Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President by Ron Suskind

May 12, 2013 Leon rated it 3 of 5 stars

The hidden history of Wall Street and the White House comes down to a single, powerful, quintessentially American concept: confidence. Both centers of power, tapping brazen innovations over the past three decades, learned how to manufacture it.

Until August 2007, when that confidence finally began to crumble.

In this gripping and brilliantly reported book, Ron Suskind tells the story of what happened next, as Wall Street struggled to save itself while a man with little experience and soaring

...more

The hidden history of Wall Street and the White House comes down to a single, powerful, quintessentially American concept: confidence. Both centers of power, tapping brazen innovations over the past three decades, learned how to manufacture it.

Until August 2007, when that confidence finally began to crumble.

In this gripping and brilliantly reported book, Ron Suskind tells the story of what happened next, as Wall Street struggled to save itself while a man with little experience and soaring rhetoric emerged from obscurity to usher in “a new era of responsibility.” It is a story that follows the journey of Barack Obama, who rose as the country fell, and offers the first full portrait of his tumultuous presidency.

Wall Street found that straying from long-standing principles of transparency, accountability, and fair dealing opened a path to stunning profits. Obama’s determination to reverse that trend was essential to his ascendance, especially when Wall Street collapsed during the fall of an election year and the two candidates could audition for the presidency by responding to a national crisis. But as he stood on the stage in Grant Park, a shudder went through Barack Obama. He would now have to command Washington, tame New York, and rescue the economy in the first real management job of his life.

The new president surrounded himself with a team of seasoned players—like Rahm Emanuel, Larry Summers, and Tim Geithner—who had served a different president in a different time. As the nation’s crises deepened, Obama’s deputies often ignored the president’s decisions—“to protect him from himself”—while they fought to seize control of a rudderless White House. Bitter disputes—between men and women, policy and politics—ruled the day. The result was an administration that found itself overtaken by events as, year to year, Obama struggled to grow into the world’s toughest job and, in desperation, take control of his own administration.

Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Ron Suskind introduces readers to an ensemble cast, from the titans of high finance to a new generation of reformers, from petulant congressmen and acerbic lobbyists to a tight circle of White House advisers—and, ultimately, to the president himself, as you’ve never before seen him. Based on hundreds of interviews and filled with piercing insights and startling disclosures, Confidence Men brings into focus the collusion and conflict between the nation’s two capitals—New York and Washington, one of private gain, the other of public purpose—in defining confidence and, thereby, charting America’s future.

Review

“Savvy and informative. . . . The most ambitious treatment of this period yet. . . . Suskind’s book often reads like Halberstam’s The Best and the Brightest. But the quagmire isn’t a neo-Vietnam like Afghanistan—it’s the economy.” (Frank Rich, *New York* )

“A searing new book. . . . Suskind has a flair for taking material he’s harvested to create narratives with a novelistic sense of drama.” (Michiko Kakutani, *The New York Times* )

“No book about the Obama presidency appears to have unnerved the White House quite so much as Confidence Men by Ron Suskind, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has developed a niche in the specialized art of parting the curtain on presidential dealings.” (The Chicago Tribune )

“A truly groundbreaking inside account. . . . Penetrating in its analysis of why the administration’s approach to the country’s economic ills has been so lackluster. . . . An important addition to the growing library of books about this president.” (Joe Nocera, *The New York Times Book Review* )

“The book of the week, maybe the book of the month, is Ron Suskind’s Confidence Men. . . . A detailed narrative of the Administration’s response-sometimes frantic, sometimes sluggish, sometimes both-to the financial and economic catastrophe it inherited, as experienced from the inside.” (Hendrik Hertzberg, *The New Yorker* )

“The work that went into Confidence Men cannot be denied. Suskind conducted hundreds of interviews. He spoke to almost every member of the Obama administration, including the President. He quotes memos no one else has published. He gives you scenes that no one else has managed to capture.” (Ezra Klein, *The New York Review of Books* )

“Suskind’s account of the Obama administration is a marker of our times. It reveals a President unable to perform responsibly the duties of his high office. . . . Suskind’s contribution to this tale of woe is to give us a fine grained picture of Obama’s passive place in deliberations.” (Huffington PostThe Huffington Post )

“My Book of the Year. A narrative tour de force. . . . Journalism like this is all too rare in an ange in which reporters trade their critical faculties for access. And it’s even rarer that skeptical reporting is turned into something lasting.” (David Granger, *Esquire* )

“This inside account of the Obama economic team contains enough damning on-the-record quotes to give it the ring of truth despite White House efforts to discredit the narrative of infighting and missed opportunities. Read it and weep. It reminds me of the post-Iraq invasion books that documented a similar failure to rise to the enormity of the problem, whether the insurgency was in Iraq or on Wall Street.” (Eleanor Clift, *Newsweek* )

From the Back Cover

The hidden history of Wall Street and the White House comes down to a single, powerful, quintessentially American concept: confidence. Both centers of power, tapping brazen innovations over the past three decades, learned how to manufacture it.

Until August 2007, when that confidence finally began to crumble.

In this gripping and brilliantly reported book, Ron Suskind tells the story of what happened next, as Wall Street struggled to save itself while a man with little experience and soaring rhetoric emerged from obscurity to usher in “a new era of responsibility.” It is a story that follows the journey of Barack Obama, who rose as the country fell, and offers the first full portrait of his tumultuous presidency.

Wall Street found that straying from long-standing principles of transparency, accountability, and fair dealing opened a path to stunning profits. Obama’s determination to reverse that trend was essential to his ascendance, especially when Wall Street collapsed during the fall of an election year and the two candidates could audition for the presidency by responding to a national crisis. But as he stood on the stage in Grant Park, a shudder went through Barack Obama. He would now have to command Washington, tame New York, and rescue the economy in the first real management job of his life.

The new president surrounded himself with a team of seasoned players—like Rahm Emanuel, Larry Summers, and Tim Geithner—who had served a different president in a different time. As the nation’s crises deepened, Obama’s deputies often ignored the president’s decisions—“to protect him from himself”—while they fought to seize control of a rudderless White House. Bitter disputes—between men and women, policy and politics—ruled the day. The result was an administration that found itself overtaken by events as, year to year, Obama struggled to grow into the world’s toughest job and, in desperation, take control of his own administration.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind intro-duces readers to an ensemble cast, from the titans of high finance to a new generation of reformers, from petulant congressmen and acerbic lobbyists to a tight circle of White House advisers—and, ultimately, to the president himself, as you’ve never before seen him. Based on hundreds of interviews and filled with piercing insights and startling disclosures, Confidence Men brings into focus the collusion and conflict between the nation’s two capitals—New York and Washington, one of private gain, the other of public purpose—in defining confidence and, thereby, charting America’s future.

(less)

like · see review

May 01, 2012 DANIEL rated it 3 of 5 stars

Fascinating but frustrating book. Suskind's look at Obama's first two years in office has incredible White House access (he's interviewed all the players at one time or other) and crafts a compelling narrative; a new administration divided and stalled by the enormity of the unexpected financial crisis. You get all the details wanted on the administrations' plan to wind down Citigroup that ultimately never came to fruition (a process that would show how govt could intercede in 'too big to fail' i...more

like · see review

Mar 26, 2012 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars

Having read a couple of "financial crisis" books from the Wall Street side, I decided to try one from the political side. Suskind is a former WSJ reporter - which suggests a bit of a bias toward the conservative side. The book is a summary of Barack Obama's first two years in office, with an appropriate emphasis on his handling of the financial crisis and the passage of health care legislation. My takeaways (appropriately shaped by my own biases) are: 1. Obama would have been somewhat better off...more

like · see review

Mar 18, 2012 Irving Koppel rated it 5 of 5 stars

Ron Suskind's "Confidence Men": Wall Street,Washington,and the education of a president details
the problems and the solutions that the Obama team faced on entering office and how and why they
were treated the way they were. One gets the definite impression that Mr.Obama leaned heavily on
the advice of Mr.Geithner and Mr.Summers,both of whom were overly friendly with Wall Street. The president really had to have on the job training in order to deal with the world of high finance and
with the pass...more

like · see review

Jan 06, 2012 Adam Snider rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is both the first book I've read on the Obama presidency, and the first book I've read by Ron Suskind, and it has left me feeling slightly ambiguous about both. Confidence Men isn't just a book about the Obama phenomenon - it jumps repeatedly back and forth between Wall Street and Washington, using the story of the first two years of the new administration as a doorway into a host of other topics: the evolution of the financial industry since the '70s, the rise of the Tea Party, the 2008 el...more This is both the first book I've read on the Obama presidency, and the first book I've read by Ron Suskind, and it has left me feeling slightly ambiguous about both. Confidence Men isn't just a book about the Obama phenomenon - it jumps repeatedly back and forth between Wall Street and Washington, using the story of the first two years of the new administration as a doorway into a host of other topics: the evolution of the financial industry since the '70s, the rise of the Tea Party, the 2008 election, etc. This isn't handled badly - Suskind is an excellent narrator, but the book nevertheless feels kind of stretched out and incomplete by the end.

Part of that, of course, is that the main thematic topics of the book - the Obama administration and the recession - are both ongoing, and in fact much that has happened recently isn't covered Confidence Men, leaving it as a book which just can't put itself forth as the "authoritative" take on its subject matter. At the same time, the cast offered by the book (many of whom the author interviewed directly) means that a lot of folks get short-changed, or only dealt with sporadically. Names you haven't seen since the third chapter show up in the tenth, forcing you to troll back through your memory (or the book itself) to remind yourself of who they are and what their history is. In many ways, Confidence Men is less a story than a series of very well done snapshots of an unfolding crisis and the people caught in its net.

As a collection of snapshots, however, the book is quite engaging, and Suskind doesn't pull punches in the conclusions he draws. Confidence Men is quite critical of Obama, who is portrayed throughout as a man more comfortable making speeches and moderating discussions than actually pushing legislation through Congress or meeting sworn enemies on the political field of battle. At times he is incapable of facing the resistance of his own advisors, never mind Republicans and Wall Street CEOs. The latter are actually given a very nuanced look - rather than being treated as uniformly culpable, considerable effort is made to tease out who among the luminaries of the financial industry 1) understood what was going on before, during, and after the Crash, 2) understood the ramifications of what had happened for the future of the US economy, and 3) were willing to press for reforms - and how far.

Certainly a book worth reading, and one that will keep your attention, although the financial jargon will make certain parts tougher to get through than others. I just feel that the author should have waited a few more years, and written a much more comprehensive and complete book.(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Jan 03, 2012 Al rated it 3 of 5 stars

I am willing to believe that in the preparation of this book, Mr. Suskind conducted "... 746 hours of interviews ... with more than 200 individuals..." I for one am glad that he didn't talk to more, or longer, than he did. As best I can determine, this book is a wealth of data and stories in search of a theme. It wanders from story line to story line, and from person to person. It's confusing, if not maddening, to find policies and people first viewed favorably, later unfavorably, and in some c...more

1 like · like · see review

Dec 30, 2011 David Drum rated it 4 of 5 stars

My liberal friends have two views of President Barack Obama, the first African American to be elected President. The most cynical view is that Obama was always a “Trojan horse,” talking liberal talk while always basically aligned with the interests of corporate America and Wall Street. A more sympathetic view is that Obama went into office a good man with great ideas, and simply couldn’t pull them off because he wasn’t up to the job.

Ron Suskind’s book, Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, an...more

2 likes · like · see review

Anna He doesn’t mention Obama’s refusal to prosecute anyone in the Bush administration for crimes against the Constitution, his inability to close Guantana...more He doesn’t mention Obama’s refusal to prosecute anyone in the Bush administration for crimes against the Constitution, his inability to close Guantanamo or any of that.

Seriously? Obama is a globalist hack just like Bush. Bush was bad enough but Obama has outpaced Bush as far as being unconstitutional. Bush started SPP. He just handed the baton to Obama. Obama's Czars are completely unconstitutional. Bush wasn't able to get the trucking industry turned over to Mexico. Obama did it under executive order. How about his recent NDAA! As he signed it he said he could imprison American citizens without charging them or legal representation but he wouldn't. The democratic co-sponsor said Obama's lawyers insisted the language be in the bill or he wouldn't sign it. The only "terrorists" who are going to be inprisoned will be American citizens who don't want to go along with the North American Union. Don't you get it? Obama is a globalist. He is working for the destruction of this country and for the new world order. Don't you remember his citizen of the world speech? Dem versus Rep is just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Step out of the matrix. The oligarchy is beyond borders in their quest for unlimited profits. There is too much money and power in the middle class. Obama will be rewarded handsomely. America is toast.

"The chief problem of American political life for a long time has been how to make the two congressional parties more national and international. The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to the doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead the two parties should be almost identical, so the that American people can 'throw the rascals out' at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy."
- Carroll Quigley, member of Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), mentor to Bill Clinton, quote from Tragedy and Hope, 1966(less)
Jan 21, 2012 07:23pm

David Drum Yes, seriously? I agree with several things you say, but I was reviewing the book not so much reviewing Obama. The book was mostly detailing the mecha...more
Jan 21, 2012 11:26pm

Nov 14, 2011 Clay rated it 4 of 5 stars

This blow by blow account of Obama's presidential education is a zinger. The early insights on the coming meltdown from UBS head and fundraiser Wolf prepared Obama well for the September showdown with McCain. In a 2007 meeting with economic advisors, Obama decided that building infrastructure was the way to get unemployed men to work (there were lots of jobs in services like helping seniors, but it wasn't "man's work"). Obama decided to go with Team B economists (led by Summers, Geithner) and th...more

like · see review

Oct 09, 2011 Michele Weiner rated it 5 of 5 stars

I loved this inside look at the Obama White House by Ron Suskind, whose recent current affairs efforts have been equally stunning. He says that Barack Obama was forced by crisis to change his course dramatically in key areas: the Bush tax cuts, health care, and Wall Street reform were all impacted by his fear of doing harm to desperate Americans. Also, he was stymied by the strong opinions of his advisors, including most notably Larry Summers, Tim Geithner and Rahm Emmanuel. In the end, having c...more

2 likes · like · see review

Sep 30, 2011 Dan Petegorsky rated it 3 of 5 stars

Suskind’s book has drawn wide attention mainly for some “palace intrigue” passages featuring various WH staffers’ uncharitable assessments of one another and for several sources’ subsequent denials of the accuracy of Suskind’s attributions. That’s a shame, because while these do feature in his book, it’s really much more than that: it’s a sobering, indeed depressing overview of the financial crisis and how it affected and was handled first by candidate and then President Obama and his administra...more Suskind’s book has drawn wide attention mainly for some “palace intrigue” passages featuring various WH staffers’ uncharitable assessments of one another and for several sources’ subsequent denials of the accuracy of Suskind’s attributions. That’s a shame, because while these do feature in his book, it’s really much more than that: it’s a sobering, indeed depressing overview of the financial crisis and how it affected and was handled first by candidate and then President Obama and his administration.

This wider scope of the book is both a strength and weakness. A strength in that, especially for those who haven’t delved into the wider literature on the economic collapse and its roots on Wall Street and in DC, it’s a relatively lucid and non-expert friendly telling. The drawback is that if you’ve read other treatments, much of the narrative has been told already. That said, even where Suskind goes over familiar territory he tells parts of the story through the eyes of some figures who haven’t received much attention elsewhere and who give it fresh perspective. Plus, while he does focus on a circumscribed network of characters and how they influenced the process of trying to reform (or block reform of) the financial industry, he really is most interested in the policies and moral issues themselves.

So while there are flaws (including some factual errors various reviewers have noted), overall it’s still a pretty strong and unfortunately necessary indictment of the Administration’s failure to have taken full advantage of a moment when it had Wall Street’s back against the wall to implement a far more systemic reform that it has so far achieved. Perhaps the mounting protests now underway across the country can help change that.

[One note on the Audible version: while they’ve employed a generally skillful narrator, it’s beyond merely irksome that he regularly butchers the pronunciation of major figures’ names, including such prominent public figures as Valerie Jarrett and Vikram Pandit, and even including one of the book’s central figures, Gary Gensler.]
(less)

1 like · like · see review

Sep 30, 2011 Frank Stein rated it 2 of 5 stars

This has got to be one of the most infuriating books ever written. First, the author knows nothing, and I mean nothing, about the basic economics that underpins the whole debate the book is putatively about. He confuses bank assets with liabilities, the "multiplier effect" with consumption spending, annual deficits with total debt, and on and on and on. Even more frustrating, however, is the fact that I have never in my life read a book with more plain and simple factual errors. It is almost ine...more This has got to be one of the most infuriating books ever written. First, the author knows nothing, and I mean nothing, about the basic economics that underpins the whole debate the book is putatively about. He confuses bank assets with liabilities, the "multiplier effect" with consumption spending, annual deficits with total debt, and on and on and on. Even more frustrating, however, is the fact that I have never in my life read a book with more plain and simple factual errors. It is almost inevitable that any time Suskind spends at least a paragraph discussing the background or history of an issue, he will write something glaringly and indisputably false. He seems to think "BASEL" is the acronym for the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) (Basel is the city it is based in), he says Columbia is the third greatest oil exporter to the US (it's at least seventh), Geithner was President not "chairman" of the New York Federal Reserve, the terms billion and trillion are continuously confused. Other reviewers, and the White House itself, have noted a stream of similar basic errors. If I had to guess at Suskind's research methodology, I'd say that he looked up something on Wikipedia once, and then included it in the book months later based on the best of his recollections about it. There's no explanation for some of these. Literally dozens of errors in the book could have been corrected with a 10 second Google search done by a college intern. Yet, for whatever reason, this was not done. The editors for this book should seriously reconsider their career choices.

In any case, I didn't read this book hoping to get another hackneyed exegesis on the financial crisis, I read it to get an inside look at how economic policy is made in the Obama White House. Now there has also been plenty of dispute about a few of the quotes and characterizations in the book by Obama's staff, but in my mind Suskind has come out okay in most of these. A surprisingly large amount of the book is told by people on the record and for attribution, and when they are not quoted directly it is patently obvious that they are the source ("Summers and Krueger met alone in...") His basic sources are Peter Orszag of OMB, Christina Romer of the CEA, Alan Krueger of Treasury, Gary Geneslar of the CFTC, and a handful of others, all trusted and respected individuals. Some of the stories to come out of their descriptions are indeed fascinating and funny, like when Obama almost tears up when talking about his aide Pete Rouse at a press conference and later tells him "you almost made me pull a Boehner there," or when Larry Summers is turned down for the job of chairman of the Fed, which he felt had been promised him, and in a huff demands "two rounds of golf" with Obama and a government car. The book did make me marginally more convinced that the Obama White House was disorganized and chaotic in its early days, and that Larry Summers and his imperialistic ambitions as head of the National Economic Council was at the root of this chaos (when the President personally asked Orszag to deliver a memo to him on recession responses, Summer stomped into Orszag's office and told him that he should know the rules were everything was to go through Summers (never mind a request from the President himself)).

Overall though, Suskind seems more interested in making facile comparisons between "good guys" and "bad guys" in the administration. The good guys just happen to be whoever will talk to him, and, usually, whoever will be more interventionist in the economy. Considering Suskind's shaky grasp on the whole subject of economic policy you'd think he would try a more Woodwardian, non-judgmental stance, but instead much of the book is taken up with cheap editorializing. Finally, for all the talk of disorganization, Suskind seems pressed to explain how such a disorganized White House could pass the most comprehensive health care bill in history, the biggest stimulus in history, the most interventionist wall street reform act in 60 years, and on and on. For all the stories from this book that have made it into the press, the biggest story should be that there's no real story here at all.(less)

4 likes · like · see review

Dec 10, 2011 Bryan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio

First, it struck me as strange to be reading a book about a sitting president’s cabinet. It felt like a forced telescoping (microscoping?) of history. I still have mixed feelings about this. I have never read a book like this before (one about a sitting president’s cabinet). It felt lurid. I couldn’t resist after so many members of said cabinet tried to backtrack in the press after the book was released. To me, this meant whatever was in the book was probably true. Or maybe the author had misrep...more First, it struck me as strange to be reading a book about a sitting president’s cabinet. It felt like a forced telescoping (microscoping?) of history. I still have mixed feelings about this. I have never read a book like this before (one about a sitting president’s cabinet). It felt lurid. I couldn’t resist after so many members of said cabinet tried to backtrack in the press after the book was released. To me, this meant whatever was in the book was probably true. Or maybe the author had misrepresented his sources.

With those preliminaries out of the way, the gist is that Obama choose the wrong economic team and that Tim Geithner and Larry Summers deliberately ignored Obama’s policy intentions and enacted what they themselves thought was best. The degree to which this was intentional on their part is I suppose a matter of debate. Suskind faults Obama for not being able to control these two men. There you go - start arguing with your conservative family members.

Suskind criticizes Obama for asking “What’s my narrative?” instead of being concerned with specific policy points. But Suskind himself deliberately shapes a novel-esque narrative: Obama is the patsy, Geithner & Summers are the villians, and Gary Gensler is the hero. [ed. note: someone should out me here: Obama is the POTUS; Suskind is a journalist]I’m sure Obama’s experience during the time Suskind is writing about would be different. I’m reminded of Jimmy Carter’s Whitehouse Diary. Carter’s subjective experience (and his later analysis thereof) provide a telling lens for what is generally considered a failed presidency. That comparison should be enough to tell you all you really need to know without reading Suskind’s book.

Outside of those considerations, the first chapter is too overtly literary. Suskind is better served sticking to the “facts.” Which he does in later chapters. But he does repeat certain passages or points over and over. I couldn’t help but think this was for the benefit of people who wouldn’t bother to read the whole book. I suppose people who typically read books like this don’t read the whole thing. I feel so provincial. (less)

1 like · like · see review

Dec 21, 2011 Mary Ronan Drew rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: library-book

We don't realize how important confidence is until it has been lost. Ron Suskind demonstrates that brilliantly in this book with its clever title, which can be interpreted two ways, both appropriate. Here's what Amazon.com has to say:

The hidden history of Wall Street and the White House comes down to a single, powerful, quintessentially American concept: confidence. Both centers of power, tapping brazen innovations over the past three decades, learned how to manufacture it.

Until August 2007, wh...more

like · see review

Oct 20, 2011 Mlg rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

Interesting book on the first two years of the Obama administration. After reading this book, you get the impression that there is a disconnect between the Obama who ran for office and his core principles and the one who now governs. The worst mistake that Obama made was putting Geithner and Summers in as advisors instead of Paul Volcker. Volcker would have regulated Wall St. the way it needed to be regulated. Instead, Summers and Geithner served as Wall St. plants inside the administration, th...more

like · see review

Sep 26, 2011 Dave Lefevre rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: political

Everything that has been said about this book in the media has been a red herring. Outlets like CNN have chosen to focus the book's sub-narrative about problems female members of the administration faced or that the book shows Obama as "weak." The problems women had in the first two years of the administration are important, but when compared to the overall story of the massive banking crisis Obama faced it's a secondary story that was meant to provide insight into how the Obama Whitehouse took...more Everything that has been said about this book in the media has been a red herring. Outlets like CNN have chosen to focus the book's sub-narrative about problems female members of the administration faced or that the book shows Obama as "weak." The problems women had in the first two years of the administration are important, but when compared to the overall story of the massive banking crisis Obama faced it's a secondary story that was meant to provide insight into how the Obama Whitehouse took on characteristics of male dominated brokerage houses in New York. Furthermore, Obama's weakness as President in his early days only describes half the story of the book.

The real antagonists in this story are the overcompensated and arrogant robber-barrons of Wall Street. The 2008 crisis was directly attributable to their actions through the previous years. Obama's most important mistake was made right as he was made president-elect. As per the normal "revolving door" structure of regulation in Washington, Obama made some of the Wall Street insiders and some of the Clinton regulators that eased the rules would of curbed the crisis his most important advisors. Because of this the Obama Whitehouse was often wrapped up in furious internal debates that never seemed to resolve. Some advisers even "slow walked" some Obama decisions that would have been inconvenient for their former professions.

In the end the book makes it clear that while Obama learned from the experiences of his first two years in office (his "education"), Wall Street learned nothing. They made free money off of the TARP program and then sent lobbyists to try to kill every reform that was proposed. The behavor that led to the 2008 collapse continues almost unabated. The book paints the stark picture of a financial industry that doesn't invest in the U.S., that while constantly championing the "free market" when it was convenient has managed to socialize every major loss, and who continues to run amok in Washington by way of lobbyists.

But you won't hear this on the TV news. Any sentiments that makes major corporations look bad no longer make the cut. Television reporters have become corporate cheerleaders first, television personalities second, and journalism has become a distant third. Because of this there continues to become no fail national dialog on fair regulations. CNN parrots John Boehner's call for "less regulation" daily without critically looking into the claims while smart people of all political beliefs have come to the conclusion that the easing of regulations during the Clinton era helped cause the Great Recession of 2008. No voices critical of corporate power make it onto television, and that's where the masses get the "unbiased" information today. Television's reaction to this book makes that reality even more apparent.(less)

1 like · like · see review

Feb 17, 2013 Christopher rated it 3 of 5 stars

More like a 2.5.

I have a weakness for current event tick-tocks. In domestic affairs the pickings here are pretty slim, meaning you are often choosing between Suskind and Woodward. Finding Suskind's breathlessness (dude rolls out two unreal metaphors per chapter on average) less offensive than Woodward's conventional wisdom pornography, I opt for the former.

And he is not without his strengths. Though, as per usual with these things the folks who give access generally receive the best treatment, t...more More like a 2.5.

I have a weakness for current event tick-tocks. In domestic affairs the pickings here are pretty slim, meaning you are often choosing between Suskind and Woodward. Finding Suskind's breathlessness (dude rolls out two unreal metaphors per chapter on average) less offensive than Woodward's conventional wisdom pornography, I opt for the former.

And he is not without his strengths. Though, as per usual with these things the folks who give access generally receive the best treatment, there is some interesting reporting here. Not hugely groundbreaking but I now feel more firmly grounded in, for example, a) my belief that Larry Summers is a huge asshole (please do not make him Treasury Secretary in 2017, Hillary!) and b) understanding the banking's industry's successes in fending off regulation.

Though less egregious about it than Woodward, Suskind also struggles to give oxygen to anything but his perspective. While I would unlikely be swayed by it, Geithner's reluctance to really come down on the bank out of concerns relating to instability is not so patently implausible to merit Suskind's total unexamined dismissal. Similarly, (and an interesting artifact from 2011 CW thinking) though it is doubtless true that a smoother running White House would have better managed health care, financial regulation, etc., making that the central explanation for the ensuing political gridlock, with only lip service paid to Republicans unprecedented intransigence, is plain empirically wrong.

And then there are even more puzzling moments where Suskind presents evidence ostensibly to support his CW conclusion that does nothing of the sort. Parroting David Brooks's contemporaneous "he's trying to do too much at once" hand-wringing, Suskind argues Tom Daschle's presence in the White House could have led to a more appropriately narrow focus (it is implicit that this would have involved abandoning or severely narrowing health care reform). He then (pg. 269-70) presents an interview with Daschle, wherein Daschle argues for the imperative of health care reform. Huh? Though there is kernel of truth here (Obama losing Daschle undoubtedly hurt the health care reform effort), Daschle explicitly undermines Suskind's second-hand Brooks "focus only on the economy." You think an editor would at least see to the author having his CW ducks in a row but I guess not.

On the other hand, I read it in a week so clearly it moves. (less)

like · see review

Jan 05, 2013 Johnsergeant rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: audiobook, audiblecom, current-affairs, politics-current-affairs

Narrated by James Lurie

22 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's Summary

The hidden history of Wall Street and the White House comes down to a single, powerful, quintessentially American concept: confidence. Both centers of power, tapping brazen innovations over the past three decades, learned how to manufacture it.

Until August 2007, when that confidence finally began to crumble.

In this gripping and brilliantly reported book, Ron Suskind tells the story of what happened next, as Wall Street struggled to save...more Narrated by James Lurie

22 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's Summary

The hidden history of Wall Street and the White House comes down to a single, powerful, quintessentially American concept: confidence. Both centers of power, tapping brazen innovations over the past three decades, learned how to manufacture it.

Until August 2007, when that confidence finally began to crumble.

In this gripping and brilliantly reported book, Ron Suskind tells the story of what happened next, as Wall Street struggled to save itself while a man with little experience and soaring rhetoric emerged from obscurity to usher in "a new era of responsibility". It is a story that follows the journey of Barack Obama, who rose as the country fell, and offers the first full portrait of his tumultuous presidency.

Wall Street found that straying from long-standing principles of transparency, accountability, and fair dealing opened a path to stunning profits. Obama’s determination to reverse that trend was essential to his ascendance, especially when Wall Street collapsed during the fall of an election year and the two candidates could audition for the presidency by responding to a national crisis. But as he stood on the stage in Grant Park, a shudder went through Barack Obama. He would now have to command Washington, tame New York, and rescue the economy in the first real management job of his life.

The new president surrounded himself with a team of seasoned players - like Rahm Emanuel, Larry Summers, and Tim Geithner - who had served a different president in a different time. As the nation’s crises deepened, Obama’s deputies often ignored the president’s decisions - “to protect him from himself” - while they fought to seize control of a rudderless White House. Bitter disputes - between men and women, policy and politics - ruled the day. The result was an administration that found itself overtaken by events as, year to year, Obama struggled to grow into the world’s toughest job and, in desperation, take control of his own administration.
Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Ron Suskind introduces readers to an ensemble cast, from the titans of high finance to a new generation of reformers, from petulant congressmen and acerbic lobbyists to a tight circle of White House advisers - and, ultimately, to the president himself, as you’ve never before seen him. Based on hundreds of interviews and filled with piercing insights and startling disclosures, Confidence Men brings into focus the collusion and conflict between the nation’s two capitals - New York and Washington, one of private gain, the other of public purpose - in defining confidence and, thereby, charting America’s future.
(less)

like · see review

Sep 28, 2011 Maddi Sojourner rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: politics, finance

Four and a half stars.

While I thought this would be a political inside-the-mind-of-the-advisors type of book, there's quite a bit of The Big Short (Michael Lewis) in here too; an explanation of the Wall Street shenanigans that led to the near-collapse of the US economy. Suskind has to spend time getting us into that mileau to explain where the economic advisors either came from or were reacting to.

Certainly some of the advisers come across better than others, and with a book of this type one alw...more Four and a half stars.

While I thought this would be a political inside-the-mind-of-the-advisors type of book, there's quite a bit of The Big Short (Michael Lewis) in here too; an explanation of the Wall Street shenanigans that led to the near-collapse of the US economy. Suskind has to spend time getting us into that mileau to explain where the economic advisors either came from or were reacting to.

Certainly some of the advisers come across better than others, and with a book of this type one always wonders if that's due to their actions, their personalities, or how cooperative they were with Suskind. The two who come across the worst are Lawrence Summers and Rahm Emanuel. Tim Geithner isn't far behind. Summers is shown as manipulative and petty, trying to stay ahead of everyone by jumping in to frame every discussion and bringing back policy discussions on issues Obama had already told his advisers what he wanted. Emanuel is shown as a chief of staff who didn't handle chief of staff issues such as getting all these personalities working effectively instead of against each other, to the point that many advisers considered him part of the problem the chief of staff should be solving. And Geithner is called out for flat-out insubordination; stalling when Obama asked him to come up with a plan to break up Citibank.

I found the Wall Street and economic explanations fascinating, but I love that sort of thing, and I was a huge fan of The Big Short. So for me that was an unexpected bonus. Getting inside the worldview of so many of the White House staff was fascinating. In fact, the only reason I can't give this book five stars is the execution. Since there are so many viewpoints, the book jumps around a lot, not only through people but through timelines as well, and in many cases, I didn't think the structure effectively made the points as well as it could have. There were a few places where I completely lost track of where we were in time and who was in the room because Suskind uses a lot of flashbacks. That's an excellent literary technique for a film or even a novel, but for a current affairs piece, he'd better be damned sure we're clear who is talking and when. Suskind switches back and forth in name use, which also doesn't help when some of the actors have the same first name (Larry Summers and Larry Fink got me confused because he spent so much time on Summers and then did an extended piece on Fink but kept calling him Larry, for example).

That's not enough for me to say don't bother reading this. In fact, if you enjoy knowing why a politician's promises are often not acted upon, this is as good a presentation as any to show the difficulty in getting everyone to agree even before they try selling it to Congress or Business. I just wish Suskind had either spent some time getting the continuity a little better or had his editor do a better job helping him with it. This is the sort of problem that can happen with a book that goes through multiple re-writes, and I wonder if publishers just aren't recognizing the value of an excellent editor anymore.

Suskind already won a Pulitizer for his reporting in 1995, and this book does show us why he was worthy of it. One quote that stayed with me after finishing it was his musing on the change in the American economy, from manufacturing to abstract financial instrument. As he put it, we changed from a country that made things to a country that "made things up."

(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Oct 01, 2011 Kent rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Some people have told me that they thought this book was a “hit piece” on the President. I can't agree; however, it is clearly not written from the perspective of blind love for him either. It seems to be a fair record of events during the first few years of the Obama administration. The story is of two capitol cities Washington, DC and New York, NY (capitol of capital and finance). It covers contributing elements of the economic collapse; how a new administration attempted recovery, and finance...more

2 likes · like · see review

Dec 08, 2012 Diane C. rated it 5 of 5 stars

If you want the straight poop on the 2008 economic financial crisis, and the evolution of Barak Obama's presidential campaign in an enjoyable, readable form, this is your book. Dense and thick, it's not a quick read by any means, but I think every American should have it at home and read a chapter from time to time.

My favorite part..........because I despise Larry Summers (and Robert Rubin):

"It all boils down to the classic Larry Summers problem: he can frame arguments with such force and convi...more

like · see review

Sep 04, 2012 George Parker added it

This is a must read if you have any interest in US History, the Presidency, US Politics, World/US Economics. (Or if you just want to know who has been ripping you off and who had been helping.)

Suskind gives excellent descriptions and insights (I assume fairly.) into all the major players of the financial collapse and does a good job explaining all the processes and manipulations involved, both Wall Street and Congressional. And if you need examples of the seven deadly sins, you will find them h...more

like · see review

Dec 21, 2011 Joseph D. Walch rated it 3 of 5 stars

There is a point at which journalism turns into historiography, when the current events have passed sufficiently to allow the historian beach-comber to piece together a more comprehensive representation of the events. This was one of those first historical accounts to emerge from the nascent Obama administration. The author was given plenty of access to the President and his economic team in writing this book. Previously, Ron Suskind had written critically of Pres. Bush and so perhaps the admini...more There is a point at which journalism turns into historiography, when the current events have passed sufficiently to allow the historian beach-comber to piece together a more comprehensive representation of the events. This was one of those first historical accounts to emerge from the nascent Obama administration. The author was given plenty of access to the President and his economic team in writing this book. Previously, Ron Suskind had written critically of Pres. Bush and so perhaps the administration thought that Suskind was ‘on their side.’ That extraordinary access provides a clear look into President Obama’s management style, thinking, and the resulting conflict and success in his first two years.

There are several themes that run through this book. It is principally rooted in the events and people surrounding the 2007 financial meltdown and aftermath. It is not a rosy assessment of Pres. Obama or his economic team, which Suskind labels the ‘B-team’ of Summers, Geithner, Romer, &co.. The book outlines how many of these advisors were the very people who sowed the seeds of financial collapse by removing the laws that resulted in the 2007 financial collapse during the final hours of the Clinton Administration. It was interesting to read about how Wall Street financiers were able to cloak the true market price and risk of their collateralized debt obligation derivatives by operating financial cartels (Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Citibank), and backed up by low-interest non-risk adjusted lending and a quasi-governmental business that was essentially guaranteed not to fail (Fanny May and Freddie Mac).

The focus of the book, however shows Obama administration reacted to the crisis, and can be summed up in the words of Larry Summers who said they were ‘home alone’ in the white house (his full quote was “We’re home alone. There’s no adult in charge. Clinton would never have made these mistakes.”). President Obama did exhibit his grasp of the issues, however he saw his role as more a storyteller in chief who needed to instill confidence in the American People by inspiring them to greatness rather than by substantive ‘administration’ or legislative work. This resulted in a supremely dysfunctional administration where actions and agendas were constantly being relitigated, ignored, or pursued independently of other administration officials. President Obama serves more as an impartial sage moderating the bickering amongst his staff, all the while nothing is actually accomplished. For example, the supposed chief accomplishment of the Obama administration, Health Care Reform, took a year before Nancy Pelosi was able to get the bill to President Obama with almost zero input from the administration (a fact that enraged Nancy Pelosi). That’s not the worst managerial flaw of this administration—as the book points out, which is the burdensome and pervasive sexism of the good-ol’-boy mingled with the juvenile boy’s only basketball and golf games that clearly favored men.

Having read the books chronically the Bush Administration written by Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rove, and Bush himself, I find it interesting to compare the two administrations up to this point. Sure, Bush’s administration had similar problems with e.g., Condoleezza Rice taking action before getting approval from the President—a degree of power assumption is par for the course with such a large unwieldy administration, but whereas Bush saw himself as a decider, Obama appears to see himself as the inspirer—a movement president who actualizes greatness through the sheer force of words and speeches. Perhaps Bush was less curious (although he was reportedly a voracious reader of history and non-fiction), and perhaps Bush’s intellect was not so grand (although this too seems to be overstated since his grades were in fact comparable to both his opponents Kerry and Gore). Even so, it will be interesting to see how the clarifying hindsight of history compares both of these presidents: one, the decider, and the other, the inspirer.
(less)

1 like · like · see review

Jan 02, 2013 Wilson Mui rated it 3 of 5 stars

Confidence Men is a typical easy read by Suskind. It's well written and weaves political rustlings into dramatic plots. The book spends probably about 75% on the financial meltdown of 2008 (and the Presidential election leading up to), and about 25% on the health care reform bill pushed by President Obama in his first term. I think the subtitle is pretty complete in its explanation of what the book is about and it basically delivers. Though there are better books about the 2008 crash ("Too Big T...more

like · see review

Feb 23, 2013 Rashwanton rated it 4 of 5 stars

An interesting and important read. I found explanations for a lot of things that seemed counter intuitive about the recession and the Obama Administration's handling of it. There is a lot more honesty in this book than you normally see about presidents, especially when they are still in office.

It would have been useful if Suskind had spent more time explaining the workings of the derivatives market at the beginning of the book, since so much of what happened started there. There were times that...more

like · see review

Apr 08, 2013 Kati rated it 3 of 5 stars

A vivid look into the confusion and mismanagement of the early days of the Obama Administration, with careful attention on how much of a complete egomaniac and idiot Larry Summers is. Did not realize that "Confidence Men" would be sharply contrasted with the untold story of the confident women who stood up to the men and attempted to save the men from themselves, including Elizabeth Warren, Sheila Bair, Christina Romer and Maria Cantwell. An entertaining read, however I remember there were conce...more

like · see review

Aug 15, 2012 Heidi Hanson rated it 3 of 5 stars

If you would like to get really, really mad read "Confidence Men" by Suskind. The book explains in layman's terms some of the very complicated financial situations that created the crash of 2008. Once you have a better understanding, however, you will be insensed. Too big to fail? Was Detriot or the steel industry "too big to fail?" If you didn't realize it already the book makes it crystal clear that Wall Streeters love the rules of the game until they lose. Then, it is time to rewrite the rule...more

1 like · like · see review

Jul 19, 2012 Drake rated it 5 of 5 stars

Ahhh, it’s an election year and time for politics. My first dive was into Ron Suskind’s Confidence Men and it was amazing. Summarizing the early years of the Obama presidency, the book contrasts the hopes and desires of the young president with the soul-crushing realities of mismanagement and incompetence. Although, I didn’t always agree with Suskind’s premise of the self-destruction of males in powerful positions, there was plenty of research to back it up. From the way President Obama heeded t...more

like · see review

Oct 22, 2011 Muhammad Idrees Ahmad rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: economics, politics

Like his previous book, an otherwise excellent work of investigative journalism is marred by an excess of superfluous detail. This book wouldn't suffer from losing at least 200 of its pages. Suskind writes in the non-fiction novel style of Bob Woodward, though he is a much better writer. But unlike Woodward, he has a tendency to easily get lost in unnecessary embellishment through novelistic details about minor characters.

Like Woodward's last book, Confidence Men paints an unflattering picture...more

1 like · like · see review

Apr 30, 2012 Andrew Rugg rated it 4 of 5 stars

I found Suskind's account of what went wrong at the beginning of the Obama presidency and the financial collapse to be highly readable and engrossing. The book champions the theory that Obama's advisers let the president down. Larry Summers is certainly the bad guy of the book, and it's hard not to loath him by the end. The book also tries to tease out the root attitude behind the personalities involved in the failure of Wall Street and the beginning of the Obama presidency. Confidence, or the n...more

like · see review

Oct 24, 2011 Kent rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

like · see review

title link	preview: Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President
avg rating	preview: Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President Goodreads rating: 3.74 (1148 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11595399-confidence-men?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1316877977l/11595399.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11595399-confidence-men?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President by Ron Suskind[/url]

Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President

Friend Reviews

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topic
Discuss This Book

combine
Other Editions (11)

Genres

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Ron Suskind

Books by Ron Suskind

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website

Trivia About Confidence Men: W...

Quotes from Confidence Men: Wall S...