On the Brink

by Barney Frank

First published 2014

Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson watches legendary Wall Street institutions crumble around him. Bear Stearns teeters. Lehman Brothers faces extinction. AIG spirals toward collapse. The former Goldman Sachs CEO finds himself at the center of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, making split-second decisions that will determine whether the global economy survives. Paulson races between emergency meetings with bank CEOs, heated negotiations with congressional leaders like Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi, and urgent calls with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. International markets panic as credit freezes and American families watch their life savings evaporate. Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain demand answers while President Bush weighs unprecedented government intervention. With each passing hour, the crisis deepens and spreads beyond Wall Street into every corner of the American economy. This is the story of one man thrust into an impossible position, forced to make choices no Treasury Secretary should ever face.

Genres: business, economics, non-fiction, 21st-century, finance, american-history

Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, thought-provoking

Tropes: high-stakes, insider-perspective

Setting: America, Wall Street

Period: Great Depression

ebook · Business Plus

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