Book Review: Too Big to Fail, by Andrew Sorkin

I’ve just finished reading Too Big to Fail, by Andrew Ross Sorkin (Penguin, October 2009) and I really enjoyed it. It reads like a novel and takes you through the events, people and stories around the financial panic last year. It starts off with JP Morgan agreeing to buy Bear Sterns and ends after the government decides to inject billions of dollars in the top financial institutions last October.

The book is entertaining, and I found it hard to put down once I started reading it. It is easy to read and focuses on the people, their stories and emotions, rather than delve deep on the technical matters related to the crisis. It is written for everyone, and is not just for people interested in Wall Street or finances in general.

Andrew Ross Sorkin has recreated a lot of conversations, and that makes the book really great. It makes you feel you are going through the events yourself, and adds real flavor to the whole thing. Conversations were something I wasn’t expecting from the book, and as far as I am concerned, that’s the thing that makes the book good.

These conversations and stories are recreated from the author’s interviews with top officials and a lot of these stories have appeared for the first time anywhere.

These are things like the secret Paulson – Goldman meeting, Warren Buffet sending a 4 page letter to Treasury to outline a plan of how they could buy toxic assets to improve the situation, or just innocuous little things like Geithner’s preference for the “F” word.

I don’t think I have read such stories anywhere else, and all of them come together to make a very enthralling sequence of events, which is put together quite nicely.

I really enjoyed the book, and as I said before, it took all my spare time the last couple of weeks. If you have time for a 600 page book, and are interested in this kind of stuff, you should give it a try too.

I have no complaints about the book, but this post contains affiliate links (more about that at the bottom of this page), so if you plan to buy it, I suggest you read some bad reviews of the book too.

Comments

[Snitzer:]

I'm about halfway through, and the cool part is how it fits the headlines, both last years and this years. The several pages of pictures in the middle give a great view of what these folks really look like. Sorkin makes some of these people look really silly so I suspect that there are those who who will disagree with his characterizations, especially the characters themselves.

Nov 07 05:50 PM

[Omnitrader:]

Can anyone recommend the best book that does delve into the technical matters or the crisis? I just picked this up and can't wait to start reading it. I already have a great understanding of what happened, but it would be nice to have a book that started 3rd/4rd quarter 2007 from all time highs and talk about all the events chronologically afterwards. Thanks

Nov 14 02:54 AM

[Joseph Tibman:]

Ok, totally self-serving reply, but here goes: I wrote "The Murder of Lehman Brothers, and it's a more concise telling that weaves in everything that caused the financial meltdown along with the lehman story. Check out my site: lehmanbook.blogspot.com. My worst reader review is 3-stars (i avg 4 1/2 on Amazon) and here's what the three star had to say that was good and might address what you're looking for:
"Around page 55, he begins to discuss the complicated financial instruments that got us all into trouble: CDOs, Swaps, Mortgage backed securities. His explanations are lucid and enormously helpful." And the rest of the book provides the subtext for what was happening. The reviewer gave me three stars because he felt it wasn't very well written. That's the only time I've gotten that comment. In general people have liked the fresh unasuming style of my book, but can't please everyone. Hope you'll give it a read and email me at josephtibman2live.com with your thoughts. I love to hear from readers seriously interested in the topic. Also, btw, I've just started blogging here on Alpha, you can check that out. And if you want to see reviews of the book, go to my book blog at lehmanbook.blogspot.com and there are links to the reviews to date with more coming and all positive


On Nov 14 02:54 AM Omnitrader wrote:

> Can anyone recommend the best book that does delve into the technical
> matters or the crisis? I just picked this up and can't wait to start
> reading it. I already have a great understanding of what happened,
> but it would be nice to have a book that started 3rd/4rd quarter
> 2007 from all time highs and talk about all the events chronologically
> afterwards. Thanks


On Nov 14 02:54 AM Omnitrader wrote:

> Can anyone recommend the best book that does delve into the technical
> matters or the crisis? I just picked this up and can't wait to start
> reading it. I already have a great understanding of what happened,
> but it would be nice to have a book that started 3rd/4rd quarter
> 2007 from all time highs and talk about all the events chronologically
> afterwards. Thanks

Nov 19 10:07 PM