A New Book Offers an Insider's View of the Financial Crisis
The inside stories about efforts by government officials and top financial leaders to prevent the collapse of the financial system are emerging with the publication today of New York Times reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin's book, Too Big to Fail: How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System – And Themselves. The Times offers a sample today — describing the conference calls and meetings over possible deals to save Lehman Brothers.
The players, who eventually failed to devise a rescue plan, included Timothy Geithner, then head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Henry Paulson, the Treasury Secretary whom Geithner would later succeed; plus top Wall Street bankers such as John Mack of Morgan Stanley, Richard S. Fuld of Lehman Brothers, and Bank of America's Ken Lewis. During a recent visit to Wharton, Mack described in detail his efforts to save Morgan Stanley from Lehman's fate. His dramatic tale, which he said could be told publicly because of the pending publication of Sorkin's book, was covered by Knowledge at Wharton in an article and video.
