First published 2009
William D. Cohan dissects the spectacular collapse of Bear Stearns in March 2008. On March 5, a Florida hedge fund manager declared the investment bank insolvent on his website. Bear Stearns had just reported $115 million in profits and held $17.3 billion in cash. Ten days later, the firm ceased to exist. Cohan delivers a minute by minute account of those ten catastrophic days as executives scrambled to save their company while Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Fed President Tim Geithner, and Chairman Ben Bernanke grappled with global economic consequences. The author traces how risky mortgage investments, internal power struggles, and regulatory failures destroyed the nation's fifth largest investment bank. He profiles key figures including penny pinching chairman Ace Greenberg, bridge champion CEO Jimmy Cayne, and JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon, who bought Bear Stearns for less than the value of its headquarters building alone. Cohan explains complex financial instruments while revealing the corporate culture and personal rivalries that blinded leaders to mounting dangers.
Genres: history, business, economics, non-fiction, 21st-century, finance
Vibes: fast-paced, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: corporate-corruption, power-struggle, regulatory-failure
Setting: Bear Stearns, Florida, JPMorgan, Treasury
Period: 2008, March 2008
468 pages · Hardcover · Doubleday