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Bull by the Horns: Fighting to Save Main Street from Wall Street and Wall Street from Itself

admin — Fri, 21 Jun 2013 22:04:07 +0000

“When Sheila Bair took over as head of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in 2006, the agency was probably better known for the ‘FDIC’ logo on the doors of the nation’s banks than for anything it did. Now Bair is at the center of the financial crisis, speeding the takeover of failing banks and pressing the mortgage industry to ease loan terms . . . winning praise from Democrats and Republicans.” —BLOOMBERG NEWS, October 3, 2008

Sheila Bair is widely acknowledged in government circles and the media as one of the first people to identify and accurately assess the subprime crisis. Appointed by George W. Bush as the chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in 2006, she witnessed the origins of the financial crisis and in 2008 became—along with Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke, and Timothy Geithner—one of the key players trying to repair the damage to our economy. Bull by the Horns is her remarkable and refreshingly honest account of that contentious time and the struggle for reform that followed and continues to this day.

A level-headed, pragmatic figure with a clear focus on serving the public good, Bair was often one of the few women in the room during heated discussions about the economy. Despite her years of experience and her determination to rein in the private banks and Wall Street, she frequently found herself at odds with Geithner. She is withering in her assessment of some of Wall Street’s finest, and her narrative of Citibank’s attempted takeover of Wachovia is a stinging indictment of how regulators and the banks worked against the public interest at times to serve their own needs.

Bair is steadfast in her belief that the American public needs to fully understand the crisis in order to bring it to an end. Critical of the bank bailouts and the Can. $29.99 lax regulation that led to the economic crash, she provides a sober analysis as well as a practical plan for how we should move forward. She helps clear away the myths and half-truths about how we ran our economic engine into the ditch and tells us how we can help get our financial and regulatory systems back on track.

As The New Yorker said, “Bair has consistently stood out for her skepticism of Wall Street and for her eagerness to confront the big banks. A Kansas Republican, she has become an unlikely hero to economic liberals, who see her as the counterweight to the more Wall Street–centric view often ascribed to Timothy Geithner, the Treasury Secretary” (July 6, 2009).

Why I Left Goldman Sachs: A Wall Street Story

admin — Fri, 21 Jun 2013 04:32:30 +0000

How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War

admin — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 06:21:56 +0000

Fool’s Gold: How the Bold Dream of a Small Tribe at J.P. Morgan Was Corrupted by Wall Street Greed and Unleashed a Catastrophe

admin — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 04:31:28 +0000

Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the FinancialSystem–and Themselves

admin — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:04:06 +0000

Backstage Wall Street: An Insider’s Guide to Knowing Who to Trust, Who to Run From, and How to Maximize Your Investments

admin — Wed, 22 May 2013 11:18:30 +0000

Modern Security Analysis: Understanding Wall Street Fundamentals (Wiley Finance)

admin — Tue, 21 May 2013 06:57:44 +0000

A legendary value investor on security analysis for a modern era

This book outlines Whitman's approach to business and security analysis that departs from most conventional security analysts. This approach has more in common with corporate finance than it does with the conventional approach. The key factors in appraising a company and its securities: 1) Credit worthiness, 2) Flows—both cash and earnings, 3) Long-term outlook, 4) Salable assets which can be disposed of without compromising the going concern, dynamics, 5) Resource conversions such as changes in control, mergers and acquisitions, going private, and major changes in assets or in liabilities, and 6) Access to capital.

Offers the security analysis value approach Martin Whitman has used successfully since 1986
Details Whitman's unconventional approach to security analysis and offers information on the six key factors for appraising a company
Contains the three most overemphasized factors used in conventional securities investing

Written by Martin J. Whitman, Modern Security Analysis meets the challenge of today's marketplace by taking into account changes to regulation, market structures, instruments, and the speed and volume of trading.

Hedge Hogs: The Cowboy Traders Behind Wall Street’s Largest Hedge Fund Disaster

admin — Sun, 19 May 2013 18:02:11 +0000

For readers of The Smartest Guys in the Room and When Genius Failed, the definitive take on Brian Hunter, John Arnold, Amaranth Advisors, and the largest hedge fund collapse in history

At its peak, hedge fund Amaranth Advisors LLC had more than $9 billion in assets. A few weeks later, it completely collapsed. The disaster was largely triggered by one man: thirty-two-year-old hotshot trader Brian Hunter. His high-risk bets on natural gas prices bankrupted his firm and destroyed his career, while John Arnold, his rival at competitor fund Centaurus, emerged as the highest-paid trader on Wall Street. Meticulously researched and character-driven, Hedge Hogs is a riveting fly-on-the-wall account of the largest hedge fund collapse in history: a blistering tale of the recent past that explains our precarious present . . . and may predict our future.

Using emails, instant messages, court testimony, and exclusive interviews, securities analyst turned investigative reporter Barbara T. Dreyfuss charts the colliding paths of these two charismatic traders who dominated the speculative energy market. We follow Brian Hunter, the Canadian farm boy and elbows-out high school basketball star, as he achieves phenomenal early success, only to see his ambition, greed, and hubris precipitate his downfall. Set in relief is the journey of John Arnold, whose mild manner, sophisticated tastes, and low profile belied his own ferocious competitive streak. As the two clash, hundreds of millions of dollars in pension and endowment money is imperiled, with devastating public consequences.

Hedge Hogs takes you behind closed doors into the shadowy world of hedge funds, the unregulated wild side of finance, where over-the-top parties and lavish perks abound and billions of dollars of other people’s money are in the hands of a tiny elite. Dreyfuss traces the rise of this freewheeling industry while detailing the decades of bank, hedge fund, and commodity deregulation that turned Wall Street into a speculative casino.

A gripping saga peppered with fast money, vivid characters, and high drama, Hedge Hogs is also an important and timely cautionary tale—a vivisection of a financial system jeopardized by reckless practices, watered-down regulation, and loopholes in government oversight, just waiting for the next bust.

Praise for Hedge Hogs

“Clearly and entertainingly told . . . a salutary example of how traders who believe they are super-smart might be nothing more than lucky, and how there is nothing so intoxicating as the ability to speculate with other people’s money.”—The Economist

“[Dreyfuss] does a great job of putting Amaranth’s out-of-control trader into historical context, explaining the blitz of deregulation that set the stage for someone like Hunter to do maximum damage.”—Bloomberg

“A telling insider’s story on how hedge funds are playing high-stakes poker for massive personal profits and stealing the American Dream from average families . . . This is a case study that cries out for tougher crackdowns on the derivatives game.”—Hedrick Smith, author of Who Stole the American Dream?

“The definitive take on the largest hedge fund collapse in history . . . You will not be able to put it down.”—Frank Partnoy, author of F.I.A.S.C.O. and Infectious Greed

“[Dreyfuss’s] work shines light on the little-known sector of unregulated energy trading in the wake of Enron.”—Booklist

Named One of the Top 10 Business & Economics Books of the Season by Publishers Weekly

From the Hardcover edition.

Hedge Hogs: The Cowboy Traders Behind Wall Street’s Largest Hedge Fund Disaster

admin — Wed, 15 May 2013 13:55:00 +0000

The Buy Side: A Wall Street Trader’s Tale of Spectacular Excess

admin — Tue, 14 May 2013 06:12:48 +0000