''Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System—and Themselves'', also known as ''Too Big to Fail: Inside the Battle to Save Wall Street'', is a non-fiction book by
Andrew Ross Sorkin chronicling the events of the
2008 financial crisis
8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9.
In mathematics
8 is:
* a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2.
* a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of ...
and the
collapse of Lehman Brothers
The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008, was the climax of the subprime mortgage crisis. After the financial services firm was notified of a pending credit downgrade due to its heavy position in subprime mortgages, the Federal ...
from the point of view of Wall Street CEOs and US government regulators. The book was released on October 20, 2009 by
Viking Press
Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim and then acquir ...
.
It won the 2010
Gerald Loeb Award
The Gerald Loeb Award, also referred to as the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, is a recognition of excellence in journalism, especially in the fields of business, finance and the economy. The award was estab ...
for Best Business Book, and was shortlisted for the 2010
Samuel Johnson Prize and the 2010
Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award.
The book was adapted in 2011 for the
HBO television movie ''
Too Big to Fail
"Too big to fail" (TBTF) and "too big to jail" is a theory in banking and finance that asserts that certain corporations, particularly financial institutions, are so large and so interconnected that their failure would be disastrous to the great ...
''.
Plot summary
The book provides an overview of the
financial crisis of 2007–08
Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of f ...
from the beginning of 2008 to the decision to create the
Troubled Asset Relief Program
The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) is a program of the United States government to purchase toxic assets and equity from financial institutions to strengthen its financial sector that was passed by Congress and signed into law by President ...
(TARP). The book tells the story from the perspectives of the leaders of the major financial institutions and the main regulatory authorities, describing in a very detailed manner their everyday discussions and decisions during that difficult period.
Awards
* 2010
Gerald Loeb Award
The Gerald Loeb Award, also referred to as the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, is a recognition of excellence in journalism, especially in the fields of business, finance and the economy. The award was estab ...
* Shortlist 2010
Samuel Johnson Prize
* Shortlist 2010
Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award
See also
*
Great Recession in the United States
*
Too big to fail
"Too big to fail" (TBTF) and "too big to jail" is a theory in banking and finance that asserts that certain corporations, particularly financial institutions, are so large and so interconnected that their failure would be disastrous to the great ...
References
External links
Andrew Ross Sorkin's website* {{OL work, cname=''Too Big to Fail'' by Andrew Ross Sorkin
Book of Revelationon economist.com
Paulson Bangs Heads, Fuld Rages in Sorkin Tick-Tock of Meltdownon bloomberg.com
on nytimes.com
2009 non-fiction books
American political books
Non-fiction books adapted into films
Finance books
Viking Press books
Non-fiction books about the Great Recession