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|  | Author: Gillian Tett
Publisher: Free Press
List Price: $26.00
Buy New: $14.98
as of 11/22/2009 14:52 CST details
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New (39) Used (11) Collectible (1) from $14.98
Seller: mediamarket
Rating:  46 reviews
Sales Rank: 5258
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2
ISBN: 141659857X
Dewey Decimal Number: 332.660973
EAN: 9781416598572
ASIN: 141659857X
Publication Date: May 12, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 11-15 of 46
 A timely, readable account of the rise and fall of financial WMD September 11, 2009
Richard Gibson (Woodland Hills, CA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
The centerpiece of the great financial crash that we just went through was the rise and fall of esoteric, difficult to understand credit derivatives and the shadow banking system. Gillian Tett, a British journalist, has given us an extremely readable history of the people who created this monster and how their creation went so badly wrong.
She focuses on the key people at JP Morgan who invented modern derivatives. At first, they simply wanted to create a more flexible way for modern finance to spread risk and to make it possible for capital to flow more freely. Their creation, however, had several fatal flaws. First, they were so complex that almost no one understood them. Second, they contained a fatal temptation to vastly increase credit and risk, without anyone really knowing what was going on.
JP Morgan is at the center of the story. Ironically, as the inventors of derivatives, they understood their risks far better than anyone else. Tett tells the story of how, as derivatives spun out of control, JP Morgan made less money for years than the other banks, because they refused to take what they saw as the insane risks that others were taking. In the end. JPMorgan Chase emerged as the strongest bank still standing, precisely because it avoided risks more intelligently. A compelling story, which is very well told here.
 beware September 11, 2009
A. Peterson (Bethesda, Maryland.)
0 out of 10 found this review helpful
obviously an EXTREMELY POOR,NEGLIGENT, DEFICIENT PROVIDER/ordered
a book in AUGUST[ AUGUST 9TH] AND AS OF MID SEPTEMBER HAVE yet to receive it
despite TWO UNRESPONSIVE E-MAIL REQUESTS/ACCORDINGLY!!
YOU HAVE BEEN DULY WARNED!
Best easy to understand history of the credit crisis August 23, 2009
robert in NC
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book traces the causes of the credit crisis back to their origins and gives readers a comprehensive and easy to understand history of how we got into the mess we are in today. This is a must read for everyone trying to understand what went wrong. The reader will wince when they first hear of AIG agreeing to insure "super senior" tranches for 2 basis points.
Any serious student of markets should have a copy on hand at all times as a useful reference and reminder.
Clarity at last August 23, 2009
Mr. T. Readman (UK)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
At last! Someone who actually understands the financial system and way it functions has set out in simple language where the crisis originated and how it developed. It should be compulsory reading for all politicans, regulators, bank board members and especially jounalists - in fact for anyone who wants to know what really happened and how we might begin to try and fix the problem.
Context August 22, 2009
Stephen T. Hopkins (Oak Park, Illinois)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Don't let the inflammatory title of Gillian Tett's new book lead you to think that this is a lightweight, quickly written diatribe about the financial crisis. It must have been the publisher who thought more sales would come from the title, Fool's Gold: How the Bold Dream of a Small Tribe at J.P. Morgan Was Corrupted by Wall Street Greed and Unleashed a Catastrophe. Tett writes for the Financial Times, and Fool's Gold is a thoughtful and engaging history of the creation and spread of credit derivatives. A group of talented J.P. Morgan bankers created credit derivatives, and managed them in the context of the credit culture of that company. One of Tett's eureka insights is that the Morgan credit experts had never worked anywhere else, and couldn't imagine that their competitors had such weak credit controls over their business. It was those weak credit controls that led to disaster. Among the recent books about the financial crisis, this focus on the history and spread of credit derivatives is one of the best.
Rating: Four-star (Highly Recommended)
Showing reviews 11-15 of 46
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