Suzanne McGee

Not to put too fine a point on it, but does the world *really* need another book about The Meltdown That Ate Our Jobs? Do we *really* have anything left to learn about these greedy so-and-sos whose pursuit of their own profits gifted us with a huge expansion of the Federal debt?

In a word, yes.

Suzanne McGee (an LT member and close online acquaintance of mine) assumes that her readers are smart, savvy, and plugged in, so she hits only the highlights of the WHAT about the crisis. Her brief, as show more the subtitle of the book "How the Masters of the Universe Melted Down Wall Street...and Why They'll Take Us to the Brink Again" makes clear, is analyzing and explaining WHY.

She does this in as honest and non-judmental a way as anyone could. She's not pointing fingers at one person per chapter, she's pointing up the systemic and cultural failings that, quite naturally and seemingly inevitably, led to a culture of no-risk gambling that permeated late twentieth century business. It took until the end of the Aughties for the chickens to come home to roost, but as they always do, they did. And who pays? All of us peons, that's who, which is exactly how the system is set up and remains set up to this day.

Her style is spare, unfussy, and dryly witty. Her story provides its own plot, so I can't say whether she's good at plotting. She knows how to give a telling detail! "'When {the New York Stock} Exchange is public, when people are willing to own it, it's a sign of a stable financial system, argues {a Canadian investment-firm billionaire}, who also owns stakes in publicly traded stock exchanges worldwide, from Europe to Latin America...The kind of push that come from shareholder-investors to become more competitive and efficient is the best way to make sure an organization is as effective as possible, he adds." (p137, ARC edition) This comes in a book that traces "efficiency" as the principal author of the megadisaster of 2008...and does anyone remember May 2010, when the "efficient" robo-trading powerslide of the Exchange caused systemic fantods?

McGee states, makes, and supports her points throughout this book with a lifetime's reportorial experience and a skeptic's "prove it" attitude. She's done the financially semi-literate a huge and signal service in writing this book. It's a good, involving, and deeply frightening read. Recommended to all who aren't mouth-breathing Fox News watchers. show less

This book should be required reading for all new MBA graduates who're about to start working for an investment bank, and every one who cares about what happens to the financial system and wants to understand how we got to the disaster of 2008. This is the 5th book I've read about the financial crisis this year, and it's one of the best. Whether you are working in financial markets or are someone who skips the business pages because you find them really boring, you'll get a lot out of this show more book. It's extremely readable, and there isn't the snide tone that comes through in lots of financial crisis reporting.

Throughout, the author is balanced in her coverage of why decisions were made and what was wrong. The most interesting parts of the book, and the bits that will be new to readers who've already read Too Big to Fail or The Big Short, is the excellent discussion of the private equity boom and the changes that go back 20 years, not the most recent stuff. The chapter on regulatory failure was great, but could have been 5 times as long as it was. The fragmentation of the regulatory agencies and their incentives to placate the companies they regulate in the US have a lot to answer for. I also think there isn't enough in the book about how CDOs have been a good development - there are plenty of Americans who benefited from securitisation of home loans through greater housing affordability. Not everything that comes out of a bubble is bad. But these are minor quibbles.

Disclosure: the author is an online friend, and sent me an early review copy of the book. I tried not to let this affect my review. show less

Standard Disclosure: I consider Ms. McGee an online friend, but this wasn't a free reviewer's copy. Should that give you some concern about my opinion, I understand...though I don't think so.

If you're sitting, staring at your 401k statement and wondering why it's half the size it used to be, then this is the book for you. If you already know why, then I'd still recommend this book. Suzanne McGee walks us through a tangled skein of motivations, incentives, actions, inactions, failures to do a show more job, inabilities to do a job and just plain absence of common sense that came together in what one Wall Streeter characterized as a Perfect Storm to cause the financial crash we just experienced. What emerges is that it wasn't such a fluke event as the epithet used would imply. Shareholder expectations, compensation packages and regulations, when coupled with a political agenda and fading memories of the last big crisis, made this, if not inevitable, at least not improbable.

Her explanation is clear and methodical and likely to make you angry: if you're one of the Wall Street players or government regulatory officials...well, she names names and doesn't pull too many punches; if you're not one of those individuals...well, she names names and specifies compensation packages. Only the rating agencies seemed to get off with a light slap on the hand.

Her conclusion, as the subtitle implies, is that it's likely to happen again. To use her term, it's in the DNA of Wall Street to act this way. Unless regulators can get a handle on it—and the rapidly-evolving nature of the beast makes that extremely difficult to do even if Washington, somehow, summons the necessary political will—it won't be junk bonds or CDOs the next time around, but the appetite for risk will get ahead of common sense and the cycle will repeat itself.

In a way, that's a bleak picture. And that's why it's important to understand some of what went on this time around. So, strongly recommended if you are largely unaware of why, recommended if you understand what transpired.

I'd suggest reading a paper copy of this book rather than an electronic one. The cast of characters is large and the dramatis personæ at the beginning of the book is a useful reference. It's hard to flip to it quickly on a Kindle. show less

Both morally and in dollar signs, CHASING GOLDMAN SACHS makes perfectly clear the unfathomable distribution of wealth and power in The United States.

Knowing little more about Wall Street other than that it somehow controls stock and bonds, that it was supposed to be tightly regulated after the financial disasters of 1929,
that George Washington became President on a balcony, that Hamilton had a law practice, and that, with The Stock Exchange, it makes NYC our financial capital, it show more was
illuminating to learn that Wall Street managed to evolve itself from offering a genuine investment service to businesses, corporations, and ordinary peasants into a corrupt, greedy,
super high risk taking behemoth rival. It could then monopolize and make money just for itself.

I read a ton of information which I never knew existed and which my accountant brother will love and help me puzzle out.

It would be welcome to see this meticulously researched book updated from 2010 to cover 2008's horrific loss and the ongoing impact of the sub prime loan homes
and savings of many middle and lower class Americans of all races. In WE WERE EIGHT YEARS IN POWER, Ta-Nehisii Coates deals with how this affected Chicago's North Lawndale population.

As welcome would be Suzanne McGee's insights into how the formerly unimaginable horrors of the trump administration have barely started to impact our economic and financial sectors:
the stock market appears to rise as trump's IQ decreases.

Additions to a new edition would be charts, graphs, and a glossary! show less