''House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street'' is the second book written by
William D. Cohan
William David Cohan is an American business writer.
Early life and education
Cohan was born in Worcester, Massachusetts on February 20, 1960. His father was an accountant and his mother worked in administration.
Cohan is a graduate of Duke Univ ...
. It was released on March 10, 2009 by
Doubleday.
Overview
The book chronicles the history of
Bear Stearns
The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc. was a New York-based global investment bank, securities trading and brokerage firm that failed in 2008 as part of the global financial crisis and recession, and was subsequently sold to JPMorgan Chase. The compa ...
, from its founding in 1923 to its
fire sale
A fire sale is the sale of goods at extremely discounted prices. The term originated in reference to the sale of goods at a heavy discount due to fire damage. It may or may not be defined as a closeout, the final sale of goods to zero inventory ...
to
JP Morgan
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, the wo ...
in 2008, following the
subprime mortgage crisis
The United States subprime mortgage crisis was a multinational financial crisis that occurred between 2007 and 2010 that contributed to the Financial crisis of 2007–2008, 2007–2008 global financial crisis. It was triggered by a large decline ...
. It also gives the reader an inside glance of Bear Stearns senior management and the company's growth into the fifth largest investment firm, before its collapse.
Profiles of bank executives
The book documents the rise of
Alan "Ace" Greenberg, and his unsuccessful power struggle with
bridgemaster and bond trader
James Cayne
James E. "Jimmy" Cayne (February 14, 1934 – December 28, 2021) was an American businessman and CEO of Bear Stearns. In 2006, he became the first Wall Street chief to own a company stake worth more than $1 billion, but he lost most of that in t ...
, the power struggle between "co-presidents" Warren J. Spector &
Alan Schwartz
Alan David Schwartz is an American businessman and is the executive chairman of Guggenheim Partners, an investment banking firm based in Chicago and New York. He was previously the last president and chief executive officer of Bear Stearns when ...
, and the recklessness of the over-leveraged
hedge fund
A hedge fund is a pooled investment fund that trades in relatively liquid assets and is able to make extensive use of more complex trading, portfolio-construction, and risk management techniques in an attempt to improve performance, such as sho ...
supervised by
Richard A. Marin and Ralph R. Cioffi. The text also tells the story of
Salim Lewis.
Awards
The book was on the
long list for the 2009
.
Tim Rutten
Tim Rutten is an American journalist with the ''Los Angeles Daily News''. He worked for the ''Los Angeles Times'' for nearly 40 years between 1971 and 2011.
Education
A native of San Bernardino, California, he majored in political science at Calif ...
characterized the book as a "masterfully reported account", and credited the author with a "remarkable gift for plain-spoken explanation."
References
{{reflist
External links
''After Words'' interview with Cohan on ''House of Cards'', May 14, 2009
Works about the subprime mortgage crisis
Books about traders
Bear Stearns
JPMorgan Chase
Finance books
Books about companies
2009 non-fiction books
Business books
Doubleday (publisher) books