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Funny Money
From esteemed New Yorker writer Mark Singer comes this cautionary tale of the Penn Square Bank, the oil and gas broker in an Oklahoma City shopping mall whose collapse in 1982 staggered America’s banking industry. Recounting the whole spectacular story and its colorful characters, Singer makes brilliantly (and hilariously) clear what actually happened and why it had to happen in boom-time Oklahoma. Nowhere else did money flow in quite the same spontaneous fashion. “[A] tale of wonderful verve” (New York Times), Funny Money comes to life through Singer's vivid prose and continues to resonate in today's culture of corporate corruption.
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
February 17, 2016
Hilarious and maddening nonfiction about Continental Illinois Bank, Penn Square and the many S&Ls that would regularly and repeatedly cold call any two landmen with a pickup truck between them, to loan them a minimum of a million dollars to set up a fancy office and to (maybe) drill for oil in the late '70s and '80s. The mania for financial deregulation during the Reagan administration accelerated this wild west, anything goes, culture that caused the collapse of many S&Ls, the need for the RTC, the loss of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, and was also a precursor of our contemporary bank abuses.
January 31, 2024
The banker slander goes crazy
June 24, 2011
Mark Singer has given the real picture behind the bankruptcy of the Penn Square Bank, whose collapse in 1982 staggered America’s banking industry. It is still considered to be the biggest learning for the entire US banking industry. Crazy, un-believable, staggering are the few words which comes instantly to my mind after reading this book...a must read for all those who are in anyway connected to banking industry.
July 6, 2025
Entertaining account of the late 70s/early 80s lending spree to oil companies and the subsequent downfall of a number of banks. Not too dissimilar from the NINJA loan epidemic that led to the late 00s mortgage crisis.
January 6, 2015
Chasing the dream always has the potential to be a roller-coaster and this is a curious tale of a bank which did just that - written in a fast-paced style which, were it not true, would make great fiction
This book makes a very readable story as you see the bank fall from grace and, like several corporate failures since, what is interesting is the social culture around it. The author doesn't go into too much detail about the financial complexities, but gives you enough to make the read (and ride) highly enjoyable.
This is an interesting read on many levels and gives a good insight into the oil industry and financial world behind it. The most telling thing is that lessons don't seem to have been learned.
This book makes a very readable story as you see the bank fall from grace and, like several corporate failures since, what is interesting is the social culture around it. The author doesn't go into too much detail about the financial complexities, but gives you enough to make the read (and ride) highly enjoyable.
This is an interesting read on many levels and gives a good insight into the oil industry and financial world behind it. The most telling thing is that lessons don't seem to have been learned.
December 1, 2009
Description of the early-1980s collapse of Penn Square Bank in Oklahoma City, partly as the result of the oil bust and partly as a result of unrestrained idiocy. Interesting to read, especially in light of our recent economic woes and banking irregularities. The author is an Oklahoma native and a New Yorker writer, so the prose is finely tuned and not (that) condescending. How many Ultrasuede jackets does one need? At least twenty-nine. What about airplanes? Well, owning three isn't necessarily showing off.
July 23, 2010
As a reporter, I love this book. The level of detail and information is unbelievable — at times I find it impossible to believe the level of access Singer had to the participants in the implosion of a bank in boom-years' era Oklahoma. This book is considered one of the high points of new journalism from the 1980s, and the storytelling is very good.
That being said, there are more than a few points where I was lost in the milieu of characters, deals and details of how the upstream banking system works. In all, I really enjoy this book.
That being said, there are more than a few points where I was lost in the milieu of characters, deals and details of how the upstream banking system works. In all, I really enjoy this book.
June 20, 2017
About the oil and gas boom bust of the 70s 80s and its effect on some very large US banks, oddly, because of a very small Oklahoma bank called Penn Square.
Essentially, the bank became a kind of broker, and the upstream banks lost their risk control in pursuit of growth - - all aided by a rosy picture of the oil and gas scene in the Texas to Oklahoma belt.
Not as financially tuned as I would have liked... too verbose for me, and too many side-winding stories.
Essentially, the bank became a kind of broker, and the upstream banks lost their risk control in pursuit of growth - - all aided by a rosy picture of the oil and gas scene in the Texas to Oklahoma belt.
Not as financially tuned as I would have liked... too verbose for me, and too many side-winding stories.
January 8, 2008
Even though it was written in the 1980's, its subject matter is entirely relevant to today's energy (and real estate) markets. Those who have no knowledge of Penn Square bank and its influence on the collapse of several other institutions will find this read enlightening--and I'll bet you a buck that you'll LOL at least a few times.
April 17, 2013
Good funny book about the oil and gas boom in Oklahoma in the early 80s. These guys were selling their lousy loans up the chain YEARS before mortgage backed securities started doing the same thing. Some of the talk of the oil business had me confused at times but the characters in the book were larger than life making it a fun and enjoyable read.
September 28, 2008
Interesting and relevant given today's bank problems. Surprisingly, when you make bad loans from no documentation and sell them up the banking ladder, the dominoes keep falling... (sarcasm). Some interesting parallels to today's economy.
March 17, 2017
Wow. Sorry to say, one of the worst books I've read in a while. I work in banking and am really interested in the topic, but the storytelling was so boring that despite trying hard to plough through, I had to stop. Not recommended at all.
December 22, 2018
Terrific story told poorly
The author was self indulgent and struggled in developing the characters and establishing a flow to appropriately tell to the story clearly, I could think of similar authors who would have made this a five star read
The author was self indulgent and struggled in developing the characters and establishing a flow to appropriately tell to the story clearly, I could think of similar authors who would have made this a five star read
March 27, 2018
Highly recommended for anyone even slightly interested in oil and gas in Oklahoma.
December 3, 2020
Witty-writing by Mark Singer gives life to characters involved in the famous bankruptcy of Penn Square Bank in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in the 80s.
November 18, 2021
Eye opening and informative about both the banking and oil business. I was particularly interested in reading this because of having lived in Oklahoma City when Penn Square bank was very successful. It really blows my mind that people could be content with having to face monthly interest payments of a million dollars which, of course, they never intended to pay. Or maybe they would if another loan could be garnered. Penn Square bank was the place to go for that.
July 1, 2025
Mr.Singer’s book focuses more on the wild world of gas drilling more than the debacle at Penn Square. No doubt, the two worlds are intertwined, but I was looking for a more in depth look at the bank failure than a personality profile of the people who caused the downfall, even though that was fascinating in its own way.
September 11, 2022
Just a slow story to tell and not much momentum in the early chapters. The plot itself is amusing and entertaining to a degree, but without the right characters the story just drags.
February 26, 2025
This is a reread for me but oh so interesting.
July 13, 2022
There are a number of books about the rise and fall of Penn Square, and this one written with a personal touch is less finance oriented and aimed more towards examining the personalities of the people involved in the bank’s collapse. It’s a fun read for those who aren’t finance oriented but a bit thin for those looking for a strong financial examination.
August 16, 2013
So, I just finished reading Funny Money, by Mark Singer, and I am embarrassed to admit that I did a thing I almost never do, which is I read half of it and then didn’t finish it for several months.
It wasn’t a bad book! It was, in fact, a pretty good book, but it appears it didn’t engage my attention quite enough to prevent me from being distracted by other things, because I am more easily distracted when I don’t entirely understand what I’m reading, and Funny Money is primarily about three things I do not understand at all: banking, oil drilling, and Oklahoma.
Funny Money tells the story of the rise and fall of the Penn Square Bank, a tiny shopping-mall bank in Oklahoma that briefly became a very big oil-and-gas loan broker, and then collapsed in a pile of bad loans and general mismanagement, and very nearly took the entire banking system with it. It is a story about a bunch of dudes doing that American thing we celebrate so much where they work themselves up from being unknown small-timers into being big tycoons through pluck and determination and hard work and dreaming big and wearing loud suits, except it’s sad because then it all implodes because actual financial systems and the geographical realities of oil drilling don’t care two figs for dreaming big and are based on facts that, if you don’t understand them, you will fuck things up.
Mark Singer tells this story well, explaining banking and oil drilling and Oklahoma to the lay reader on a need-to-know basis and pretty simply. He has a great facility for description, highlighting the awkward, plastic absurdity of America in the 80s, making the scenes vivid enough that sometimes it feels like you’re reading a novel.
Since it is not a novel, however, reality forces Mr. Singer to engage in some storytelling sins that are storytelling sins for a reason. For one, the names are often too similar, so I found it difficult to keep track of which oilman was which; they were all named Beep or Bill or Bud, and they were all pretty interesting characters (the way in real life you’d say “That guy’s, uh, quite a character”) but I got them all mixed up anyway. I should have made a chart or something. There is a similar problem with the names of all the different companies and banks, because… banks. Banks put their creativity into efforts besides naming themselves, it seems. Like how to cover up that they have no idea what they’re doing by doing a lot of it. The other main storytelling problem, for me, is that while the characters are all entertainingly wacky (in ways that scream that they should not be trusted with large amounts of money), there is nobody to root for; not a single person that I actually liked.
All that said, this book is both entertaining and informative, and provides several useful examples of the limitations of positive thinking.
It wasn’t a bad book! It was, in fact, a pretty good book, but it appears it didn’t engage my attention quite enough to prevent me from being distracted by other things, because I am more easily distracted when I don’t entirely understand what I’m reading, and Funny Money is primarily about three things I do not understand at all: banking, oil drilling, and Oklahoma.
Funny Money tells the story of the rise and fall of the Penn Square Bank, a tiny shopping-mall bank in Oklahoma that briefly became a very big oil-and-gas loan broker, and then collapsed in a pile of bad loans and general mismanagement, and very nearly took the entire banking system with it. It is a story about a bunch of dudes doing that American thing we celebrate so much where they work themselves up from being unknown small-timers into being big tycoons through pluck and determination and hard work and dreaming big and wearing loud suits, except it’s sad because then it all implodes because actual financial systems and the geographical realities of oil drilling don’t care two figs for dreaming big and are based on facts that, if you don’t understand them, you will fuck things up.
Mark Singer tells this story well, explaining banking and oil drilling and Oklahoma to the lay reader on a need-to-know basis and pretty simply. He has a great facility for description, highlighting the awkward, plastic absurdity of America in the 80s, making the scenes vivid enough that sometimes it feels like you’re reading a novel.
Since it is not a novel, however, reality forces Mr. Singer to engage in some storytelling sins that are storytelling sins for a reason. For one, the names are often too similar, so I found it difficult to keep track of which oilman was which; they were all named Beep or Bill or Bud, and they were all pretty interesting characters (the way in real life you’d say “That guy’s, uh, quite a character”) but I got them all mixed up anyway. I should have made a chart or something. There is a similar problem with the names of all the different companies and banks, because… banks. Banks put their creativity into efforts besides naming themselves, it seems. Like how to cover up that they have no idea what they’re doing by doing a lot of it. The other main storytelling problem, for me, is that while the characters are all entertainingly wacky (in ways that scream that they should not be trusted with large amounts of money), there is nobody to root for; not a single person that I actually liked.
All that said, this book is both entertaining and informative, and provides several useful examples of the limitations of positive thinking.
July 13, 2016
Not, of course, a funny book. Rather, yet another episode in that eternally saddening entertainment that is human folly, this time, once again, in the financial sector. Singer does not go deeply into the personalities of the main sources of malfeasance, but he provides plenty of anecdotes involving frat boy hijinks, old-boy banking networks, and workplace atmosphere at Penn Square Bank that you wonder how the thing was not shut down much sooner. The Feds come across as imprudently slow and tolerant, giving the bankers plenty of rope to get their house back in order, but which the bankers end up using to hang themselves instead. The geography is a bit of a distraction, but still informative. It might be useful to have some background in lending in order to fully understand what is going on here. One can also find a very simple explanation of carried interest.
December 29, 2023
Very much enjoyed this comprehensive recap of the oil lending bust outlined by a journalist, native by birth, with humorous impressions and commentary making it a story worth reading.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews