The bestselling author of the acclaimed House of Cards and The Last Tycoons turns his spotlight on to Goldman Sachs and the controversy behind its success. From the outside, Goldman Sachs is a perfect company. The Goldman PR machine loudly declares it to be smarter, more ethical, and more profitable than all of its competitors. Behind closed doors, however, the firm constantly straddles the line between conflict of interest and legitimate deal making, wields significant influence over all levels of government, and upholds a culture of power struggles and toxic paranoia. And its clever bet against the mortgage market in 2007—unknown to its clients—may have made the financial ruin of the Great Recession worse. Money and Power reveals the internal schemes that have guided the bank from its founding through its remarkable windfall during the 2008 financial crisis. Through extensive research and interviews with the inside players, including current CEO Lloyd Blankfein, William Cohan constructs a nuanced, timely portrait of Goldman Sachs, the company that was too big—and too ruthless—to fail.
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"A well written, well researched and tough history of one of the great American investment banks. And to be clear, it is a tough portrayal of the firm, going back a century to bring to light all the warts, failures and crisis' experienced by Goldman Sachs"
— Frank (4 out of 5 stars)
" Investment banks is a synonym for mafia and Goldman Sachs is the Don. "
— Dave, 1/19/2014" Takes endurance but enlightening as to the evolution of big banking. "
— Charles, 11/28/2013" After reading most books based on Goldman Sachs, it doesnt live upto my expectations "
— Ashwin, 8/11/2013" I am amazed at how William Cohan can take a topic as dry as the finanial crises and make it read like a novel. I'm up the part where Jon Corzine takes over. But now that I've finished the book I have to say that I guess I just wasn't that interested in Goldman Sachs. "
— Mary, 7/30/2013" It wasn't particularly well written, but it had great information. "
— Tanya, 6/15/2013" Good detailed History. It tailed of towards the end though. "
— Peter, 1/3/2013" A lot of detail. Maybe a little too much. But I now know a lot about the history of Goldman Sachs now. "
— Jim, 8/22/2012" Excellent history of Goldman. Goes inside their thinking and financial shenanigans. "
— William, 5/8/2012" Interesting history and a good read. "
— Dan, 2/27/2012" Having read Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone I was a Goldman Sachs hater. Cohan's balanced presentation of the story helped me to see it from the other side. Well written, worth the read. "
— Craig, 2/18/2012" Interesting history of Goldman. "
— Ryan, 8/14/2011William D. Cohan is the author of the New York Times bestsellers House of Cards and The Last Tycoons, which won the 2007 FT/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award. He is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, has a weekly opinion column in Bloomberg View, and writes frequently for Fortune, the Atlantic, Art News, BusinessWeek, the New York Times, the Financial Times, the Irish Times, and the Washington Post, among other publications. He also is a contributing editor on Bloomberg Television and a frequent on-air contributor to MSNBC, CNN and CNBC. A former investment banker, he is a graduate of Duke University, Columbia University School of Journalism, and the Columbia University Graduate School of Business.
Rob Shapiro is a musician, writer, voice actor, and Earphones Award–winning narrator. He performed several seasons of radio comedy on Minneapolis Public Radio and voiced the titular lion in Leo the Lion. He is a musician and composer with his critically acclaimed band Populuxe. He is also a business consultant and software system designer.