House of Cards

A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street

By: William Cohan

Narrated by: Alan Sklar

Length: 25 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

In March 2008, Bear Stearns, a swashbuckling 84-year-old financial institution, was forced to sell itself to JPMorgan Chase for an outrageously low price in a deal brokered by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who was desperately trying to prevent an impending catastrophic market crash. But mere months before, an industry-wide boom had "the Bear" clocking a record high stock price. How did a giant investment bank with $18 billion in cash on hand disappear in a mere 10 days?

In this tour de force, Cohan provides a minute-by-minute account of the events that brought America's second Gilded Age to an end. Filled with intimate portraits of the major players, high-end gossip, and smart financial analysis, House of Cards recounts in delicious narrative form the dramatic events behind the fall of Bear Stearns and what it revealed about the financial world's progression from irrational boom to cataclysmic bust. House of Cards is the Rosetta Stone for understanding the dramatic and the unprecedented events that have reshaped Wall Street and global finance in the past two years.

©2009 William D. Cohen (P)2009 Tantor

absolute garbage

I thought this would be an insightful analysis of the events that lead to the collapse of the market. Instead this book is a 25-hour long drivel describing in excruciating detail the daily minutia at Bear Stearns. I really don't care who plays bridge with whom or what Hank Paulson had for lunch. It is absolutely incredible how someone can write a book this long and yet make it largely devoid of content.

As dry as toast

The story is told in a dry, linear fashion. There is very little 'story' and reads as though it is transcript from some string of interviews.

Yawn.

I guess if you really love accounting and finance this book could work for you.

long, excruciating detail, inside baseball

It's long, long, long, long and long.

The amount of detail obscures the concepts underneath the premise of the book, what happened to Bear Sterns. Was it bridge? Was it writing about bridge? Was it focusing on decreasing expenses rather than increasing revenue stream? Was it a fictional character created by the CEO to get people to save money? Was it the semi-circular desk? Motorcycles? Ferraris?

At the end of the day, I can't tell what the author is trying to point to. Cut this book by 2/3 and you've got something. Where's an editor when you need one?

Interesting but Unentertaining

Not the best book to listen to. The author was too verbose and didn't keep the story moving along. I found myself fast forwarding just to get to the end.

I Must Have Listened To A Different Book . . .

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.