- Hardcover: 352 pages
- Publisher: Little, Brown (30 April 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1408701642
- ISBN-13: 978-1408701645
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16.2 x 3.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 77,453 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
`A truly gripping narrative . . . The fact that Tett is able to reproduce such raw private communications is a tribute to her journalistic abilities'
--Dominic Lawson, Sunday Times
--Dominic Lawson, Sunday Times
Review
`Her blow-by-blow story is an impressive piece of detective work. She pulls back the curtain on a closed, unaccountable world of finance'
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
85 of 90 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is the first properly considered book about the financial crisis to be published. Gillian Tett is well known as a financial journalist (working for the FT in London). Accordingly, you might think this book has been rushed out to simply rehearse the emerging consensus view on the causes of the financial crisis. Not so! This is a very impressive volume. To start with - Gillian Tett knows the spider's web of complex structured products at the heart of this story well enough to be able to describe it simply. That is the mark of true mastery. What is best about this book, however, is the way it tells the human story. That is the story of the innovators at J.P. Morgan who created these products and realised at an early stage that they left behind a kind of nuclear waste that needed to be properly contained - particularly so in relation to derivatives based on residential mortgages (the default pattern of which was essentially unknowable until recently). Other banks didn't realise this (or didn't care) and just left that waste sitting on their balance sheets, or worse, shifted it to quasi-subsidiary vehicles where it was hidden and supported by short-term funding that quickly evaporated at the first sign of trouble. Ultimately, the book shows that financial innovation is not a problem per se - it's the use to which such innovation was put that created problems.
Overall - this is a very informative and interesting read which has clearly been in the planning for some time. A well considered book.
Overall - this is a very informative and interesting read which has clearly been in the planning for some time. A well considered book.
63 of 67 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The book's content is less ambitious that its titles suggests. It is about how a team of derivative experts at J.P. Morgan contributed to the development of the securities, including credit default swaps and options, which led to the financial crisis. That's reasonably interesting, but it's a fairly narrow perspective on what happened. The collapse of Lehman is covered in a few pages. She doesn't even mention that the major banks were manipulating Libor. At points it sounds like she is writing to protect her sources. There is a lot about what a great CEO Jamie Dimon is at JP Morgan chase. She says the JPM team shouldn't be blamed for other banks misusing the derivatives they created. I've never heard anyone blame them for it.
There are a few mistakes: the internet bubble of 1999 was equity driven, not debt fueled. She uses acronyms too often, and there are no anecdotes explaining why the subprime default rates were so high. Indeed, she is very light on what happened in the subprime sector. The corruption there could have really livened up her book, and illuminated the causes of the crash. I learnt more about the crisis from the introduction to Niall Ferguson's Financial History of the World.
There are a few mistakes: the internet bubble of 1999 was equity driven, not debt fueled. She uses acronyms too often, and there are no anecdotes explaining why the subprime default rates were so high. Indeed, she is very light on what happened in the subprime sector. The corruption there could have really livened up her book, and illuminated the causes of the crash. I learnt more about the crisis from the introduction to Niall Ferguson's Financial History of the World.
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a gripping read from an author who is sure of her facts and can tell the true story of the banking crisis clearly and dramatically. Because she was one of the first to forecast financial disaster she has become a pundit on the subject and there is rarely a day when Gillian Tett is not on television or radio. Thanks to a useful glossary the reader is guided through the murky world of what Vince Cable dubbed "casino banking" with explanations of "Credit Default Swaps", "Mortgage-Backed Bond Security", the surreal sounding "Gaussian Copula" and the like. What started out as a well-thought out investment strategy turned into a glorified pyramid selling spree in order to generate bank profits, and therby bonuses. The author has a degree in anthropology and this gives the book a human interest beyond the world of high finance. Highly recommended for anyone wanting to understand the greatest economic trauma of our times.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Dangerous derivatives
In the jungle of financial markets, some financial products are scarier than others. Fools Gold is an account of the rise of that most deadly of instruments, the Credit Default... Read more
Published 8 days ago by The Big Pink One
Great introduction to CDOs, also for those without finance background.
I read this book after Michael Lewis' "The Big Short" and found that both books together provide a great overview and explanation of the financial crisis. Read more
Published 20 days ago by Geeky_Girl
Excellent
This is one of the most readable, easily digestable books written in the aftermath of the banking crisis. Read more
Published 2 months ago by malcrider
Inside story for insiders
I notice one reviewer (perhaps significantly based in Switzwerland) describes this as "Easy to read. A good beginner's book." Not for this beginner. Read more
Published 3 months ago by G. M. Sinstadt
An Well-written Account of the History of Credit Derivatives
In 1994, J.P. Morgan, looking to create a market for credit derivatives, provided $4.8 billion of credit to Exxon and sold the credit risk to the European Bank of Reconstruction... Read more
Published 5 months ago by SãoPauloUK
Lighting a cavern with a 40 watt bulb
I bought this book because I am always very impressed by Gillian Tett when she appears on Newsnight which she frequently does. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Glidd of Glood
Great introduction to the financial crisis of 2008
This is a great first book to read on the financial crisis of 2008. Written from informed insight into J P Morgan, one of the first banks to create the products that went on to... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Duncan Gray
Where it all went Wrong
This is a brilliant book by Gillian Tett. It follows the events and the players that led us all to the biggest economic crash in almost 100 years. Is there much more to come? Read more
Published 9 months ago by Ken Capstick
Tett's Gold
As one reviewer notes this book is largely about JP Morgan's CDO desk. It then morphs into the JP Morgan/Chase Manhattan merger and what happens thereafter with Dimon at the helm. Read more
Published 12 months ago by demola
An easy read on a difficult subject
Gillian Tett has managed a difficult task - explaining to the uninitiated quite complex financial matters in a clear, concise and simple way. Read more
Published 13 months ago by MonsterMunch
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