Andrew Ross Sorkin delivers the first true behind-the-scenes, moment-by-moment account of how the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression developed into a global tsunami. From inside the corner office at Lehman Brothers to secret meetings in South Korea, and the corridors of Washington, Too Big to Fail is the definitive story of the most powerful men and women in finance and politics grappling with success and failure, ego and greed, and, ultimately, the fate of the world’s economy.
“We’ve got to get some foam down on the runway!” a sleepless Timothy Geithner, the then-president of the Federal Reserve of New York, would tell Henry M. Paulson, the Treasury secretary, about the catastrophic crash the world’s financial system would experience.
Through unprecedented access to the players involved, Too Big to Fail re-creates all the drama and turmoil, revealing never disclosed details and elucidating how decisions made on Wall Street over the past decade sowed the seeds of the debacle. This true story is not just a look at banks that were “too big to fail,” it is a real-life thriller with a cast of bold-faced names who themselves thought they were too big to fail.
Andrew Ross Sorkin is the award-winning chief mergers and acquisitions reporter for The New York Times, a columnist, and assistant editor of business and finance news. He is also the editor and founder of DealBook, an online daily financial report. He has won a Gerald Loeb Award, the highest honor in business journalism, and a Society of American Business Editors and Writers Aw...
- "当一个强者跌倒或者一个实干家做得不够完美时,只会在一旁指手画脚的批评家,算不了什么。荣耀属于那个真正站到竞技场上的人，他的脸上满是灰尘和汗血，尽管一次次地失败，却仍然顽强地奋斗，因为世界上根本不存在没有失败和缺陷的成就。他明白热情和奉献的意义，并完全投身于有价值的事业中。最后，若是成功了，他能享受胜利的喜悦；就算失败了，至少他会因曾经全力以赴而无怨无悔。所以他永远不会与那些冷漠胆小、不知何谓成功和失败的灵魂为伍。"
- "$2.7 trillion of notional derivatives exposure , with 12,000 individual contracts....$1 trillion of exposure concentrated with 12 major financial institutions."
- "For reasons no one quite understood, Gluksman was holding a few dozen number 2 pencils in his hand. He handed each trader one and asked him to snap it in half, which everyone did, easily and without laughing or even smirking. He then handed a bunch of them to Fuld and asked him to try to break them "
- "Could the financial crisis have been avoided? That is the $1.1 trillion question - the price tag of the bailout thus far. The answer to that question is "perhaps." But the preemptive strike would probably have had to come long before Henry Paulson was sworn in as secretary of the Treasury in the spr"
- "这不禁让人想起19世纪沃尔特·白芝浩（Walter Bagehot）的名言：“每一位银行家都清楚，当他不得不证明自己是可信的时候，不管他说得有多好听，实际上他已经没有信用可言了。”"
- "金融界开始出现极度危险的信号，法国最大的银行巴黎银行宣布旗下资产规模大约为20亿美元的3家货币市场基金暂停向投资者提供赎回。到底出了什么问题呢？实际上，部分资产市场的流动性已经枯竭，其中美国住房抵押贷款支持证券市场的情况尤为严重，而这导致该类资产的实际价值难以确定。巴黎银行在声明中表示：“美国资产证券化市场中部分领域的流动性已经彻底丧失，无论相关资产的质量和信用程度如何，目前该类资产无法进行合理定价。” 这是一个令人胆寒的信号，对于抵押贷款的相关资产，交易者很快就避之唯恐不及，无论什么价格都不愿购买。欧洲央行迅速对此作出反应，向欧洲货币市场投放了950亿欧元，即1300亿美元的资金。这个数额比"
- "由于复杂金融衍生产品的使用日益增长，房地产市场与金融体系的关系已非常复杂。大量的房屋抵押贷款被证券化，在成为具有一定现金流的证券后，经过重新分类组合和再次分拆，它们很快就变成了颇具吸引力的投资产品，并被冠以担保债务凭证（CDO）的名号。"
- "摩根大通和雷曼这类公司的业务模式与传统银行大不相同，再也不是简单地发放贷款，然后将其计入资产负债表。以现在的模式，作为业务开端的贷款只是资产证券化链条的第一环，随后贷款的风险就可以通过证券化的其他环节分散传递到无数的市场参与者那里。一般认为，证券化可以降低风险并增加流动性，但实际上证券化使得众多机构和投资者的联系更加紧密，这种结果有利有弊。比如，挪威一家地方政府养老基金的投资组合可以包括加州的次级抵押贷款，但这家养老金却可能对此一无所知。更为糟糕地是，许多金融机构为放大收益而大举借债以投资这类债券。而这种做法只会在这些证券开始贬值时，令他们的损失雪上加霜。"
