Paper Fortunes
Modern Wall Street; Where It's Been and Where It's Going
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A LONG, WILD RIDE
Paper Fortunes is the richly-detailed story of Wall Street from post-war heyday to present woes, from a player whose experiences, profiles of the colorful personalities involved and learned observations of the forces shaping the business make it insightful and timely. Smith, a long-time Goldman Sachs banker and now a distinguished NYU professor of finance, enables anyone working on the Street, investing with it, or just appalled by its worst shenanigans to understand how the industry has grown, changed and evolved, and what its future prospects are.
From various Goldmans, Sachses, and Lehmans through to Richard Fuld, Henry Paulson and Tim Geithner, Paper Fortunes tells the ongoing story of the shifting U.S. market economy through the actions of the people who've shaped it for the last 60 years and will shape it for the next 60 years.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this riveting and timely read, former Goldman Sachs investment banker Smith (The Global Bankers) takes readers on a roller-coaster ride of a history lesson, covering 100 years of peaks, valleys, booms, and busts on Wall Street and concluding with a stellar account of the recent financial crisis. He traces the evolution of such financial powerhouses as Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, and Lehman Brothers and scrupulously chronicles the interplay between market forces and political, technological, and cultural shifts. The pace never slackens nor does the book buckle beneath the weight of Smith's research long accounts of industry shakeups are interspersed with anecdotes about the colorful personalities that have shaped Wall Street, from early-20th-century finance titans Andre Meyer of Lazard Fr res, and Sidney Weinberg, one of the early drivers behind Goldman Sachs, to present-day moguls Michael Bloomberg and Henry Paulson. Novices as well as industry insiders will find Smith's perspective edifying; his account of Wall Street's history reveals how turbulence and adaptation are hallmarks of the capital markets.
