F.I.A.S.C.O.: Blood in the Water on Wall Street - Softcover

Partnoy, Frank

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393336816 ISBN 13: 9780393336818

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2009

Synopsis

“Applies an intelligent, clinical eye to [an] excruciatingly complex corner of the financial world.” ―New York Times

A classic of its kind, Frank Partnoy’s best-selling FIASCO takes readers inside the rollicking world of derivatives on Wall Street during the mid-1990s. The book tracks Partnoy’s success as a young Morgan Stanley employee who quickly becomes steeped in a culture that treats client as targets to be “blown up” or have their faces “ripped off.” A decade later FIASCO remains one of the most damning and prescient pictures of the speculative frenzies that grip Wall Street and the victims they can leave in their wake. In Partnoy’s case they include well-publicized losses at Orange County, Barings, and Procter & Gamble, among others. A new epilogue written for this edition brings Partnoy’s story―as well as the story of derivatives―up to the present.

About this title

Review:

The game of Russian roulette is alive and well and living on Wall Street, where it's known as the derivatives market. In his aptly named book F.I.A.S.C.O., Frank Partnoy, a former derivatives trader at Morgan Stanley, exposes the seamier side of high-stakes finance. Derivatives are securities whose worth is determined by the value of other securities; according to Partnoy, however, the derivatives market is an elaborate illusion performed with smoke and mirrors. In fascinating, frightening detail Partnoy describes several of Morgan Stanley's slick deals that, in his eyes, are just this side of outright fraud. More than just dishonest, the bait-and-switch tactics Wall Street traders employ to rig the markets are downright dangerous, since the massive debt these deals conceal will inevitably come back to haunt the dealmakers.

F.I.A.S.C.O. could be subtitled Portrait of the Trader as a Young Man, for Frank Partnoy is indeed young, and his short tenure on Wall Street left him sadly disillusioned but much wiser. His book will leave you wiser, too--and probably very worried.

About the Author:

Frank Partnoy is the author of Infectious Greed and The Match King. He has written for the Financial Times, the New York Times, and Portfolio. He teaches law at the University of San Diego, where he lives.

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0393336816
• ISBN 13: 9780393336818
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272