A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers

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Synopsis
One of the biggest questions of the financial crisis has not been answered until now: What happened at Lehman Brothers and why was it allowed to fail, with aftershocks that rocked the global economy? In this news-making, often astonishing book, a former Lehman Brothers Vice President gives us the straight answers—right from the belly of the beast. In A Colossal Failure of Common Sense, Larry McDonald, a Wall Street insider, reveals, the culture and unspoken rules of the game like no book has ever done. The book is couched in the very human story of Larry McDonald&’s Horatio Alger-like rise from a Massachusetts &“gateway to nowhere&” housing project to the New York headquarters of Lehman Brothers, home of one of the world&’s toughest trading floors. We get a close-up view of the participants in the Lehman collapse, especially those who saw it coming with a helpless, angry certainty. We meet the Brahmins at the top, whose reckless, pedal-to-the-floor addiction to growth finally demolished the nation&’ s oldest investment bank. The Wall Street we encounter here is a ruthless place, where brilliance, arrogance, ambition, greed, capacity for relentless toil, and other human traits combine in a potent mix that sometimes fuels prosperity but occasionally destroys it. The full significance of the dissolution of Lehman Brothers remains to be measured. But this much is certain: it was a devastating blow to America&’s—and the world&’s—financial system. And it need not have happened. This is the story of why it did.
Copyright:
2009

Book Details

Book Quality:
Publisher Quality
ISBN-13:
9780307588357
Related ISBNs:
9780307588333
Publisher:
Crown
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
Lawrence G. McDonald and Patrick Robinson
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
History, Nonfiction, Biographies and Memoirs, Business and Finance
Submitted By:
Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.

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