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Bad Banks
Bad Banks
Oct 28, 2024 12:27 PM

Author:Alex Brummer

Bad Banks

Bad Banks is a gripping account of the problems and scandals that continue to bedevil the world's banking system some eight years after the credit crunch.

It follows the fortunes and misfortunes of individual banks, from RBS to Lloyds. It exposes instances of mis-selling, money laundering, interest rate fixing and incompetence. And it considers the bigger picture: how the failings of the world's banking system are threatening to undermine our future economic security. Alex Brummer, the City Editor of the Daily Mail, has had access to all the major players, from HBOS's Andy Hornby, to former Governor of the Bank of England Sir Mervyn King, to the ex-Chief Executive of Barclays, Bob Diamond, to Lloyds' António Horta-Osório. His book is an insightful – and terrifying – account of institutions once renowned for their probity, but now all too often a byword for incompetence, and worse.

Reviews

Grimly fascinating... This is a pacey accessible and astute summary of what has gone wrong with the banks, and what the banks have done wrong... It is a sobering narrative in which Brummer's judgements are nuanced and reliable.

—— Oliver Kamm , The Times

Like a surgeon at his operating table, Brummer dissects each British, American and European scandal of the last 10 years. He spares nobody, but his demolition job is made all the more powerful by the sparing language he deploys towards his targets. This is controlled menace at its best.

—— John Kampfner , Observer

[Brummer] is a doyen of British financial journalism and it shows in the maturity of his judgments and breadth of his knowledge... It is all skilfully woven together by a writer who knows when to fly high and when to swoop low.

—— Financial Times

Through and expansive.

—— Management Today

An informed, riveting and ultimately disconcerting read.

—— Business Life

If you liked James B. Stewart’s Den of Thieves, Sheelah Kolhatkar’s thrilling Black Edge should be next on your reading list.

—— The Wall Street Journal

A richly reported, entertaining tale about the cat-and-mouse game between the government and Cohen.

—— Andrew Ross Sorkin , The New York Times Book Review

A lot of people do not trust Wall Street. They regard it as a moneymaking machine for those who work there, which has little interest in practice in its stated aim of channelling capital into businesses and helping them to grow for the broader benefit of society. For such sceptics, Steven Cohen is Exhibit A.

—— John Gapper , Financial Times

A modern version of Moby-Dick, with wiretaps rather than harpoons.

—— Jennifer Senior , The New York Times

Excellent

—— The Economist

Masterfully deconstructing a massive web of Wall Street ... a true-life thriller with Shakespearian stakes ... Her chilling account of a blighted industry is as mesmerizing as a human story as it is as a financial one.

—— Fortune

One of the best books about the 2008 financial meltdown.

—— The Globe and Mail

There are few financial-industry struggles as titanic as the one portrayed in these pages

—— Reuters BreakingViews

Well-written, with pointed characterizations of the ambitious players and their motives, this book is highly recommended for readers interested in finance, crime, and politics

—— Library Journal (starred review)

Black Edge is the story of the Justice Department's investigation into SAC Capital, and New Yorker staff writer Sheelah Kolhatkar has made it as gripping as a thriller.

—— Business Insider

One of the most enjoyable books I have read in a long time ... Beautifully paced, jargon free, artfully arranged, deeply reported and properly researched... I wish all books were this good. You won’t regret reading this.

—— Om Malik

Well-written and well-reported, chock-a-block with ‘you-are-there’ moments.

—— Joe Nocera, Bloomberg

Kolhatkar has written a memorable and pathbreaking account of an era that is by no means over yet

—— The National Book Review

Black Edge reads like a legal thriller, except, it's all true. It also captures and defines an era on Wall Street when the only thing that mattered was: Black Edge

—— CNBC

Well worth the read. I couldn’t put it down

—— Investing.com

A potent book... an incisive social critique that slices through financial jargon and gobbledygook to accurately map the all-too-common corruption in America’s hedge funds that are sucking up billions and billions that used to be invested for the growth and benefit of society as a whole in building infrastructure, expanding existing and new businesses and creating jobs

—— Winnipeg Free Press

An utterly absorbing look at how Cohen pushed his traders to the limit—that “black edge”—and how he mostly insulated himself from the potential ramifications. This fast-paced, true-life thriller will leave readers enraptured—and troubled

—— Booklist
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