House of Cards A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street
House of Cards A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street
“Engrossing….[Cohan] gives us in these pages a chilling, almost minute-by-minute account of the 10, vertigo-inducing days that one year ago revealed Bear Stearns to be a flimsy house of cards in a perfect storm….He does a deft job of explicating the underlying reasons that put Bear Stearns in peril in the first place….turns complex Wall Street maneuverings into high drama that is gripping — and almost immediately comprehensible — to the lay reader….riveting, edge-of-the-seat reading”
–Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
“Cohan vividly documents the mix of arrogance, greed, recklessness, and pettiness that took down the 86 year old brokerage house and then the entire economy. It’s a page-turner in the tradition of the 1990 Barbarians at the Gate by Bryan Burrough and John Heylar, offering both a seemingly comprehensive understanding of the business and wide access to insiders….hard to put down, especially thanks to its dishy, often profane, quotes from insiders” –BusinessWeek
“Masterfully reported….[Cohan] has turned into one of our most able financial journalists….he deploys not only his hands-on experience of this exotic corner of the financial industry but also a remarkable gift for plain-spoken explanation…the other great strength of this important book is the breadth and skill of the author’s interviews…Cohan does a brilliant job of sketching in the eccentric, vulgar, greedy, profane and coarse individuals who ignored all these warnings to their own profit and the ruin of so many others. It’s impossible to do justice to his reportorial detail in a brief review…” – Los Angeles Times
“A riveting blow-by-blow account of the days leading up to the government-backed shotgun wedding (to JPM).” — The Economist
“A masterly reconstruction of Bear Stearns implosion–a tumultuous episode in Wall Street history that still reverberates throughout our economy today….meticulous reporting…..first drafts of history don’t get much better than this” –Bloomberg
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars A Page Turner
I really enjoyed this book. Not only did I learn about some of the new financing vehicles, but I also gained a deeper understanding of how we got into the current economic mess. I had no clue that Bear Stearns was financing its day-to-day operations with borrowed money, giving other entities like Fidelity the ability to effectively shut them down in 24 hours. Or that most similar investment banks were doing the same thing. Mr. Cohen is an excellent writer and I found myself turning the pages as fast as I could read to see what the Bear people were going to do next. I plan to reread the book more slowly to more fully grasp the new world of financing.
5 Stars And they are still walking the streets?
I found this book to be an easy read and appalling at the same time. The unscrupulous nature of some (underscore SOME) of the men who ran the show at Bear Stearns is shocking. Talk about a lack of a moral compass! And reading the words that two of the most flagrant abusers while under investigation are not currently being prosecuted is mind-blowing. If you want to have an inside look, please take the time to read and ponder this book. I am very glad I did!
5 Stars Excellent
I am an outsider who enjoys reading in this genre (James Stewart, Bryan Burroughs, Michael Lewis), and I found this book to be engaging & very readable. My only regret is that the author was unable to conclude with a more thorough post mortem with comments from BS stars like Ace & Jimmy.
I highly recommend this book.
3 Stars A Mixed Bag
This book is mostly about the downfall of the financial institution Bear Stearns. Unfortunately the author writes the book as if he was talking to inside traders. I found myself having to slowly read each page in order to understand what these players were up to. I discovered that if you substitute the term ’scam’ for most of the lingo that the author writes about, you get a fair idea of what these robbers were up to. The word ‘Greed’ practically drips off the pages of this book. Let’s remember that the financial officers of these failed companies profited even when their institutions went down in flames. They walked away with millions. Unfortunately all these banks and financial houses are tied together so closely that when one falls the house of cards truly does come crashing down. If only author Cohan had written a book that the layman could understand.
4 Stars Helpful Summary of the Early Public Information about Bear Stearns Fleshed Out with Interview Details
The title of this book amuses me. It refers simultaneously to the fixation that Bear Stearns’ leaders had on playing championship bridge and to the fact that the company’s debt structure was a house of cards that could come down with only the slightest shift in the wind.
I recently went to a graduate school reunion and one of my classmates proudly told me that his daughter had gotten a job working at a major investment bank for two years. I felt like laughing. Why would anyone want a child to work at an investment bank?
As I read House of Cards, I resisted (with difficulty) the urge to send a copy to my classmate. I’m sure it would have been quite an eye-opener for him.
If you read most of what was published about the collapse of Bear Stearns as it occurred and have a pretty good sense of the current problems in the financial system, you won’t find anything new here except for gossipy details about how clueless the leaders at Bear Stearns were about their circumstances and what needed to be done. If you like gossip about people failing to do their jobs and their personal foibles, this book is pretty good for teaching you what much of Wall Street is like.
If you want to know more about what happened at Bear Stearns and why from a financial or economic point of view that goes beyond what has been published, this book will be a waste of time for you.
For those who just want the gossip, they will probably find the book to be longer and more detailed than they need. For those people, my advice is to just read chapters 1-12 and 25-29. That will give you enough for a sense of this story of how those who felt mighty fell.
What happened in a nutshell is that Bear Stearns (like many Wall Street firms before it) believed itself to be invincible and didn’t spend much time looking at what might go wrong. When evidence suggested any problem, the leaders ignored the evidence and looked to maximize short-term profits (even if those might lead to huge losses in the future). If their gambles (based on mountains of short-term debt) didn’t work out, they probably assumed some other investment bank would pay them tens of millions a year to start all over again making the same kinds of gambles. It’s a lottery where those who run the lottery feel they will always win . . . even if the investors lose. This time some of them were wrong, and they paid the price.
It will be fun to see this story rewritten after banks and insurance companies finally admit that they have lost many more trillions of dollars than anyone is willing to talk about now. I suspect the Bear Stearns story will look less awful then than it does now. Why? The greatest financial misdeeds in this financial crisis may well be ahead of us, not behind us.
Don’t bet more than you can afford, no matter how good your cards look!
House of Cards A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street
House of Cards A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street
“Engrossing….[Cohan] gives us in these pages a chilling, almost minute-by-minute account of the 10, vertigo-inducing days that one year ago revealed Bear Stearns to be a flimsy house of cards in a perfect storm….He does a deft job of explicating the underlying reasons that put Bear Stearns in peril in the first place….turns complex Wall Street maneuverings into high drama that is gripping — and almost immediately comprehensible — to the lay reader….riveting, edge-of-the-seat reading”
–Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
“Cohan vividly documents the mix of arrogance, greed, recklessness, and pettiness that took down the 86 year old brokerage house and then the entire economy. It’s a page-turner in the tradition of the 1990 Barbarians at the Gate by Bryan Burrough and John Heylar, offering both a seemingly comprehensive understanding of the business and wide access to insiders….hard to put down, especially thanks to its dishy, often profane, quotes from insiders” –BusinessWeek
“Masterfully reported….[Cohan] has turned into one of our most able financial journalists….he deploys not only his hands-on experience of this exotic corner of the financial industry but also a remarkable gift for plain-spoken explanation…the other great strength of this important book is the breadth and skill of the author’s interviews…Cohan does a brilliant job of sketching in the eccentric, vulgar, greedy, profane and coarse individuals who ignored all these warnings to their own profit and the ruin of so many others. It’s impossible to do justice to his reportorial detail in a brief review…” – Los Angeles Times
“A riveting blow-by-blow account of the days leading up to the government-backed shotgun wedding (to JPM).” — The Economist
“A masterly reconstruction of Bear Stearns implosion–a tumultuous episode in Wall Street history that still reverberates throughout our economy today….meticulous reporting…..first drafts of history don’t get much better than this” –Bloomberg
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars A Page Turner
I really enjoyed this book. Not only did I learn about some of the new financing vehicles, but I also gained a deeper understanding of how we got into the current economic mess. I had no clue that Bear Stearns was financing its day-to-day operations with borrowed money, giving other entities like Fidelity the ability to effectively shut them down in 24 hours. Or that most similar investment banks were doing the same thing. Mr. Cohen is an excellent writer and I found myself turning the pages as fast as I could read to see what the Bear people were going to do next. I plan to reread the book more slowly to more fully grasp the new world of financing.
5 Stars And they are still walking the streets?
I found this book to be an easy read and appalling at the same time. The unscrupulous nature of some (underscore SOME) of the men who ran the show at Bear Stearns is shocking. Talk about a lack of a moral compass! And reading the words that two of the most flagrant abusers while under investigation are not currently being prosecuted is mind-blowing. If you want to have an inside look, please take the time to read and ponder this book. I am very glad I did!
5 Stars Excellent
I am an outsider who enjoys reading in this genre (James Stewart, Bryan Burroughs, Michael Lewis), and I found this book to be engaging & very readable. My only regret is that the author was unable to conclude with a more thorough post mortem with comments from BS stars like Ace & Jimmy.
I highly recommend this book.
3 Stars A Mixed Bag
This book is mostly about the downfall of the financial institution Bear Stearns. Unfortunately the author writes the book as if he was talking to inside traders. I found myself having to slowly read each page in order to understand what these players were up to. I discovered that if you substitute the term ’scam’ for most of the lingo that the author writes about, you get a fair idea of what these robbers were up to. The word ‘Greed’ practically drips off the pages of this book. Let’s remember that the financial officers of these failed companies profited even when their institutions went down in flames. They walked away with millions. Unfortunately all these banks and financial houses are tied together so closely that when one falls the house of cards truly does come crashing down. If only author Cohan had written a book that the layman could understand.
4 Stars Helpful Summary of the Early Public Information about Bear Stearns Fleshed Out with Interview Details
The title of this book amuses me. It refers simultaneously to the fixation that Bear Stearns’ leaders had on playing championship bridge and to the fact that the company’s debt structure was a house of cards that could come down with only the slightest shift in the wind.
I recently went to a graduate school reunion and one of my classmates proudly told me that his daughter had gotten a job working at a major investment bank for two years. I felt like laughing. Why would anyone want a child to work at an investment bank?
As I read House of Cards, I resisted (with difficulty) the urge to send a copy to my classmate. I’m sure it would have been quite an eye-opener for him.
If you read most of what was published about the collapse of Bear Stearns as it occurred and have a pretty good sense of the current problems in the financial system, you won’t find anything new here except for gossipy details about how clueless the leaders at Bear Stearns were about their circumstances and what needed to be done. If you like gossip about people failing to do their jobs and their personal foibles, this book is pretty good for teaching you what much of Wall Street is like.
If you want to know more about what happened at Bear Stearns and why from a financial or economic point of view that goes beyond what has been published, this book will be a waste of time for you.
For those who just want the gossip, they will probably find the book to be longer and more detailed than they need. For those people, my advice is to just read chapters 1-12 and 25-29. That will give you enough for a sense of this story of how those who felt mighty fell.
What happened in a nutshell is that Bear Stearns (like many Wall Street firms before it) believed itself to be invincible and didn’t spend much time looking at what might go wrong. When evidence suggested any problem, the leaders ignored the evidence and looked to maximize short-term profits (even if those might lead to huge losses in the future). If their gambles (based on mountains of short-term debt) didn’t work out, they probably assumed some other investment bank would pay them tens of millions a year to start all over again making the same kinds of gambles. It’s a lottery where those who run the lottery feel they will always win . . . even if the investors lose. This time some of them were wrong, and they paid the price.
It will be fun to see this story rewritten after banks and insurance companies finally admit that they have lost many more trillions of dollars than anyone is willing to talk about now. I suspect the Bear Stearns story will look less awful then than it does now. Why? The greatest financial misdeeds in this financial crisis may well be ahead of us, not behind us.
Don’t bet more than you can afford, no matter how good your cards look!
Funny Girl
Ah, Barbra. Of all her onscreen personas, she sparkles in none as she does in her role as 1930s comedian Fanny Brice in the musical Funny Girl. Portraying the life of this star of stage and radio, Brice preens and prances and sings, captivating her audience both onscreen and off. Fanny Brice started life on the Lower East Side of New York, the daughter of a Jewish saloon owner. Not the prettiest girl around, Brice still managed to quickly rise to stardom as a performer in the Ziegfield Follies. A shrewd, obstinate woman, Brice dictated her own success story on stage; things were a different matter in romance. Falling hard for the stunning Nick Arnstein (suavely played by Omar Sharif), Brice must navigate a difficult marriage. While kids may love the tunes (which include the now-infamous “People,” as in “People who need people are the luckiest people in the world”), the plot is definitely adult-oriented. Enjoy this one, but don’t go too far out of your way for the sequel, Funny Lady. –Jenny Brown
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars The Ugly Duckling And The Con Man
I recently rewatched FUNNY GIRL for the first time in perhaps twenty years. And though I still think it is a fine film I was not as charmed by it as I was in my earlier days. Maybe I’ve read too much about the real Fanny Brice and Nick Arnstein and found out how very sanitized Arnstein’s life story was for the Broadway musical and this film that is quite closely adapted from it. For whatever reason I did not find Omar Sharif’s portrayal of the handsome gambler Nick as breathtaking in this viewing and I actually found his accent annoying. At any rate the film is still a must see for musical lovers and those like me with an interest in entertainment history though the viewer should be very aware of the great deal of license taken in retelling this bittersweet love story. And Streisand of course was young and at her full powers in her star making role as Fanny that still seems positively tailor made for her voice, looks and screen presence.
5 Stars funny girl
This is a very good movie. It is so easy to be able to order old movies and enjoy them again and again,
5 Stars STREISAND AT HER BEST
This is Barbra Steisand 1st film which brought her an oscar for best actress and boy did she deserve it. The songs are classic the love story touching the directing brilliant and at the end when Ms Streisand sings My Man like WOW that made her a star.
5 Stars wildly entertaining
The is a bit personal, but my mother has dementia and can’t enjoy most videos any more because they are hard to understand or follow. I thought she might enjoy Funny Girl because of the wonderful and fun music. She really did. Barbra Streisand’s expressions and emotions are over the top and enjoyable for all.
5 Stars STREISAND AT HER BEST
FUNNY, HEART BREAKING, WONDERFUL SONGS. WHEN SHE SINGS MY MAN, IT WILL MOVE YOU TO TEARS.
SmartMoney 1 year
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User Ratings and Reviews
2 Stars Fad-following, lacks depth
I’ve had this subscription for a year now and will not be renewing it. After month 3 I had stopped rushing to the mailbox to get it. After month 6 I had stopped reading it altogether. The stories lack depth and context.
I’ve switched from taking SmartMoney to The Economist and I am much happier.
4 Stars even in today’s times
I enjoy the articles of other investors. I don’t always agree, however it provides a insight as to how they perceive the future investment economy. And I always have the final say in my investment procedures. plus it seems to be on topic, not 2 or 3 months behind.
5 Stars Smart Money
I just received my first issue and I find the articles are informative, timely and easily understood. I purchased this magazine mainly for my son who follows the market trends. This was a wise purchase.
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5 Stars New subscription
One of my favorite subscriptions was so good had to get it for my dad. Delivered fast to him and he loves it.
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Main Content
House of Cards A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall StreetHouse of Cards A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street “Engrossing….[Cohan] gives us in these pages a chilling,...
