Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 43
 Puzzled by credit default swaps and derivatives? October 28, 2009
Adam Corson-Finnerty (Philadelphia, PA United States)
During the financial crisis, I found myself thinking: when this subsides I can hardly wait to read the book that will explain what the hell is happening. This book makes an excellent base for understanding the transmogrification of banking into a go-go financial house of cards. JP Morgan emerges as both villain (they invented some of the instruments that were abused) and role-model (they did not give in to the excesses of Lehman, Citibank, and Bear Sterns). The author writes for the Financial Times, and thus a sophisticated audience, so don't expect easy going--especially since the players themselves often didn't understand what they had wrought. A good companion to this is In Fed We Trust, which tells the Washington side of the story.In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke's War on the Great Panic
excellent book October 14, 2009
D. Azinger (Hemet, CA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This woman has written an excellent book. Takes you inside the banking industry since the 1980's when the creative group at JP Morgan met down in Boca Raton, FL to "brainstorm" on new financial products. I skipped way ahead to page 167 to get right into the financial crises, then went back and read chapter 2 and so on. She really has a handle on all the creative nonsense and how it orginated, the development, and history of it all. I learned alot. One of the books she referecnes is the "$2 trillion Meltdown", which I am reading now, and also excellent. Great read, intelligent woman, good writer, well researched, very factual, very educational, excellent book. The only negative thing I will say is it is a slow read, and takes some patience depending on your knowledge going into it. But it is worth the effort. She just didn't crank out something fast to exploit the crises. It has a lot of depth and information.
 An engaging and informative read September 28, 2009
A. Siu (Sammamish, WA USA)
I was expecting this kind of books usually is a bit more dry or technical to read through. But the author did a good job making the book interesting enough to keep me reading to the end. The book is informative enough but not too boring nor too technical. With the story starting from the JP Morgan group started the derivative team more than 10 years ago, it gave a more in-depth background and insider point of view for the readers to comprehend the unravel of the big Financial crisis. It also got me curious and interested in reading more about the collapse of Lehman and Bear Stearns. Good read.
 similar book September 22, 2009
Howard Mcpherson (Cleveland, Ohio United States)
In NATURE, 464, 175 (Sept10, 2009) there is a review of "Fool's Gold: How Unrestrained Greed Corrupted a Dream, Shattered Global Markets and Unleashed a Catastrophe" by Gillian Tett, Published by Little, Brown 2009 with 352 pages. Unless this review is a mistake the American edition (?) is missing 48 pages, or this may be a revised edition.
what you Ought to Know September 12, 2009
C. Cone (Dorset VT)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Excellent insider description of the various errors in judgment and oversights that led up to the financial crisis. It's fairly technical, but well worth the effort to pursue the details and understand why we're here. Well written.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 43
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