''House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street'' is the second book written by
William D. Cohan. 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 comp ...
, 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 inventor ...
to
JP Morgan
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in City of New York, New York City and Delaware General Corporation Law, inco ...
in 2008, following the
subprime mortgage crisis. 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, 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 s ...
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 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