Funny Money

by Mark Singer

Book Overview

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394532368
• ISBN13: 9780394532363
• Release Date: May 1985
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
• Length: 221 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Good read, mostly

There were four stories in this book: The Ice Dancers: 4.5 Mariah and Alek were considered the best in ice dancing. They were also personally involved and became engaged. Alek suddenly broke up with Mariah and walked away with no explanation. This, of course, also destroyed their professional relationship and both went on to skate with other partners. Two years later they are asked to skate together for a children's benefit. They both agree reluctantly and are frequently together to practice. The ice dancing info was enchanting. Mariah and Alek were haunting characters and the story was beautiful as they worked their way back together. Season of Miracles: 3 Kathryn has been in love with Dan most of her life while he's only thought of her as a friend. He told her he would take her to her senior prom and instead came home with a bride, never remembering his promise. Three years after his wife's death Dan decides he needs a wife. His proposal to Kathryn is that he wants a mother for his kids and a woman to warm his bed. He says she was the first one he thought of when he decided to get a wife. What he hints at is that she's 40 years old and not likely to get any other offers, turned out she already had just two months earlier but she never told him. Dan was oblivious to how cold, hurtful and insulting his "proposal" was. Or he just didn't care. I have to say though Kathryn was so in love with him that she left her pride and self-respect behind to follow him like a lost puppy. This is her first and only wedding and Dan does nothing to make it special, since it's more of a business deal, with benefits, to him. He didn't take her on a honeymoon, didn't carry her over the threshold and expected her to be a virgin. I know we're supposed to believe that he falls in love with her but with cruel comments like, " I don't know where I ever got the idea that marriage to you would solve anything. You promptly tore apart my house. My daughter bawls more than ever. Hell, I've hardly had a moment's peace since you moved in.", it's hard to believe. Dan was a jerk. Holiday Homecoming: 4.5 Dianna's father and Matt's mother got married when Matt was 14 and Dianna 4. As they got older their feelings begin to deepen into a true love. At a New Year's party when Dianna is 19 they began to act on the way they feel and her father came in. He banished Matt telling him he's a pervert and he never wants to see him again. Dianna is devastated and wants no personal life. 8 years later Dianna's father relents and asks Matt home for Xmas. As Dianna and Matt are thrown together they realize that both have matured, as has their love. Now they have to decide if the opinions of their family is more important than their love. Santa's Special Miracle: 5 Eight years ago Larry & Dorie became friends in college. When his family thought they were becoming serious Larry's brother Grant was sent to talk to Dorie and discourage her. He believed h

So that's what happened to the oil business

Well written and enjoyable - not a easy thing for such a potentially droll subject. Made a living shutting down oil companies for a while - now I know why.

What everyone needs to know

Mark Singer has written one of my favorite books ever. It is simple to read and simply hilarious to think that a bank in a shopping maul almost brought down the entire banking industry of the United States and hence the world. Mark Singer's understanding of how this happened and the characters involved in the fiascal leaves the reader with a more profound and terrifying idea of what makes the world go round.

Okiesmo Lives

Growing up in Oklahoma my only real memory of the Penn Square Bank failure was when they pulled down the red-piggy-bank logo from the top of the building. It was something that was talked about on the national news every evening, but it wasn't well understood just how such a small local bank could cause such a ruckus. Mr. Singer's book explains what was at the bottom of all of the trouble, how Penn Square fell from grace, and in the process of doing so provides interesting commentary on Oklahoma culture, as well as some history and other facts pertaining to the oil business. The book is very well written and quick paced, providing just enough detail to be considered in depth, while not languishing on unnecessary detail.It is interesting to remark that the same conditions that caused everyone to say oil at $100 per barrel was a no-brainer are those that caused people to put forth the indestructible nature of internet-retailing. The Okiesmo of wildcats in pursuit of oil bears striking resemblance to the aggressive idiocy of venture capitalists fighting to put money into business plans that ignored common sense.This book is satisfying on a lot of levels, the depth of information on the figures behind the bankruptcy, the environment that spawned and incented those figures and also the culture, both nationally and locally, which created this collapse. This is a very interesting book, and I highly recommend it.

interesting read on the Penn Square failure

Singer, an Ivy Leaguer from Oklahoma, gives us a pretty good look at how the failure of Penn Square bank nearly took several much larger ones with it back in 1982.Where Singer's portrayal contrasts with that of others is that he speaks from personal and cultural acquaintance with many of the primary characters. This does not stop him from having a little fun at the expense of what he calls 'Okiesmo', the wildcatting and high-living ethic of the oil and gas industry, but it does mean that he sees his subjects as being (in most cases) basically decent human beings who made bad assumptions and boneheaded business decisions.The only thing Singer lacks is a deeper exploration of the factors at the upstream banks (Seafirst, Continental, Michigan National, Chase, and more) that allowed Penn Square to balloon out of control. As someone who has seen a few related documents that he can't say much about, I can tell you with certainty that the 'wild and crazy guy' ethic was not limited to Penn Square, and that without the eager participation of larger banks, the whole affair would have been relatively insignificant. Good book for those interested in Oklahoma history, the gas drilling industry or (naturally) the Penn Square failure.