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|  | Author: William D Cohan
Publisher: Tantor Media
List Price: $49.99
Buy New: $22.99
as of 3/22/2010 09:21 CDT details
You Save: $27.00 (54%)
New (23) Used (17) from $11.85
Seller: thebookgrove
Rating:  85 reviews
Sales Rank: 152614
Format: Audiobook, CD, Unabridged
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Unabridged
Number Of Items: 20
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 6.5 x 5.4 x 1.7
ISBN: 1400111684
Dewey Decimal Number: 332.660973
EAN: 9781400111688
ASIN: 1400111684
Publication Date: April 1, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Expedited shipping is not available for this item. Arrival estimate: 5-16 business days.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 85
 A Major Disappointment --Cumbersome and Poorly Organized January 3, 2010
Southern Train (atlanta)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This a long book --how someone [an earlier reviewer] claims to have gotten through this 450 page book in a day is in itself astonishing. The focus is Bear Stearns collapse in 2008; the story starts just as B/S is collapsing and provides a morass of financial detail that is burdensome and confusing to read and, I think largely irrelevant. After about 1/3 of the story being consumed by this detail, the story goes back to the founding of the firm and focuses on 3 key leaders--Sy Lewis, Ace Greenberg and Jimmy Cayne; their traits, quirks and maneuverings are interesting and are what explains a lot about what happened in 2008. They made enemies and acted with pride and ruthlessness that was remembered by their enemies. The final third or so of the book returns to the final days of B/S. This should be a compelling story, a real page turner.From my point of view it was tedious and frustrating. Here are key problems:
1] this is poorly edited; the same details keep getting repeated --sometimes after having been presented just a couple of pages earlier;
2] there is tremendous detail re finacial transactions; unless, you have a background in finance [I don't], a lot of this makes no sense;
3] the torrent of detail obscuires what happened -- these corporate leaders gambled with other peoples' money, they did not effectively manage risk and they allowed greed to take control of judgment;
4] the author reported voluminously but did not pull his story together with a focus on why what happened happened. There is a lack of careful analysis; sometimes I thought Mr. Cohan's goal was to throw out as many facts and stories as he could and hope some of them were of interest.
---I have read other financial stories [Den of Thieves; Liar's Poker, etc]. This was not in the same league and I would not recommend it.
 Good book with extensive detail on collapse of Bear Sterns December 28, 2009
Jacob Wolinsky (monsey, ny)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Any of the readers who have been reading my columns know I have been reading several books recently on the financial crisis. The latest book I have read is House Of Cards by William Cohan. The book is a tale of Bear Sterns, beginning in 1923 and ending in March 2008 with their acquisition by JP Morgan.
This book is written from a slightly different perspective from the previous books I read on the financial crisis. The previous books I reviewed were written by former Lehman Brother employees and the books were their firsthand accounts of the collapse of their firm. House of Cards is not written by a former Bear Sterns employee. The book is written by a journalist who had extensive access to insiders at the firm. This list includes Jimmy Cayne(former CEO), Sam Molinaro(former CFO), Paul Friedman (former COO of fixed income), and Robert Upton(former treasurer). The author also had access to some high profile people outside the firm including Larry Summers, Timothy Geithner, Meredith Whitney, Steve Schwarzman. Generally I prefer books written by insiders especially since they have a better grasp on finance. However, I enjoyed this book very much and the author seemed to have a good understanding of finance.
The book is divided into three parts. The first part details the last days of the firm in March 2008. The second part of the book is an extensive history of the firm including a personal history of former CEO Jimmy Cayne, and several founders and former CEOs of the firm. The last part of the book details the last several years of the firm starting with the September 11 attacks and details the mistakes of the firm that led to its downfall.
Whenever I do a book review I like sharing interesting details that I learned from the book, which I was unaware of previously. The author provides a thorough account of a huge legal mistake made by the JP Morgan legal team prior to their purchase of Bear Sterns. JP Morgan offered to buy Bear Sterns for $2 and guarantee Bear Sterns trading obligations until the deal closed. JP Morgan's lawyers forgot to add to the contract that if shareholders rejected the deal JP Morgan would still have to guarantee Bear Sterns' trading obligations. Bear Sterns management discovered this error and eventually forced Jamie Dimon (CEO JP Morgan) to agree to a higher price of $10. Needless to say, Dimon was furious at the lawyers for this several hundred million dollar error.
I loved the book and I only have two criticisms. The first criticism is I think the author went into too much detail in the second part of the book detailing the history of many important people at Bear Sterns. Although, I think it was appropriate to include a brief history of people like Jimmy Cayne (former CEO), the Cohan went into too much detail about their personal life. My second criticism is the layout of the book. Considering I was not too familiar with the history of Bear Sterns I would have liked the third part of the book to come before the first part of the book. When I was reading the first part of the book I was confused since I did not know many of the Bear Sterns management that the author mentioned. This is not too big of a problem, because you can read the last part of the book before the first part, which I recommend for anyone interested in the book.
Overall, I enjoyed the book a lot. I would recommend the book to anyone interested in the collapse of Bear Sterns and the causes of it. The book is very long; it is not a quick weekend read .If you are looking for a book like that this is not the book for you. However, if you want a detailed explaining Bear Sterns' mistakes during the housing bubble and extensive details of the last days of the firm before it was purchased by JP Morgan, this is book is perfect.
Wallows in detail, lacks direction December 26, 2009
Sherwyn Warren (Winnetka, IL)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Cohan seems to have great access to the players, is fascinated and intrigued by their personal interests and habits--where they play golf or bridge, dine or live--but wallows in such details and does not provide a road map for how the downfall is playing out. He would be more helpful with more explanation and fewer expletives and quotations. I can't believe he was the fly on the wall.
 High expections, poor delivery! The author is just as greedy as the ones discussed in the book... November 8, 2009
Lionel Lanuza
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
If you don't work in Wall street; do not buy this book! The author intentionally wrote this book for the common audience to understand the internal mechanics of how the financial sector collapse. After reading the first half of the book; I'm painstakingly researching terms used by the author that is common lingo with financial gurus. If you are looking to understand how and why wallstreet collapsed, this is not the book for you. It may as well be written in Spanish.
There was tremendous hype built around this book. Shortly after the collapse of the financial sector, a curious audience tuned in to the news listening to the financial jargon of editors and writers about credit swap defaults, sub prime mortgage mess, and highly leveraged financial institutions. The author, William Cohen, came out on a few shows on national television pitching his book to the audience. On one particular show on Comedy central; he talked about how he explains in his book the evolution of the financial crisis meltdown in basic terms such that the people could understand what these financial analysts are saying. This book is very hard to understand, poorly written, and seemed as though it was rushed.
I say that the author is just as bad as the greedy wall street CEOs because he obviously led me to believe that this book was decent enough for the common audience to appreciate and understand. However, its just a pitch to make a sale so he can make money.
 Too gossipy and too many second string characters October 24, 2009
andris virsnieks (Seattle, WA USA)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
This book needs more analysis and fewer stories written with a "novelistic verve". It is a chilling story but the "trove of colourful tidbits" tends to be distracting.
Showing reviews 6-10 of 85
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