Infectious Greed - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1861974736 ISBN 13: 9781861974730

Publisher: Profile Business

Synopsis

From the author of the best-selling F.I.A.S.C.O., a riveting chronicle of the terrifying rise of financial skulduggery and the damage it is doing. F.I.A.S.C.O. was 'Blood in the Water on Wall Street', this is blood and guts everywhere. Like a virus infecting the very heart of our financial markets, our greed-driven culture has led to the generation of massive profits, but alongside this have come new levels of risk, widespread deception and high profile disasters such as Barings Bank, Enron and Worldcom. Confidence in corporate accounts and standards of behaviour has been destroyed and our global financial system has reached a perilous crossroads. Partnoy brings to bear his skills and experience as a securities attorney, financial analyst and law professor to demonstrate how many companies have obscured the real picture from shareholders by disguising risk and side-stepping regulations. Beginning in the mid-1980s with the introduction of the first proto-derivatives, Partnoy gives an intelligent and thorough account of the dangerous manipulations that have and continue to come to light. Blind faith in the financial system is no longer sufficient, but mercifully Partnoy offers a clear vision of the route back from the precipice. 'Partnoy's account of what happened within these companies will send a shiver down the spine of anyone with a humble investment in a unit or investment trust' - Bill Jamieson, The Scotsman

About this title

About the Author

Frank Partnoy was a derivatives trader on Wall Street, and has been a financial journalist and lawyer. His enormously successful F.I.A.S.C.O., about men behaving badly on Wall Street, was 'gripping, unreal stuff, delivered with wry humour' (Sunday Times)

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

From Infectious Greed:

By 2002, the closing bell of the New York Stock Exchange was barely relevant, as securities traded 24 hours a day, around the world. The largest markets were private, and didn't involve regulated exchanges at all. Financial derivatives were as prevalent as stocks and bonds, and nearly as many assets and liabilities were off balance sheets as on. Companies' reported earnings were a fiction, and financial reports were chock full of disclosures that would shock the average investor if she ever even glanced at them, not that anyone—including financial journalists and analysts—ever did. Trading volatilities were sky high, with historically unrelated markets moving in lock step, increasing the risk of systemic collapse.

In just a few years, regulators had lost what limited control they had over market intermediaries, market intermediaries had lost what limited control they had over corporate managers, and corporate managers had lost what limited control they had over employees. This loss-of-control daisy chain had led to exponential risk-taking at many companies, largely hidden from public view. Simply put, the appearance of control in financial markets was a fiction.

Edition details

• Publisher: Profile Business
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1861974736
• ISBN 13: 9781861974730
• Binding: Paperback