Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System--and Themselves

By Andrew Ross Sorkin

Book Overview

NEW YORK TIMES BESTELLER - The definitive account of the 2008 economic crisis, from the award-winning financial columnist and founder of DealBook, with unparalleled behind-the-scenes access to the key players on Wall Street and in Washington

"Too Big to Fail is too good to put down. . . . It is the story of the actors in the most extraordinary financial spectacle in over] 80 years, and it is told brilliantly." --The Economist

NOW AN HBO FILM

One of the most gripping financial stories in decades, Too Big to Fail delivers a blow-by-blow account of the epochal economic crisis that brought the world to the brink. Through unprecedented access to the players involved, Andrew Ross Sorkin re-creates all the drama and turmoil of those turbulent days, revealing never-before-disclosed details and recounting how--motivated as often by ego and greed as by fear and self-preservation--the most powerful men and women in finance and politics decided the fate of the world's economy.

This edition has been updated with a new afterword reflecting on the tenth anniversary of the crisis.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143118242
• ISBN13: 9780143118244
• Release Date: September 2010
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 640 Pages
• Weight: 1.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 5.5" x 8.4"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A Real Page Turner

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.

Strong Recommendation

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