Wall Street: A History: From Its Beginnings to the Fall of Enron (Paperback)

~ (Author) "America in 1790 was a diverse place and a land of unparalleled opportunity..." (more)
Key Phrases: percolator theory, market rout, conglomerate trend, Wall Street, New York, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for the first edition:
"A thorough retelling of a critical--though often overlooked--aspect of U.S. history."--The Wall Street Journal
"A quick-reading history of the United States as told through the doings of bankers and brokers."--The Washington Post
"Geisst has produced a sweeping history of Wall Street, from its inception as an outdoor market to its current status of global financial center.... This lively narrative is a good survey of American economic history that puts Wall Street at the forefront."--History
"An important and entertaining commentary for anyone interested in understanding the role of Wall Street in the development of the U.S. into an economic superpower."--James R. Barth, Lowder Eminent Scholar in Finance, Auburn University

Product Description

In the seven years since the publication of the first edition of Wall Street, America's financial industry has undergone a series of wrenching events that have dramatically changed the nation's economic landscape. The bull market of the 1990's came to a close, ushering in the end of the dot com boom, a record number of mergers occurred, and accounting scandals in companies like Enron and WorldCom shook the financial industry to its core. In this wide-ranging volume, financial historian Charles Geisst provides the first history of Wall Street, explaining how a small, concentrated pocket of lower Manhattan came to have such enormous influence in national and world affairs. In this updated edition, Geisst sums up the recent turbulence that has threatened America's financial industry. He shows how in 1997 thirty NASDAQ market makers paid a record $1.3 billion fine for price irregularities in stocks. He makes sense of the closing of the bull market, and explains a major change in the accounting rules for mergers that caused monumental losses for companies like AOL Time Warner. And he recounts how in the aftermath of the speculative fever that swept Wall Street in the 1990's, the scandals at Enron, Tyco, Worldcom, and Conseco represent a last gasp of mergermania and a fallout from a bubble-like market. Wall Street is at once the story of the street itself, from the days when the wall was merely a defensive barricade built by Peter Stuyvesant, to the modern billion-dollar computer-driven colossus of today. In a broader sense it is an engaging economic history of the United States, the role Wall Street played in making America the most powerful economy in the world, and the many challenges to that role it has faced in recent years.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 488 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; Rev Exp edition (April 8, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195170601
• ISBN-13: 978-0195170603
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #385,446 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive book on the history of Wall Street, July 4, 2006

By	Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract.com" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This comprehensive book provides a wealth of detail about the origins and history of the financial institutions, private and public, that underpin Wall Street and the economy of the United States - and therefore, to an extent, much of the rest of the world. Author Charles R. Geisst presents a detailed discussion of the contest between the forces of libertarianism and regulation. Detail is both the strength and the weakness of this book. Often, the author has trouble organizing it all, and the book would have benefited from a stricter editor to help distill the "story" in this history. Despite such problems, however, the factual basis is rich and intriguing. We believe that readers interested in U.S. financial history, especially those in the investment and financial services industries, will want to read this book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good overview of Wall Street, September 7, 2008

By	MedStudent (Baltimore) - See all my reviews

Mark Twain said that history doesnt repeat itself but it does rhyme. Read this book and learn about the past market panics and irrational exuberances. The early history is kind of dry but things get pretty interesting once you break into the 20th century. What stands out although it is not surprising is how the public makes the same mistakes over and over again. I guess one can only describe it as the extraordinary delusion of crowds.

1 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Completely inaccurate about the current downturn, October 24, 2008

By	K. Majarrez - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The book provides some insight into forgotten economic events, but I'll bet the author didn't believe Lehman would fail, nor the "panic" that since has transpired in America.