Andrew Sorkin: Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the FinancialSystem--and Themselves

Table of Contents

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Epigraph

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

EPILOGUE

AFTERWORD

Acknowledgements

NOTES AND SOURCES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Praise for Too Big to Fail

Winner of the 2010 Gerald Loeb Award for Best Business Book

One ofThe Economist’s Best Books of 2010

One of theFinancial Times’ Best Books of 2010

One ofBusinessWeek’s Best Books of 2010

CEO Read’s Best Book of 2010

“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

“Andrew Ross Sorkin has broken the Barbarians curse… . 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… . Sorkin’s strength is that he knows Wall Street intimately and he brings to life its biggest domestic crisis with immense reporting zeal and narrative skill.”

—John Gapper, Financial Times

“Vigorously reported, superbly organized … For those of us who didn’t pursue MBAs—and have the penny-ante salaries to prove it—Sorkin’s book offers a clear, cogent explanation of what happened and why it matters.”

—Julia Keller, Chicago Tribune

“Andrew Ross Sorkin is the Stephen Ambrose for our financial crisis, with the blow-by-blow story of how rich bankers fought to save the Wall Street they knew and loved. The details in Too Big to Fail will turn your stomach. The arrogance, lack of self-awareness, and overweening pride are astonishing.”

—Simon Johnson, The Washington Post

“Sorkin can write. His storytelling makes Liar’s Poker look like a children’s book.”

—SNL Financial

“This book is exhaustive … and details the fascinating interplay between Wall Street and Washington in the eight critical months that brought the financial system to the brink of collapse… . Sorkin’s reporting chops show… . As a result, readers feel as though they’re in the midst of the action.”

—BusinessWeek

“ Too Big to Fail is too good to put down… . Told brilliantly.”

—The Economist

“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, brisk book… . In Too Big to Fail , Sorkin skillfully captures the raucous enthusiasm and riotous greed that fueled this rational irrationality.”

—Paul M. Barrett, The New York Times Book Review

“The detail is comprehensive and chilling.”

—Time

“Intimate and engaging.”

—The New Yorker

“Sorkin succeeds in translating a highly complex … series of events into a gripping and intelligible read. Through months of interviews and behind the scenes access, he renders normally stony-faced executives and politicians in three dimensions, affording the reader a rare sense of their real personalities and private conflicts.”

—Forbes.com

“Sorkin has succeeded in writing the book of the crisis, with amazing levels of detail and access.”

—Reuters

“Sorkin has pulled off a rare feat. He has turned more than 500 hours of interviews and documentary evidence … into an engrossing fly-on-the-wall account of one of the most tumultuous years in U.S. history.”

—Bloomberg.com

“The preternaturally ambitious, 32-year-old DealBook editor [Andrew Ross Sorkin] has an insane work ethic in addition to a powerful, high-profile job and a bestselling book. Ever since we read it we’ve been thinking to ourselves: How can we be more Sorkin-like?”

—New York Magazine

“This crisis has passed, but neither the country’s financial system nor its economy have recovered. [ Too Big To Fail ] should be required reading for anyone trying to fix—or simply understand—either.”

—Adam Lashinsky, San Francisco Chronicle

“This moment-by-moment account of the collapse and rescue of Wall Street reads like a novel, exploring the minds of characters ranging from Lehman Brothers’ then-CEO Richard Fuld to former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.”

—Lisa Von Ahn, Reuters

“The drama of the collapse produced many novelistic moments, but until Sorkin’s Too Big To Fail , none of the several books offered the drama of such earlier classic Wall Street takedowns as Barbarians At the Gate or Liar’s Poker . Sorkin’s book … is a phenom. An absolute tour de force.”

—Robert Kuttner, The American Prospect

“Gives the reader a front-row view into the day-to-day decisions made by the nation’s top bankers and government officials… . Sorkin’s book reads like a Dan Brown thriller.”

—The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg)

“As close to a definitive account as we are likely to get.”

—Dominic Lawson, The Sunday Times (London)

“Surpassed its rivals with its depth, range of reporting, and high quality analysis.”

—Stefan Stern, Financial Times (London)

“The most readable and exciting report of the events surrounding the Lehman collapse that we have seen … impeccably sourced.”

—Edmund Conway, Daily Telegraph (London)

“He has done a remarkable job in producing a lively account that will be hard for subsequent authors to beat.”

—Gillian Tett, Financial Times (London)

“The sense of being in the meeting rooms as hitherto all-conquering alpha male egos fight for their reputations, as their and our world judders, is palpable.”

—Chris Blackhurst, London Evening Standard

“A superbly researched and sobering take on the events surrounding the meltdown on Wall Street.”

—Sam Mendes

“Compelling, novelistic, and enormously thorough account.”

—Alison Roberts, London Evening Standard

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andrew Ross Sorkin is the award-winning chief mergers and acquisitions reporter and columnist for the New York Times . He is also the editor and founder of DealBook, an online daily financial report. He has twice won a Gerald Loeb Award, one of the highest honors in business journalism; once for breaking news and and a second time for authoring Too Big to Fail . The World Economic Forum named him a Young Global Leader and he was added to The Directorship 100, recognizing the nation’s most influential people on corporate boardrooms. Too Big to Fail has been on the hardcover bestseller list for more than twenty-three weeks.