The Hellhound of Wall Street: How Ferdinand Pecora's Investigation of the Great Crash Forever Cha...
A gripping account of the underdog Senate lawyer who unmasked the financial wrongdoing that led to the Crash of 1929 and forever changed the rel...
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reviews
Feb 05, 2011
Bank
rated it: 
Very thoroughly researched history of the Senate's investigation into the stock market crash of 1929 and the lead counsel investigating , Ferdinand Pecora. Change the names and dates and it could have been written about the events of the last three years with the highly disappointing exception that the our present Congress has yet to lay a finger on any of the guilty parties on Wall Street or to investigate it's own culpability in the looting and collapse of FNMA.
I believe George Santayan More...
I believe George Santayan More...
Jul 21, 2011
Martha
rated it:
This book will make you weep. Not only was everything that brought the nation down in 1929 repeated in 2008, it was the same bank! National City Bank, now Citigroup. Enron, insider trading, bonuses (it was in the 20's that the bonus system was inaugurated), sweetheart deals, screwing your employees, lying to your shareholders, fraudulent wash sales. On and on and on. But now we have no Ferdinand Pecora (the chief counsel for the Senate Hearings on the crash and the hero of this book), no FDR, an
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May 15, 2011
Nicole
rated it:
It all sounds so familiar - banks knowingly selling worthless bonds; banks manipulating stock prices; insider trading, banks insisting THEY can police themselves far better than any government agency; banks giving out huge bonuses to its executives for peddling shoddy securities.
But this is 1929 and the 1933 U.S. Senate hearings - not 2008.
Have we learned nothing?
But this is 1929 and the 1933 U.S. Senate hearings - not 2008.
Have we learned nothing?
Jun 19, 2011
Bob
rated it: 
I love these kinds of history books that tell it all as a narrative. Great book and really fun back-&-forth leading up to, during and after one of the few times when Congress has actually gone after high-level financial crooks.
Nov 16, 2011
Damon
rated it: 
It's pretty remarkable how closely history repeats itself. If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, our "job creators" are indeed insane. I remember hearing congress people complain of "Depression-Era Regulations". This book reminded me that another way to think about "Depression-Era Regulations" is regulations designed to prevent another depression--which is why we came so close to having another
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Nov 22, 2010
Sherry
rated it:
It is the small details that personalized this book for me. The research was great - as Perino introduced an individual, there was always a context provide. Some other bit of trivia or insight that made me remember all the players. This book is really just one more example of how the idea of six-degrees of seperation is really so true.
Still amazed that we have learned so little from the banking crisis of the 1920-1930.
Still amazed that we have learned so little from the banking crisis of the 1920-1930.
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