House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street

This is the story of Bear Stearns. The narrator has a "fly on the wall" approach. I felt like I was in the room and getting to know all the players. I know very little about Wall Street but in this economy my interest in how the economy works (or doesn't work) has become very interesting to me and this book is very timely. After listening to this book, almost non-stop, I am starting to understand what is going on. I am sure I have enough knowledge to "predict" as well as the "CNBC" talking heads what is going on.

Anyway I highly recommend. I love books that read like novels---this one.

Cohan has written a riveting "read" about the fall of an American financial powerhouse. Using almost no jargon, he tells the story of how 84 year old Bear Stearns fell virtually overnight. He does so in small easily accessable increments which, eventually, provides the reader with a cogent whole picture. Highly recommended for anybody with even a marginal interest in how the credit crisis came to be.

If you're looking for tales million-dollar coat racks, this isn't the book for you. Cohan has a produced a well-written examination of the managers and management which preceded the Bear Sterns crash. He expected to to find the cause of the 2008 meltdown there. Cohan tries that idea on, but it doesn't really fit; and he's too good a reporter to stick to a script that doesn't begin to explain the facts.

On the other hand, twenty years ago, I had a front-row seat to a similar financial implosion. The cast of characters was very familiar. The elemental forces of contracting credit seem to force people into certain roles.

But the reader will have to decide. This is not a book which pretends to have all the explanations. It does have an important story to tell, and tells it well.

The book is filled with excruciatingly unnecessary detail and endless repetition. How many times do we need to hear the address of Bear Stearns? Conversations are recounted from multiple perspectives, even where they agree, We are told what someone is going to say, then told what they said.

However, if you can get through all that, the story is compelling and will infuriate you. It is astounding to hear of the pettiness, narcissism, arrogance, and ruthlessness which engulfs the executives at Bear Stearns, and other investment banks. These people didn't care about anything except enormous bonuses, and would do anything to get them. When others lost their money, these people didn't give a hoot. But then to hear them whining and carrying on like two-year olds when their firm collapsed as a direct result of their incompetence is unbelievable.

After the collapse, several of them gave interviews, in which they whined and complained about how they were treated, and tried to blame the failure on others.

In spite of the author's bizarre belief that the failures were a result of government interference in the free markets, this book will convince any thinking person that our government needs to take a major role in regulating the financial industry - if for no other reason than to protect bankers from themselves. It is abundantly clear that they are too stupid to protect themselves.

The story of the rise and fall of Bear Sterns, the investment banking group as told through its three day free fall and collapse and then in flash back to its beginnings, rise, nadir then end, finally moving forward to related matters: the collapse of Lehman Bros, and the sale of Merrill Lynch. Regarding content, the book is interesting but as others have noted here, poorly edited. Regarding the audiobook, the reader is excellent, but the audiobook seems to have been assembled rather than simply read. You can hear edit after edit as if alternate takes of paragraphs, sentences, even words were dropped in. This may not be audible if listening in a living room, but it certainly is audible with ear devices.

The play-by-play of Bear Stearns last few years and final demise was quite enthralling for anyone in the business. The middle of the book gets a bit slow as the author gives a pretty detailed history of the making of Bear Stearns. But worth the listen overall.

If ever a book begged for an abridged version this is the one. The time period just prior and up to the fall of Bear was, I will admit, a very good read. I am in the financial world and the author did a good job providing commentary and color to the actions and events that lead up to the takeover.

And then, it just goes downhill for me from that point after.

Observations :

1. The writer feels it necessary to explain and re-explain 2 and sometimes 3 times some not very important or necessary points. Several of these points are barely worth 1 mention much less 2-3 times;

2. The mechanism of continually comparing certain Bear execs bridge playing addictions, especially using such as a metaphor for explaining (away) aggressive and potentially risky Wall Street behavior, just plain wore out after awhile. Enough was definitely enough. I got the point. Never let a bridge player invest your money.

3. The narrator would, with great frequency, simply "disappear" and go unexplainably silent at the most odd times. You would expect this between chapters - not at the end of paragraphs - and in the middle of trying to communicate a complete thought. Very, very annoying.

4. The end - whoo boy ! I'm still hanging up in the air waiting for the writer to finish off some of the incomplete thoughts he introduces in the Epilogue.

And yes, I did listen to the whole book. Shame on me. If you are attracted to this book - it is interesting subject matter - find the abridged version.

There are times during this book that you just want the author to get on with it. He goes over certain events, giving the perspective of so many involved, that you just want to move along to the next section. But after an initial rough patch it does pick up, for me, at least, when he gets into the history of Bear, Sterns and some of the central players.

This author does a masterful job of illuminating the complex causes of the current economic crisis through the voices of key players in the demise of Goldman. Great read by a fine narrator.

William Cohan in House of Cards tells the sordid tale of the fall of Bear Stearns during the economic disaster of 2008-2009. One of the world’s oldest and largest investment banks went belly-up in a matter of days and Cohan spares the reader no details. This book is an autopsy, a crime scene investigation, an analysis of greed and simple stupidity. The book might run a little long for some (468 pages) and contain more detail than others might prefer. It is an eye-opener though worthy of every citizen who wants to be informed about the caliber of people who ran one of the premier investment banks in the world. Goodness! The reading of Alan Sklar is excellent.