Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financials Ystem---And Themselves

This is an excellent book that reads like something that Dan Brown might have written. But its real. The part that amazed me was the level of detail Sorkin was able to get about behind the scenes conversations that took place. Stuff about how people such as Dick Fuld of Lehman reacted to the problems when it was becoming clear that the company was going down and he was in denial. How Paulson was reacting to things when there were no rules about what to do. But probably the most interesting parts were how the different personalities were reacting while the ground was shifting under them. At the peak, many of the people involved were literally working 24 hours a day highlighted by a phone call made to Vikram Pandit, CEO of Citibank at 3 am telling how a deal he made at midnight for Wachovia had instead been trumped by another and that that deal had already been signed and blessed by the government. How major decisions were being made on the run and how solid institutions became institutions on the brink in a matter of hours. The book also explains how companies like Barclays and China Investment Corporation were working behind the scenes as well how Paulson, Geithener and others in the government were scrambling to keep things from collapsing. There is a lot of Monday Morning Quarterbacking going on and some of the things these people did may not have been the best, but they pulled it off and we should all be grateful. But there some bad guys, namely the short sellers and as usual some in congress. The book makes clear that out of control short selling added fuel to the flames that were occurring and that when we were facing this emergency some members of Congress were focused on their own butt instead of doing what was needed. There is a huge cast in this book and its is sometimes hard to keep the people and their roles straight, but make the effort. You will be rewarded.

After reading two other well-publicized books on the real estate bubble and following market crash, I felt like I had been had. One book, primarily about Lehman, was shallow and written by an egotistical prima donna. The other was too technical and appeared to not have been edited well. This book was written by a finanial author and is fair, thorough, and puts everything in perspective. It is well-written and flows for an easy read. If you have any interest in financial history, this book belongs on your shelf along with other classics like When Genius Failed, Barbarians at the Gate, and the Smartest Guys in the Room. Ignore the poor ratings by those who were disappointed in the Kindle price. That is another issue.

I have read many books on last year's economic crisis, and this book if not the best is certainly one of them. It is a well-written description on literally a day to day basis of the events in NYC and DC that changed our economic landscape forever. The book allows us to know the thoughts of many of the major participants and details the reasons for the actions taken, and shows us how close we came to an economic collapse. I strongly recommend it. Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System---and Themselves

The author has done remarkable research and has composed it into a highly readable account of the 2008 Financial Panic. What surprised me was the extent to which the likes Paulson, Geithner, people at Goldman Sachs knew in early Spring that the dominoes had lined up and yet in a sense couldn't stop them from toppling. Conventional wisdom until now has been that Paulson & Bernanke were unprepared & totally blindsided by the sudden loss of confidence in September. Sorkin writes this was untrue, he has furnished a memo written by Neel Kashkari in early APRIL outlining a last-ditch "Break the glass" plan that later came out to be.....TARP!. He also gives you an hour-by-hour account of that fateful week in Sept by telling the story of all the players. What would amaze you, is the sheer number of merger combinations that were attempted but didn;t succeed. Like JP Morgan buying Morgan Stanley for $1 a share, or Goldman merging with Citi, Paulson trying to entice Lewis to buy Lehman. Its fascinating as to how little time Geithner & Co. had to draw up a plan to rescue AIG. It will leave you somewhat sympathetic to their decision to pay its counterparties 100 cents on the dollar. Which seems like a big mistake when considered in retrospect. As you might expect, AIG top management & FP division come across as clueless & insanely irresponsible. Sorkin's tone throughout the book is objective and nuanced. He doesn't flatter anyone in particular. He lays out sufficient details and lets you form an impression of each of the players.