• Fooling Some of the People All of the Time

  • A Long Short Story
  • By: David Einhorn
  • Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
  • Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (557 ratings)

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Fooling Some of the People All of the Time  By  cover art

Fooling Some of the People All of the Time

By: David Einhorn
Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
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Publisher's summary

A rare look inside the world of activist hedge funds from one of this country's top investors.

In 2002, David Einhorn, the president of Greenlight Capital, gave a speech at a charity investment conference and was asked to share his best investment idea. He described his reasons why Greenlight had sold short the shares of Allied Capital, a leader in the private finance industry. What followed was a firestorm of controversy.

Allied responded with a Washington, D.C. style spin-job - attacking Einhorn and disseminating half-truths and outright lies. Undeterred by the spin-job and lies, Greenlight continued its research after the speech and discovered Allied's behavior was far worse than Einhorn ever suspected. Fooling Some of the People All of the Time is the gripping chronicle of this saga, and this edition contains all new updates from the author.

Minute by minute, it delves deep inside Wall Street, showing how the $6-billion hedge fund Greenlight Capital conducts its investment research and detailing the maneuvers of an unscrupulous company. Along the way, you'll witness feckless regulators, compromised politicians, and the barricades our capital markets have erected against exposing misconduct from important Wall Street customers.

  • Goes behind the scenes to detail the truth about investing, short selling, and the politics of business
  • Shows the failings of Wall Street: its investment banks, analysts, journalists, and especially our government regulators
  • Offers insights into the battles surrounding hedge funds
  • Reveals the immense difficulties that prevent the government from sanctioning politically connected companies

At its most basic level, Allied Capital is the story of Wall Street at its worst. But the story is much bigger than one little-known company. Fooling Some of the People All of the Time is an important call for effective law enforcement, free speech, and fair play.

©2008 David Einhorn (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"[A] welcome antidote to the thousands of books written for investors that paint a sunny picture of companies.... Mr Einhorn's book recounts behind-the-scenes details of the sort that are seldom made public...an instructive guide for general investors." ( Financial Times)

What listeners say about Fooling Some of the People All of the Time

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

where's the epilogue?

A wonderful, albeit heavily detailed account, of Einhorn's search for corporate justice. Given what has happened in the capital markets the past several years, it is easier now to understand the incompetence of regulators. Still, it is a little curious that Einhorn found so few takers of his perspective among what would have appeared to be unbiased professionals (journalists, professors, investors). Also disappointed how casually he dismissed the abusive and illegal tactics of naked short selling. But he does tell a convincing tale and one that should make us think every time we read a glowing account from a Wall Street analyst.

My biggest disappointment was the absence of the epilogue that is included in the newly published book version. Since Allied hit the wall after the completion of this book, I was very much looking forward to hearing how the market finally caught on to the systematic fraud and deception. It would be nice if Audible.com could offer this add-on to its customers who bought this book.

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30 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Einhorn and Cramer are one in the same

They are both masters of deception. I find it hard to believe that David Einhorn, the owner of a large hedge fund, is so ignorant with technology and so naive with government policy. Anyone with a conflict of interest is always questioned. The people he is involved with in his industry makes me question his integrity as well. He plays dumb and innocent, but as a hedge fund manger I seriously doubt he is.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

So that's what is happening

Would you listen to Fooling Some of the People All of the Time again? Why?

Yes. I am very unsophisticated about the financial system. Since the Recession began I have comprehended small bits of what happened and who the players are, but the picture is so big it's overwhelming. There is plenty of blame and finger-pointing to go around. This is essentially the story of one man's attempt to call attention to corporate criminal behavior and hold the felons accountable. However, it gave me a window into the workings of the financial system, its non-regulators, and the how fraud corrupts our political and financial system to threaten our way of life. I also gained insite into the paralysis of government, and why our politicians have become so unrepentant about their corruption.

What other book might you compare Fooling Some of the People All of the Time to and why?

The Sociopath Next Door because it explains institutional sociopathy clearly without completely talking down to the reader. Pushing readers out of their intellectual laziness without alienating them, when it's so much easier to take spoon-feedings from those who have the most to gain by fooling them, is a challenge beyond the grasp of most writers.. Most forms of media try to reduce your concentration level, so grabbing your attention and forcing you to work at understanding something complex, requires continually reminding the reader the information is important to them.

Which character – as performed by L. J. Ganser – was your favorite?

The author/protagonist's matter-of- fact incredulity was refreshing.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

The Roman Empire with computers.

Any additional comments?

I was depressed that our problems seem so unfixable, yet the writer's unflagging optimism shines though. Hopefully, enough "smart people" will realize that winning by everyone else losing will ultimately erode the prey base so much they can't survive either.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

more a record than a book

The author reports about uncovering a tax payer funded, government enabled fraud through the SBA, of a company called Allied Capital through subsidiary BLX (Bussines Loan Express). The main idea is to hand out loans fast and furious witouth much scrutiny, take big commisions on these loans and keep them on the books as healthy, long after they have gone bad. Like buying rotten fruits and putting them in a box and let nobody look inside the box, selling the box on the stock market as a box with fresh fruit. Ofcourse only possible because the tax payer is on the hook in the end through the SBA.

Einhorn tracked this fraud down and decided to short Allied Capital stock and expose the fraud to the government.
Here is the surprising part. Einhorn is truly amazed to get little cooperation from the government to expose the fraudulent individuals, while it is the same government that enables the whole thing. He is even treated as an evil short seller suspect by them.
He claims suprise over 'individuals who have chosen to fight fraude as a profession' that showed little interest. He fails to recognize is that it should immediately be obvious that these crime fighters get their pay check through taxes. Which means that if you do not purchase their services, they drag you of to jail under threat of force. These people are not interested in uncovering crime. They gravitate to a position of power, to cash in on it. The official function of crime fighter is just a fence. It's a racket. It's like being surprised that paying protection money to the maffia, does not get you protection.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

One of the best finance books in a long time!

What made the experience of listening to Fooling Some of the People All of the Time the most enjoyable?

This was an incredibly enjoyable book on all levels. You just have to admire the tenacity and intellect of Einhorn. It would have been the easy way out to cover the short on Allied and let it go, but he stuck with it as he had strong conviction. The amount of detail in his research is astounding. You have to hand it to Einhorn: he deserved to come out victorious in the end. He just did his homework better than anybody else.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Don’t listen to this if you have investments in public companies!

A fascinating, frustrating, and frightening story for any individual investor. The fact that a public company could behave in such an unethical way without any recourse for many years should scare the pants off of anyone investing in public companies. Couldn’t stop listening!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Riveting

Fascinating. I appreciate the author's powerful analytical mind and relentless determination. Some may find it too detailed, but I enjoyed it thoroughly.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Solid first half, redudant afterwards

Started out really interesting and devolved into repetitive complaining about Allied over and over again. I was hoping to hear more about other investments, but it turned into what felt like one side of the story about how someone was right and everyone else was wrong.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

A fine book about an unfinished fight

Detailed but unfinished account of the fight between Greeenlight and Allied Capital. I can feel the frustration and was left hanging a bit at the end, when I learned the event was still playing out at the time of publishing. Not a problem though, since you can read that from the Internet. I have to admit that this is not a story with clearly identifiable heroes and evil-doers. Everything was in the grey area, by law, by ethics, and by view points.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

it was really a long short story

Too long talking about one short idea. I was expecting something that I can learn from Einhorn, some of his principles, values etc, but this book was only about his struggle with this one company. I did.not learn much. Maybe only strenghten one Buffett principle: Never short a stock.

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