bookshelves: political
An incredibly interesting story of how media plays into political campaigns. It shows how the Clinton and Bush family were able to maintain power for 20 years with Hillary's hope of extending it to 4 more with the 2008 elections. Halperin dives into what he calls 'The Freak Show". It's incredible how he portrays the power that the media wields over the political arena. Another focus of the book is on Karl Rove, giving an in-depth explanation of who he is and why he is good and what he does - winning elections. ]]>
Wow, what a book! Cohan takes you through the last 10 days of the investment banking giant Bear Stearns. Just before its collapse Bear was the fifth largest IB in the world but excessive greed, risky and arrogant CEOs and rumor brought this 85 year old institution down to its knees. This is a very gripping story, one that even if you are not familiar with many things financial, has been written such that all readers will comprehend what many opine as the starting of the world recession. Cohan himself was an investment banker and is able to write with a great wealth of Wall St knowledge, an insider who has stepped back to review what was happening.
It was most interesting to me to see the butterfly effect of rumor that took its toll on Bear. They were completely liquid, albeit 35x levergaed, at the beginning of March. Once rumors started against Bear and about their ability to weather the mortgage backed securities and other things that were on their balance sheet, that is when the counterparties stopped trading. I am constantly wondering how much rumor had to do with the entire onset of the baniking crisis after having read parts of this book.
In the end, Bear was sold for around $10/share to JPMorgan and someone (his name escapes me) stated that JPMorgan paid less for Bear Stearns than the Yankees paid for A-Rod. ]]>
The story was quite compelling and kept you engaged. I enjoyed it much more than the movie as there is much more going on in the book. ]]>
This is one of the most interesting non-fictional stories that I have ever read. It appears as though the entire thing was created for a movie. It explains the story of Jon Meriwether's hedge fund, Long Term Capital Management(LTCM), and how it almost single-handedly (although it includes the carelessness and hubris of the major banks) brought the financial markets to a halt. It appears that LTCM was about 9 years ahead of their time as their bets with international arbitrage started to go bad, and after losing $1.9 Billion in a single month, the New York Federal Reserve brought in the major banks to orchestrate a bailout of the fund and the institutions that were intertwined with LTCM. Interestingly enough, when the banks were called in to bail out Meriwether, Bear Stearns refused to help out and claimed that it wasn't their problem. Some wondered if this was the reason Hank Paulson, then treasury secretary and a former boss of Goldman Sachs, insisted on Bear being sold for a mere $2 per share (though this was later quintupled after shareholders revolted). There were certainly many on Wall Street, including a fair few at the firm itself, who felt Bear had it coming.
Would recommend this book to all as a precursor and insightful book into the current economic crisis.
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"Hard to remember the books I have read"
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