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The Spider Network: The Wild Story of a Math Genius, a Gang of Backstabbing Bankers, and One of the Greatest Scams in Financial History Audiobook
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The Wall Street Journal's award-winning business reporter unveils the bizarre and sinister story of how a math genius named Tom Hayes, a handful of outrageous confederates, and a deeply corrupt banking system ignited one of the greatest financial scandals in history.
In 2006, an oddball group of bankers, traders and brokers from some of the world’s largest financial institutions made a startling realization: Libor—the London interbank offered rate, which determines the interest rates on trillions in loans worldwide—was set daily by a small group of easily manipulated functionaries, and that they could reap huge profits by nudging it to suit their trading portfolios. Tom Hayes, a brilliant but troubled mathematician, became the lynchpin of a wild alliance that among others included a French trader nicknamed “Gollum”; the broker “Abbo,” who liked to publicly strip naked when drinking; a Kazakh chicken farmer turned something short of financial whiz kid; a broker known as “Village” (short for “Village Idiot”) and fascinated with human-animal sex; an executive called “Clumpy” because of his patchwork hair loss; and a broker uncreatively nicknamed “Big Nose.” Eventually known as the “Spider Network,” Hayes’s circle generated untold riches —until it all unraveled in spectacularly vicious, backstabbing fashion.
The Spider Network is not only a rollicking account of the scam, but a provocative examination of a financial system that was crooked throughout, designed to promote envelope-pushing behavior while shielding higher-ups from the consequences of their subordinates’ rapacious actions.
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“With an unerring eye for detail, Enrich shows in this masterful work how a toxic stew of greed, arrogance, and a lust for power led to a criminal scheme of unparalleled dimensions. It should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand the dirty underbelly of the financial world.”
— Kurt Eichenwald, Pulitzer Prize–winning author
Quotes
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“The Spider Network will snare you in its web of deceit, lies, corruption, manipulation, and colorful characters…Enrich’s brilliant investigative exposé will reverberate from Wall Street to Main Street.”
— Harlan Coben, #1 New York Times bestselling author -
“An incredibly entertaining, globe-straddling inside account of how one trader turbocharged a greedy cabal that scammed savers and borrowers everywhere. A must read if you want to understand how big banks and traders really work.”
— Marcus Brauchli, former executive editor of the Washington Post and managing editor of the Wall Street Journal
Awards
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Longlisted for the Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award
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About David Enrich
David Enrich is an author and the finance editor at the New York Times. He has won numerous journalism awards, including the 2016 Gerald Loeb Award for feature writing. His first book, The Spider Network: How a Math Genius and Gang of Scheming Bankers Pulled Off On of The Greatest Scams in History was shortlisted for the Financial Times Best Book of the Year award. He previously was the financial enterprise editor of the Wall Street Journal, heading a team of investigative reporters. Before that, he was the Journal’s European banking editor, based in London and a Journal reporter in New York.