The Great American Bank Robbery - The Unauthorized Report About What Really Caused the Great Recession

How Excessive Risk Destroyed Lehman and Nearly Brought Down the Financial Industry

“Uncontrolled Risk will ruffle feathers—and for good reason—as voters and legislators learn the diffi cult lessons of Lehman’s collapse and demand that we never forget them.”
Dr. David C. Shimko, Board of Trustees, Global Association of Risk Professionals

“Uncontrolled Risk is a drama as gripping as any work of fiction. Williams’s recommendations for changes in the governance of financial institutions should be of interest to anyone concerned about the welfare of global financial markets.”
Geoffrey Miller, Stuyvesant Comfort Professor of Law and Director, Center for the Study of Central Banks and Financial Institutions, New York University

“The complex balance of free enterprise on Wall Street and the healthy regulation of its participants is the central economic issue of today. Williams’s forensic study of Lehman’s collapse may be the best perspective so far on the issues that now face regulators.”
Jeffrey P. Davis, CFA, Chief Investment Officer, Lee Munder Capital Group

“Provides a very perceptive analysis of the fl aws inherent in risk management systems and modern fi nancial markets. Mandatory reading for risk managers and financial industry executives.”
Vincent Kaminski, Professor in the Practice of Management, Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business, Rice University

“Gives the reader much food for thought on the regulation of our financial system and its interplay with corporate governance reform in the United States and around the world.”
Professor Charles M. Elson, Edgar S. Woolard Jr. Chair in Corporate Governance, University of Delaware

The risk taking behind Wall Street's largest bankruptcy . . .

In this dramatic and compelling account of Lehman Brothers’ spectacular rise and fall, author Mark T. Williams explains how uncontrolled risk toppled a 158-year-old institution—and what it says about Wall Street, Washington, D.C., and the world financial system. A former trading floor executive and Fed bank examiner, Williams sees Lehman’s 2008 collapse as a microcosm of the industry—a worst-case scenario of smart decisions, stupid mistakes, ignored warnings, and important lessons in money, power, and policy that affect us all. This book reveals:

• The Congressional inquisition of disgraced CEO Dick Fuld: Did he really deserve it?
• How the investment-banking money machine broke down: Can it be fixed?
• The key drivers that caused the financial meltdown: Can lessons be learned from them?
• The wild risk taking denounced by President Obama: Is Washington to blame, too?
• The ongoing debate on reform and regulation: Can meaningful reform avert another financial catastrophe?

This fascinating account traces Lehman’s history from its humble beginnings in 1850 to its collapse in 2008. Lehman’s story exemplifies the everchanging trends in finance—from investment vehicles to federal policies—and exposes the danger and infectious nature of uncontrolled risk.

Drawing upon first-person interviews with risk management experts and former Lehman employees, Williams provides more than just a frontline report: it’s a call to action for Wall Street bankers, Washington policymakers, and U.S. citizens—a living lesson in risk management on which to build a stronger fi nancial future. Williams provides a tenpoint plan to implement today—so another Lehman doesn’t collapse tomorrow.

Includes a ten-point plan to ensure a strong financial future for both Wall Street and Main Street

The inside story of the power struggle that rocked Wall Street's most prestigious financial institution

What began with a shot over the bow ended in a shocking coup d'etat. In less than four months a group of eight retired executives orchestrated a stunning revolt within Morgan Stanley, the venerable and—until recently—most successful financial services firm on Wall Street. Now acclaimed journalist and historian Patricia Beard brings together the entire behind-the-scenes story in Blue Blood and Mutiny, a real-life business thriller exposing the tale that shook high finance.

In March 2005 the business world woke up to an unprecedented full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal calling for the removal of Morgan Stanley's CEO. It was paid for by a cohort of eight former Morgan Stanley executives, including an ex-chairman and an ex-president, who soon would be dubbed the "Eight Grumpy Old Men." Their target was CEO Philip Purcell, a midwesterner who had come to power following Morgan Stanley's 1997 merger with Dean Witter Discover, where Purcell had been chief executive. In his eight years as CEO, Purcell had presided over a 50 percent decline in stock price since its peak in 2000 and a series of high-profile government and civil lawsuits that had tarnished the company's once-sterling reputation. Just a few months after the Journal ad, Purcell would retire under pressure, and former president John Mack, who had been pushed out by Purcell, was appointed CEO. The "Eight Grumpy Old Men" won the battle.

The revolt of the Eight is about more than the stock price, or any bottom-line metrics: it signals a clash of cultures and a battle for the soul of American business. Since its founding, Morgan Stanley has been an elite enterprise guided by J. P. Morgan Jr.'s motto "A First Class Business in a First Class Way." The House of Morgan stood for something larger than success with honor; its ethos was unique—some would say sacred—and the eight retired executives believed this ideal had been undermined during Purcell's reign.

Opening the long-closed doors of a bastion of Wall Street that has maintained the strictest privacy until now, Blue Blood and Mutiny weaves the history of Morgan Stanley with the inside story of the fight for dominance between two competing business cultures—one, the collegial meritocracy handed down from the days of J. P. Morgan, and the other, a cold, contemporary corporate model. Here is the season's must-read book for anyone who wants to understand the future of American business.