Too Big to Fail

The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System--and Themselves

By: Andrew Ross Sorkin

Narrated by: William Hughes

Andrew Ross Sorkin's website

Andrew Ross Sorkin's interview on Charlie Rose

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Andrew Ross Sorkin delivers the first true behind-the-scenes, moment-by-moment account of how the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression developed into a global tsunami. From inside the corner office at Lehman Brothers to secret meetings in South Korea, and the corridors of Washington, Too Big to Fail is the definitive story of the most powerful men and women in finance and politics grappling with success and failure, ego and greed, and, ultimately, the fate of the world’s economy.

“We’ve got to get some foam down on the runway!” a sleepless Timothy Geithner, the then-president of the Federal Reserve of New York, would tell Henry M. Paulson, the Treasury secretary, about the catastrophic crash the world’s financial system would experience.

Through unprecedented access to the players involved, Too Big to Fail re-creates all the drama and turmoil, revealing neverdisclosed details and elucidating how decisions made on Wall Street over the past decade sowed the seeds of the debacle. This true story is not just a look at banks that were “too big to fail,” it is a real-life thriller with a cast of bold-faced names who themselves thought they were too big to fail.

Critic reviews

"...comprehensive and chilling..."
-TIME

"...his action scenes are intimate and engaging..."
-The New Yorker

"Sorkin's prodigious reporting and lively writing put the reader in the room for some of the biggest-dollar conference calls in history. It's an entertaining book, brisk book...Sorkin skillfully captures the raucous enthusiasm and riotous greed that fueled this rational irrationality."
-The New York Times Book Review

"...brings the drama alive with unusual inside access and compelling detail...A deeply researched account of the financial meltdown."
-BusinessWeek

"...meticulously researched...told brilliantly. Other blow-by-blow accounts are in the works. It is hard to imagine them being this riveting."
-The Economist

"Sorkin's densely detailed and astonishing narrative of the epic financial crisis of 2008 is an extraordinary achievement that will be hard to surpass as the definitive account...as a dramatic close-up, his book is hard to beat."
-Financial Times

"Sorkin's book, like its author, is a phenom...an absolute tour de force."
-The American Prospect

"Andrew Ross Sorkin pens what may be the definitive history of the banking crisis."
-The Atlantic Monthly

"Andrew Ross Sorkin has written a fascinating, scene-by-scene saga of the eyeless trying to march the clueless through Great Depression II."
-Tom Wolfe

"...Sorkin has succeeded in writing the book of the crisis, with amazing levels of detail and access."
-Reuters

"Sorkin can write. His storytelling makes "Liar's Poker" look like a children's book."
-SNL Financial

Wonderful informative inside story

This book straddles great spaces, across times. Unless you have the big picture in mind when you listen, you will think the author is ranting about Lehman and Geithner alone.
The book starts with descriptions of each personality; Dick Fuld, Geithner, Paulson so that when the fun really starts you can easily relate to their behavior with the background the author has provided earlier.
Half of the book is about Lehman's hurtle into bankruptcy and how Fuld, because of his greed and head-in-sand approach prevented Korean investors, and almost everyone from buying Lehman. It also discusses how Lehman's complaint about short sellers was not acted upon by Paulson, who suddenly acted on short sellers when they started attacking Fortress Goldman.
It also states how bankers from Morgan stanley and Goldman high-fived each other when they hear the Fed is bailing out AIG.
We also hear the background as to where the magical number of $700bn came into TARP.
All through the book, one thing becomes clear: Banks can and will expect the government to bail them out when they are in trouble but are very reluctant to share the profits with the government.

Best Account of Crisis

I have read many books and lived through the hour by hour meltdown and this is by far the most accurate account of those events. Excellent format, and auditory. A must read.

Fascinating . . . And Disgusting

Sorkin’s account is fascinating. His research is meticulous (but did he really know the exact dialogue and wardrobe throughout?). The crisis is presented as a thriller and I looked forward to the coming chapters. Nevertheless, the figures who cooperated with his research (Jamie Dimon, Tim Geithner,Hank Paulson?) are depicted as saviors and heroes. I suspect Sheila Bair and Christopher Cox did not cooperate as they are portrayed unattractively. Speaking of which, I found it odd that Sorkin described some male executives as “handsome” (odd). While I recommend this account of the fiscal crisis, be prepared to be completely disgusted by the incestuous relationship between fabulously wealthy (universally white, make) CEOs and government officials. Also, while Sorkin is not judgmental, you will finish assured that Treasury picked winners and losers and that the Wall Street titans who benefited from wildly inflated balance sheets were bailed out while lesser folk and Lehman Brothers were left to the fortunes of the “free” market.

excellent

timely. informative. wonderful and insightful character studies of the players who made and (significantly) ARE making policy. Very well written. Somewhat hard to follow the names and characters.

Too Important not to read

This book ate an entire weekend for me. I find the narration of the events to be gripping, and the hour-by-hour time scale during the critical time span between the failure of Lehman and the rescue of AIG to give me a lot of insight into the course of the great train wreck of the financial collapse.

Sorkin is too sympathetic to the people he is narrating. Ifound myself annoyed from time to time by the gentleness with which he approached his subjects.

On the other hand, William Hughes' narration was fabulous and upped my rating by a full star. This truly is a case where the quality of the production made the material better.