Ubs Swiss Bank
The intimate, fly-on-the wall tale of the decline and fall of an America icon
With one remarkable exception, the firms that make up what we recognise as Wall Street have always been share of an inbred, insular culture that most persons only vaguely understand. The exception was Merrill Lynch, a firm that revolutionized the stock market by bringing Wall Street to Main Street, setting up offices in far-flung cities and towns long ignored by the giants of finance. With it is “thundering herd” of financial advisers, perhaps no other business, whether in financial services or elsewhere, so epitomized the American spirit. Merrill Lynch was not only “bullish on America,” it was a huge reason why so a lot of intermediate Americans were capable to grow wealthy by laying out capital in the stock market. Merrill Lynch was an icon. Its sudden decline, collapse, and sale to Bank of America was a shock. How did it happen? Why did it happen? And what does this story of greed, hubris, and incompetence tell us with regards to the culture of Wall Street that proceeds to this day even altho it came close to demolishing the American economy? A culture in which the CEO of a firm losing $28 billion pushes hard to be paid a $25 million bonus. A culture in which two Merrill Lynch executives are guaranteed bonuses of $30 million and $40 million for four months’ work, even while the firm is engaged in a struggle to reduce it is losses by firing thousands of employees. Based on unparalleled roots at both Merrill Lynch and Bank of America, Greg Farrell’s Crash of the Titans is a Shakespearean saga of three flawed pros of the universe. E. Stanley O’Neal, whose inspiring rise from the segregated South to the corner office of Merrill Lynch—where he engineered a successful turnaround—was undone by his faith that a smooth-talking salesman could handle one of the most difficult jobs on Wall Street. Because he enjoyed O’Neal’s support, this executive was permitted to build up an astonishing $30 billion position in CDOs on the firm’s remainder sheet, at a time when all other Wall Street firms were desperately attempting to exit the business. After O’Neal comes John Thain, the cerebral, MIT-educated technocrat whose rescue of the New York Stock Exchange earned him the nickname “Super Thain.” He was hired to save Merrill Lynch in late 2007, but his faith that the markets would rebound led him to underestimate the depth of Merrill’s problems. Finally, we meet Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis, a street fighter raised hardly above the poverty line in rural Georgia, whose “my way or the highway” management style suffers fools more without apparent effort than potential rivals, and who made a $50 billion dedication over a September weekend to buy a business he in truth didn’t understand, therefore jeopardizing his own institution. The merger itself turns out to be a bizarre combining of cultures that blend like oil and water, where slick Wall Street bankers abruptly find themselves reporting to a cast of characters straight out of the Beverly Hillbillies. BofA’s inbred culture, which sensed New York banks it is enemies, was based on commitment and a good-ol’-boy network in which competence played second fiddle to blind obedience.
Crash of the Titans is a financial adventure story that puts you in the theater as the historic events of the financial crisis unfold and humans responsible for billion of dollars of other people’s cash gamble recklessly to heighten their power and their paychecks or to save their own skins. Its wealth of never-before-revealed selective information and focus on two icons of corporate America make it the book that puts together all the pieces of the Wall Street disaster. From the Hardcover edition.
Review"Eminently readable and convincing...There's great value to be gained in the detail that Farrell reveals." —Salon
"An indepth reconstruction of how Merrill Lynch & Co. sealed it is own fate by
becoming more bullish on bonuses than on America." —James Pressley, Bloomberg
"Farrell weaves his facts into a story...piling detail upon detail to sketch the inner
workings of Merrill Lynch, which he calls the Wall Street firm that made it possible for
average Americans to reap handsome returns in the stock market." —USA Today
"The...financial crisis's answer to Game Change--John Heilemann and Mark Halperin's
tattle-filled bestseller in regards to the 2008 Presidential election--Farrell shows that... seemingly trivial matters became the obsessions of Wall Street executives as the subprime contagion spread." —BusinessWeek
“Immaculately reported…Farrell has found one of the greatest untold stories of the [financial crisis] drama.” —Financial Times
“Farrell tells a story based on hundreds of hours of consultations that builds like a hurricane.” —Forbes.com From the Hardcover edition. About the AuthorGREG FARRELL is a correspondent for the Financial Times. In January 2009, he broke the news that Merrill Lynch had salaried out it is 2008 bonuses a month in front of schedule, in December, even though Merrill was in the routine of losing $28 billion for the year, and Bank of America necessitated an extra $20 billion in taxpayer funds to finish it is acquisition of the firm. That story sparked an investigation by New York attorney standard Andrew Cuomo. Greg is a past winner of the American Business Press’s Jesse Neal Award for investigative reporting and a recipient of the Knight-Bagehot Fellowship for business journalism. He earned a BA from Harvard University and an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University. From the Hardcover edition. |
Most helpful client reviews 25 of 26 people found the following review helpful.
 An Absolutely Magnificent Story
By William Dahl
An perfectly magnificent story.
It's a tough position for another book on the U.S. financial crisis to be freed on November 2, 2010 (Crown Business NY, NY) --- if you have read as some outstanding books with regards to the crisis this year as I have.
Don't be fooled. Don't let the 454 pages of this volume dissuade you from giving careful consideration to this splendid story from Greg Farrell (correspondent for the Financial Times - BA Harvard and MBA from Columbia).
What Crash of the Titans is, in my opinion, is proof of plainly extraordinary storytelling, supported by a depth and breadth of investigative journalism that is both distinguishable and unparalleled. Farrell is a pro - veritably a master story teller. The 454 pages flew by based upon the prowess of Farrell's capacity to keep the reader engaged on a page-turning journey. His reputation development is amazing. The tension, innuendo and intrigue are plainly fantastic and lend to the believability of this work as a genuinely unique, non-fiction financial adventure story for 2010.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I worked at both NationsBank and BofA for the duration of my career as a territorial manager of a mercantile lending group (during the years when BofA was acquired by NB and adopted the Bank of America brand). I was with NB at the time of the acquisition and stayed on for assorted years thereafter with the BofA logo on my business card. Farrell's capacity to capture the "culture clash" that occurred for the duration of this merger was uncanny - spot on target.
This book is, in my opinion, an eminently reasonable characterization of the story and the people. Frankly, John Thain did his best - and his performance could not likely be outperformed by comparably competent Wall Street executives who may have been thrust into the circumstance Mr. Thain was.
Greg Fleming - wherever you are - you are my hero! I'll work for your team any day. I'm waiting for your call Mr. Fleming.
From the sheer excellency of the story telling, supported by the exploration and investigative journalism...I rate this work as FIVE STARS.
Buy it. You'll genuinely take delight in it. This book ranks right up there with the works of Lowenstein, Michael Lewis and Scott Patterson's published in 2010.
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful.
 Good Insight into the Merrill Meltdown & the BOA Merger
By GratefulFed
This book doesn't undertake to explain the definition of a CDO or how the housing bubble built, popped, etc like each other book on the crisis does
This book assumes you have read a few other books on the crisis & have the basic psychological result of perception learning and reasoning of the housing market Boom & Bust and how it happened and what caused it... so if you are looking for an Introductory Book on the 2007 crisis there are lots of others that would be much better
However, if you want to recognise what went into numerous of the behind the scenes conclusions that brought Merrill Lynch to the brink on non-existence and the elements that lead Bank of America to recompense such a huge price for a company that was imploding... this book is great. Goes into the background and personalities of Stan O'Neal, Ken Lewis, John Thain and the other major players and gives a good picture of what each person did to result in the 2008 Merger
Plenty of books have been written on the crisis, What caused it, who is to blame etc. But all of those Books focus on Bear Stearns or Lehman Brothers or Goldman Sachs... and the Merrill/BAC merger is only noted in passing. This is the initial book I have read that focalized on the crisis from Merrill's perspective 31 of 35 humans found the following review helpful.
INCOMPETENCE RICHLY REWARDED
By DOPPLEGANGER
Until the numerous recent revelations on the causes of our financial foundations closely total capitulation when faced with difficult marketing conditions, many, including myself, held those running these businesses in outstanding respect bordering on awe, believing them to be superior to most other mortals. This conviction was reinforced by the fact that they were remunerated big basic salaries, were given big annual bonuses closely as a matter of course, had pension funds of unimaginative magnitude, and were beneficiaries of a multitude of perks from chauffeured limousines, almost unlimited disbursements through to personal use of corporate aircraft. If these persons were not outstanding business leaders surely the supposedly 'wise' members of the Remuneration Committees of these companies would not be irresponsible sufficient to rewards them so extravagantly?
Wrong. It is rather apparent from this great book on the last desperate attempts of Merrill Lynch to stay clear from the ignominy of 'going down the tube' and the ill-conceived and clumsy attempts of The Bank of America when buying what was considered to be a 'trophy purchase' without exercising much care and due diligence, at a price that was at a significant premium over it is real value, that the senior executives of both companies were 'thrashing' around in the dark, displaying all the signs of 'lemming' management and not living up to the level of expertness that they were being remunerated for.
Greg Farrell's account of these manic times is excellent. Although reasonably long in terms of pages, it holds ones interest all around and gives both the uninitiated and more financially experienced reader, a 'fly-on-the-wall' perspective into the dire repercussions of banks operating 'casino' type operations on their own accounts, and throwing the dice on the 'Credit Derivatives' Table specially as it transpires they had little or no appreciation of the downsides.
A actually good book which I believe is Mr Farrell's firstborn and it is hoped not his last. See all 32 client reviews... |
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