Trying to understand Wall Street the credit crunch and market mayhem?
Discover the best books to understand Wall Street, the credit crunch, and market mayhem—from House of Cards to When Genius Failed.
Book
The Trillion Dollar Meltdown
by Charles R. Morris
We are living in the most reckless financial environment in recent history. The astronomical leverage at investment banks and their hedge fund and private equity clients virtually guarantees massive disruption in global markets.
Book
House of Cards
by William D. Cohan
In this superb and shocking narrative, Cohan chronicles the fall of Bear Stearns and the end of the Second Gilded Age on Wall Street. Cohan's minute-by-minute account of 10 days in March 2008, tells a chilling cautionary tale about greed, arrogance, and stupidity in the financial world, and the consequences for all of us.
Book
Against the Gods
by Peter L. Bernstein
A Business Week, New York Times Business, and USA Today Bestseller "Ambitious and readable . . . an engaging introduction to the oddsmakers, whom Bernstein regards as true humanists helping to release mankind from the choke holds of superstition and fatalism." —The New York Times "An extraordinarily entertaining and informative book." —The Wall Street Journal "A lively panoramic book . . . Against the Gods sets up an ambitious premise and then delivers on it." —Business Week "Deserves to be, and surely will be, widely read." —The Economist "[A] challenging book, one that may change forever the way people think about the world." —Worth "No one else could have written a book of such central importance with so much charm and excitement." —Robert Heilbroner author, The Worldly Philosophers "With his wonderful knowledge of the history and current manifestations of risk, Peter Bernstein brings us Against the Gods. Nothing like it will come out of the financial world this year or ever. I speak carefully: no one should miss it." —John Kenneth Galbraith Professor of Economics Emeritus, Harvard University In this unique exploration of the role of risk in our society, Peter Bernstein argues that the notion of bringing risk under control is one of the central ideas that distinguishes modern times from the distant past. Against the Gods chronicles the remarkable intellectual adventure that liberated humanity from oracles and soothsayers by means of the powerful tools of risk management that are available to us today. "An extremely readable history of risk." —Barron's "Fascinating . . . this challenging volume will help you understand the uncertainties that every investor must face." —Money "A singular achievement." —Times Literary Supplement "There's a growing market for savants who can render the recondite intelligibly-witness Stephen Jay Gould (natural history), Oliver Sacks (disease), Richard Dawkins (heredity), James Gleick (physics), Paul Krugman (economics)-and Bernstein would mingle well in their company." —The Australian
