Uncontrolled Risk: Lessons of Lehman Brothers and How Systemic Risk Can Still Bring Down the World Financial System

by Mark T. Williams

How Excessive Risk Destroyed Lehman and Nearly Brought Down the Financial Industry “ Uncontrolled Risk will ruffle feathers―and for good reason―as voters and legislators learn the diffi cult lessons of Lehman’s collapse and demand that we never forget them.”
Dr. David C. Shimko, Board of Trustees, Global Association of Risk Professionals “ Uncontrolled Risk is a drama as gripping as any work of fiction. Williams’s recommendations for changes in the governance of financial institutions should be of interest to anyone concerned about the welfare of global financial markets.”
Geoffrey Miller, Stuyvesant Comfort Professor of Law and Director, Center for the Study of Central Banks and Financial Institutions, New York University “The complex balance of free enterprise on Wall Street and the healthy regulation of its participants is the central economic issue of today. Williams’s forensic study of Lehman’s collapse may be the best perspective so far on the issues that now face regulators.”
Jeffrey P. Davis, CFA, Chief Investment Officer, Lee Munder Capital Group “Provides a very perceptive analysis of the fl aws inherent in risk management systems and modern fi nancial markets. Mandatory reading for risk managers and financial industry executives.”
Vincent Kaminski, Professor in the Practice of Management, Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business, Rice University “Gives the reader much food for thought on the regulation of our financial system and its interplay with corporate governance reform in the United States and around the world.”
Professor Charles M. Elson, Edgar S. Woolard Jr. Chair in Corporate Governance, University of Delaware The risk taking behind Wall Street's largest bankruptcy . . . In this dramatic and compelling account of Lehman Brothers’ spectacular rise and fall, author Mark T. Williams explains how uncontrolled risk toppled a 158-year-old institution―and what it says about Wall Street, Washington, D.C., and the world financial system. A former trading floor executive and Fed bank examiner, Williams sees Lehman’s 2008 collapse as a microcosm of the industry―a worst-case scenario of smart decisions, stupid mistakes, ignored warnings, and important lessons in money, power, and policy that affect us all. This book reveals:

Genres: Finance

257 pages, Hardcover

First published March 22, 2010

Reviews

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty decent book on the fall of Lehman and the credit crisis of 2008. There are other books out there that provided more detail about the great recession but this one tells it from the point of view of Lehman. About 95% of the book is the story of how Lehman got to where it was as one of the top five investment banks in the U.S. and the mistakes that were made that created its tremendous fall. The author tries to squeeze what the lessons learned from this crisis into the last few pages and I thought that it could have been dealt with in a deeper more meaningful way. Overall the book was an interesting read.

[Phil Mackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A systemic review of the collapse od Lehman Brothers in the context of the wider financial services sector.

[Genevieve Matthews]

Forget real housewives the real drama is on wall street

[Tim O'Hearn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short yet comprehensive history of Lehman Brothers gives way to the most succinct and well-organized analysis of the 2008 Financial Crisis I have ever read. The author has serious credentials but doesn't make a single attempt to qualify himself until page 214. Technical terms and confusing circumstances are explained clearly and the book flows more like a novel than an academic paper. Uncontrolled Risk presents a wholesome picture of the roles that both commercial and investment banks, government, and regular people played in the financial catastrophe that occurred just a few years ago.

In a few decades, I imagine this book being the hallmark of accessible Great Recession literature.