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Fool's Gold: How Unrestrained Greed Corrupted a Dream, Shattered Global Markets and Unleashed a Catastrophe
 
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Fool's Gold: How Unrestrained Greed Corrupted a Dream, Shattered Global Markets and Unleashed a Catastrophe (Hardcover)

by Gillian Tett (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
RRP: £18.99
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Product details

  • 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: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 6,250 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #43 in  Books > Business, Finance & Law > Professional Finance

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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


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

20 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (20 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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55 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Insight into the human drama, 8 May 2009
By Tim Scott (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
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.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars She should have called it: The story of the J.P. Morgan CDO desk, 9 Sep 2009
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.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Heads they win, Tails we lose, 4 Jul 2009
By J. M. Goldthorpe (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
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

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book and a very good read
Gillian Tett is an assistant editor of the Financial Times and oversees the global coverage of the financial markets. Read more
Published 2 days ago by Bernard Smith

5.0 out of 5 stars Fool's Gold
I found this book very informative providing a comprehensive and factual view of the causes of the financial system failure. Read more
Published 20 days ago by A. Williams

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read
If you have more intelligence than to just think one factor (i.e. derivatives) was responsible for the state we're in then this book is definitely for you. Read more
Published 1 month ago by J. Withers

1.0 out of 5 stars Fool's Gold
I was slightly disappointed by the lack of analysis of the importance of the song in charting the Stone Roses journey away from the more gothy/punky sound of their early years to... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Duncan Needham

4.0 out of 5 stars Fool's Gold
This was a surprisingly good read considering I've never been one to pick up the Financial Times and it was all about investment bankers and the crazy innovations they used to... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Raeki

4.0 out of 5 stars A good analysis of how the weapons of financial mass destruction were created and brought the financial world to its knees
This book originally started as a book about the creation of some of the newer derivatives, CDOs CLOs, CDOs etc. Read more
Published 3 months ago by J. H. R. Cornell

4.0 out of 5 stars Flawed critique of capitalism's crimes
Gillian Tett, a Financial Times journalist, shows how a group of JPMorgan Chase bankers wrecked the financial system and plunged the world into depression. Read more
Published 4 months ago by William Podmore

5.0 out of 5 stars FOOL'S GOLD
I thought this book was well researched. The author kept the explanations clear and detailed. I would not have expected the journey through recent financial affairs to have been... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Neville Hamilton

5.0 out of 5 stars How being too clever can be bad for you
As an accountant and someone interested in the workings of the City, I am flabbergasted as to how all this was allowed to happen. Read more
Published 4 months ago by A. Clark

3.0 out of 5 stars Fool's Gold - easy to read and very accessible
Good overview of the development of the derivatives business. Easy to read. Good beginner's book.
Published 4 months ago by Paul Billington

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