Is paranoia necessary to survive on Wall Street? In one sense, Goldman Sachs is no different from other investment banks. Junior employees are expendable. Like goldfish, investment banks eat their young when brand-protection and self-interest make cannibalism seem...
Ratings Emails Show Concerns at Rating Firms Over Goldman’s Abacus Deals The dead bodies keep surfacing. It’s now clear the ratings agencies, who were paid for impartial evaluations of Goldman’s Abacus and other CDO deals, had serious qualms. Here...
Michael Lewis has done it again. The Big Short is a must read, even if you don't know anything about finance. With his trademark ability to identify unlikely heroes, he chronicles the lives of people who bet against subprime mortgages. The prose is lucid. The...
Bank Says Losses Prove No Ill Intent On Monday I posted questions about Goldman Sachs and the CDO that is now a household name: Abacus 2007-AC1. Specifically, I asked: Why did Goldman lose $75 million on this trade, when its negative bets on the housing sector yielded...
Who hasn’t seen the news? The SEC accused Goldman Sachs of fraud, alleging it misrepresented an Abacus CDO. Banks lost $1 billion on the trade. And John Paulson, one of the gods of Greenwich, pocketed that $1 billion through his fund. Here’s what I...
The New York Times describes my novels as “money porn,” “a red-hot franchise,” and “glittery thrillers about fiscal malfeasance.” Through fiction I explore the dark side of money and the motivations of those who have it, want more, and will steamroll anybody who gets in their way.
The New York Times describes my novels as “money porn,” “a red-hot franchise,” and “glittery thrillers about fiscal malfeasance.” Through fiction I explore the dark side of money and the motivations of those who have it, want more, and will steamroll anybody who gets in their way.