, among others. A new epilogue written for this edition brings Partnoy’s story—as well as the story of derivatives—up to the present. .
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 44
 A must for any MBA November 9, 2009
C. Schappa
Wish I would have read this book while taking capital markets during my MBA. Although this book was originally written 10+ years ago, it provides an excellent understanding of how the subprime mortgage market could be a catalyst to the financial system meltdown in late 2008.
Book was an easy read with funny, real-life anecdotes. There are a few technical parts that describe some of the investment vehicles created. These could be difficult to understand for a novice and would benefit from simple graphs.
 Good Is Not the Word April 30, 2009
James T. Blanchard
0 out of 8 found this review helpful
This book was messed up, busted up, and used up at the library.
It wasn't fun to receive.
Derivatives defined April 20, 2009
Attention To Detail (Westlake Village, CA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Well written and hard to put away. I understood derivatives before I read FIASCO. But knowing how it all started definitely makes it lot more interesting.
Puke worthy April 7, 2009
William M. Doolittle (east stroudsburg, pa United States)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Looking back from a 2009 perspective, this horrifying book, depicts the inner workings and the amoral habits of the Wall Street criminals at work. It is hard to ignore like a bloody car wreck. These rotten people knowingly robbed their clients, then all of us and ultimately dumped the world economy down the toilet, Once these types of scum were said to be freaks on Wall Street. Now we know better.
 This best part of this book is it's a loan to me March 15, 2006
Hing K. Law (Jersey City, New Jersey United States)
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
The copy I read was a loan from my colleague and that was the best part about it. I'm sure I wouldn't have bought this book myself.
Other than that, the only better part is in the description of how some Japanese companies used financial derivatives to inflate their revenue or to mask their losses. In light of the off-balance-sheet deals we have witnessed in several corporate scandals through late 1990s to early 2000s, the author surely shows what could have been under the rug.
The author might have been honest with what he had come across with his fixed income derivatives sales jobs in two Wall Street firms. Yet I sincerely doubt how wide and deep such exposure he could have on things going around that complex world from his narrow corner. It's like telling the stories of Detroit after having been a used car salesperson for two or three years.
Over the book, there are the author's opinions on how great the fixed income derivatives department is and how low the others, e.g., municipal bonds, are. Apparently those opinions are very subjective as I believe he didn't have sufficient knowledge on the other operations to base his opinions. At least, he didn't seem to have worked or learned about the works in those other areas.
Even in the author's own fixed income derivatives department, the reader cannot find much on works, say, product structuring or risk management, outside the sales team. Simply put, we understand that the firm puts together certain derivatives products and hold inventory of them until they're sold. What would the firm be if market conditions changed before its salespersons could dump the products to the seemingly ignorant customers?
Another drawback with this book is the author tends to argue that since there is huge money to be made with these financial transactions, the government would never be able to impose an effective regulation for the public good.
It may be natural for the author to argue on the regulation issues, based on the fact that he left Wall Street to pursue a legal career. The fallacy of that argument in the book is it fails to recognize two prerequisites of the issue: whether and what regulation can protect the public good.
Fair to say is regulations surely can increase employment for lawyers but not necessarily serve the public good.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 44
|
|
|
|
Return to Math.com | |
