or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
29 used & new from £4.99
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Street Fighters: The Last 72 Hours of Bear Stearns, the Toughest Firm on Wall Street
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

Street Fighters: The Last 72 Hours of Bear Stearns, the Toughest Firm on Wall Street (Hardcover)

by Kate Kelly (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
RRP: £15.75
Price: £11.57 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Want guaranteed delivery by Thursday, November 12? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
16 new from £9.18 13 used from £4.99

Frequently Bought Together

Street Fighters: The Last 72 Hours of Bear Stearns, the Toughest Firm on Wall Street + A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Incredible Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers + Fool's Gold: How Unrestrained Greed Corrupted a Dream, Shattered Global Markets and Unleashed a Catastrophe
Price For All Three: £29.12

Show availability and shipping details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Incredible Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers

A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Incredible Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers

by Larry McDonald
3.7 out of 5 stars (7)  £5.58
House of Cards: How Wall Street's Gamblers Broke Capitalism: The Fall of Bear Stearns and the Collapse of the Global Market

House of Cards: How Wall Street's Gamblers Broke Capitalism: The Fall of Bear Stearns and the Collapse of the Global Market

by William D. Cohan
4.2 out of 5 stars (6)  £14.79
The House of Dimon: How J.P.Morgan's Jamie Dimon Rose to the Top of the Financial World: How Jamie Dimon Rose to the Top of the Financial World

The House of Dimon: How J.P.Morgan's Jamie Dimon Rose to the Top of the Financial World: How Jamie Dimon Rose to the Top of the Financial World

by Patricia Crisafulli
2.0 out of 5 stars (1)  £10.83
A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers

A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers

by Lawrence G. McDonald
4.3 out of 5 stars (3) 
Fool's Gold: How Unrestrained Greed Corrupted a Dream, Shattered Global Markets and Unleashed a Catastrophe

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

by Gillian Tett
4.4 out of 5 stars (19)  £11.97
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Hardcover: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Portfolio (12 May 2009)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1591842735
  • ISBN-13: 978-1591842736
  • Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 27,905 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #10 in  Books > Business, Finance & Law > Biographies & Histories > Finance and Stock Market History
    #27 in  Books > Business, Finance & Law > Professional Finance > Banking

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
 
(11)
(10)
(7)
(7)
(5)
(5)
(5)
(4)
(4)
(4)
(2)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags
 

Customer Reviews

1 Review
5 star:
 (1)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A dramatic TKO on Wall Street, 21 May 2009
By Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

As I began to read this account of "the last 72 hours of Bear Stearns, the toughest firm on Wall Street," so powerful are Kate Kelly's narrative and descriptive skills that it soon seemed as if I were seeing a film rather than reading a book. Colorful characters, fast-moving plot, vivid images, lively dialog, riveting conflicts and confrontations, increasing tension, and then....

The book's narrative begins at 5:30 P.M. on Thursday, March 13, 2008, and continues until 8:30 PM on Sunday, March 16, 2008, followed by an Epilogue in which Kelly reviews subsequent developments at other firms (e.g. Lehman, AIG, Merrill) and provides a follow-up on Bear Stearns' key leaders. From Thursday through Sunday, at a pace that astonished everyone involved, the once-proud firm of "street fighters...lean, scrappy, and hungry for profits," a firm that had "an underdog's spirit, and relished the chance to knock more well-heeled firms down a peg or two," saw its stock take a "breathtaking drop." It had sold for $172 in January of 2007, was selling for $57 on March 13, 2008, and continued to plunge so far and so fast ($30.00 on March 14) that when Bear received J.P. Morgan Chase's final offer, the stock was valued at $2.00.

How to explain Bear's decline and fall? Kelly offers several reasons. Here are four:

1. Dysfunctional leadership (e.g. its CFO, Sam Molinaro, was "hopelessly disorganized" amidst toxic infighting between and among the firm's leaders)

2. Decision-making that Jim Collins describes (in How the Mighty Fall) as "grasping for salvation" in Stage 4 of a five-stage process of organizational decline

3. Indifference to promising new diagnostics such as a risk-assessment matrix to pinpoint the firm's exposure to the markets that a Bear employee had taken years to develop

4. Senior managers' obsession with wealth accumulation, with a concern for the firm's welfare only to the extent that it enabled them to achieve that objective

Over time, it became obvious to Bear's leaders (including board members) that the firm would either have to accept the best offer (and whether or not there would be any remained in doubt throughout most of the frantic weekend) or file for bankruptcy. Meanwhile, negotiations continued with other firms (notably J.P. Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and J.C. Flowers), with the Federal Reserve (Tim Geithner, Ben Bernanke, and Kevin Walsh), and the U.S. Treasury (Hank Paulson and Bob Steel). Advisors to Bear Stearns included Gary Parr (Lazard), Rodge Cohen (Sullivan & Cromwell LLP), and Dennis Block (Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP). Finally, the deal was made with J.P. Morgan Chase.

In her Epilogue, Kelly notes that "Bear failed because the credit crisis of 2008 killed every firm with a large mortgage business, too little diversification to offset the losses from bad loans, and the inability to be proactive. These factors ruined Lehman Brothers, and, directly or indirectly, almost sank Fannie, Freddie, AIG, and Merrill Lynch - until the government, private industry, or both stanched the bleeding." She goes on to suggest that, among the investment banks that once dominated the U.S. economy, Bear, the fifth largest, "was also uniquely vulnerable. The simple spirit that made Ace Greenberg the company's most celebrated figure - that of cutting losses early, saving money on paper clips and envelopes, and guarding religiously against outsized risk - had long since been replaced by a more cavalier outlook. Its chief proponent was Jimmy Cayne." It seems probable that the firm's subsequent decline can be traced back to Cayne's appointment as CEO but there were others who must share the blame, notably the firm's subsequent CEO, Alan Schwartz, who "was in denial about his company's travails and when capital-generating opportunities appeared in January and February, he "essentially dismissed them."

As Schwartz departed Bear's headquarters on Sunday evening, Parr caught up with him in the hallway and urged him to feel very good about what he had accomplished. "You've done a remarkable job in working this through." Schwartz shook his head, struggling to collect himself. "I feel terrible," he finally said.

The End
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject















i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.