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Fooling Some of the People All of the Time Updated and Revised: A Long Short Story (Hardcover)

by David Einhorn (Author), Joel Greenblatt (Foreword)
Key Phrases: audit guide, late innings, equity value, Allied Capital, Business Loan Express, Senator Kerry (more...)

4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (44 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Review
"Instead of stewing in private, Einhorn wrote a book "Fooling Some of the People All of the Time" about his six-year ordeal with Allied." (Daily Mail, September 18, 2008)

Product Description

A rare look inside the world of activist hedge funds from one of this country's top investors

In 2002, David Einhorn, the President of Greenlight Capital, gave a speech at a charity investment conference and was asked to share his best investment idea. He described his reasons why Greenlight had sold short the shares of Allied Capital, a leader in the private finance industry.

What followed was a firestorm of controversy. Allied responded with a Washington, D.C. style spin-job-attacking Einhorn and disseminating half-truths and outright lies. Undeterred by the spin-job and lies, Greenlight continued its research after the speech and discovered Allied's behavior was far worse than Einhorn ever suspected. Fooling Some of the People All of the Time is the gripping chronicle of this saga, and this edition contains all new updates from the author. Page by page, it delves deep inside Wall Street, showing how the $6 billion hedge fund Greenlight Capital conducts its investment research and detailing the maneuvers of an unscrupulous company. Along the way, you'll witness feckless regulators, compromised politicians, and the barricades our capital markets have erected against exposing misconduct from important Wall Street customers.

Goes behind the scenes to detail the truth about investing, short selling, and the politics of business
Shows the failings of Wall Street: its investment banks, analysts, journalists, and especially our government regulators
Offers insights into the battles surrounding hedge funds
Reveals the immense difficulties that prevent the government from sanctioning politically connected companies

At its most basic level, Allied Capital is the story of Wall Street at its worst. But the story is much bigger than one little-known company. Fooling Some of the People All of the Time is an important call for effective law enforcement, free speech, and fair play.

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Product Details

Hardcover: 380 pages
Publisher: Wiley (May 2, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0470073942
ISBN-13: 978-0470073940
Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (44 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #10,319 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in this category: (What's this?)
#6 in Books > Business & Investing > Small Business & Entrepreneurship > Raising Capital

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Inside This Book (learn more)

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
audit guide, late innings, equity value, audit committee, private finance portfolio, preferred lender status, subordinated debt investment, lender oversight, valuation assistance, valuation documentation, naked shorting, fraudulent loans, net investment income, insider purchases, delinquency report, other fund managers, equity injection, boat loans, rogue employee

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Allied Capital, Business Loan Express, Senator Kerry, New York, Wall Street, America Online, Bill Russell Oil, Office of Inspector General, The Washington Post, Senator Snowe, David Einhorn, Lanny Davis, Greenlight Capital, Million Game of Three-Card Monte, Joan Sweeney, Arthur Andersen, Garden Ridge, Rousing the Authorities, Deutsche Bank, Bank of America, Boston Chicken, Big Lie, Small Business Administration, Merrill Lynch, Financial Pacific

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Customer Reviews

44 Reviews

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
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4.3 out of 5 stars (44 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Detailed insight into both a hedge fund and a loan company's abuse of the system, May 12, 2008

By	Scott E. Packard (Alhambra, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The book is really close to being 2 or 3 books in one. Initially heard about the book in the WSJ, I pre-ordered it on Amazon and took a few weeks to read.
In the first part Mr. Einhorn writes several chapters aimed at a non-professional investor to build the background of how a hedge fund invests, building the reader's knowledge from zero to fluent enough to understand the book. There's a glossary in the back of the book to refer to if you forget any of the terms. In fact, later on Mr. Einhorn's open and full disclosure of his investing philosophy, technique, and results contrast with those of Allied Capital and its collection of LLCs.

The second part of the book builds from a small trickle to a river of fraud, and frankly this is the hardest part to get through. You're directed to watch Mr. Einhorn's speech on the web in order to understand a dissection of reactions that follow, and I admit that I felt as if I was reading a story from somebody who was picked on too much in the schoolyard and is taking revenge by writing a book. As I kept reading the chapters the story suddenly took me by surprise (around P.200 or so).

It then becomes a story of how, if you were to implement a business poorly and needed to keep it going no matter what, you would do whatever it took to keep paying a dividend to keep your stock from tanking. You might start by fibbing on the health of the business one year, sell healthy companies to hide your true results a few years later, and start directing campaign donations to the right parties a few years later. In for a penny, in for a pound. Mr. Einhorn didn't mention, but in years past I have read, that Enron kept going for so long because they did a good job spreading their money around to both the politicians and the local community. Mr. Einhorn does mention how much many parts of the US (Wall Street, the various parts of government, and mom-and-pop investors) want to continue the company so as not to lose whatever interest they have vested into the company or system.

In the end I feel educated about his hedge fund, I feel in over my head on how to value a company's investments if the company is similar to Allied Capital, I feel a bit angry on how narrow the scope and small the punishment delivered (but not surprised - I've seen how narrow the scope of investigations of companies are before), and I feel that Mr. Einhorn has, for lack of a more subtle way of putting it, wasted enough of his life worrying about this company. You're not going to get back the years you've spent. You should go on to enjoy something else in life (but I appreciate the sacrifice you made so I could read about this in a book).

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48 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars David Einhorn isn't fooling anyone but himself, July 7, 2008

By	Daniel Ginensky (Bet Shemesh Israel) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Overview:
David Einhorn, founder of a successful Wall Street hedge fund, has written a book which describes the controversy surrounding David's hedge fund selling short Allied Capital. While David makes some very damning points about Allied's management, he does not prove his central thesis, namely that Allied engaged in fraud. Despite this flaw, the book is still a worthwhile read.

Background
David's conclusion about ALD were based on his previous experience shorting Sirrom, a company that *was* a fraud and subsequently went bankrupt. Sirrom was in the same industry as Allied, namely loans to small businesses. David concluded that ALD must be a fruad since they, like Sirrom, did not write down the value of troubled assets in a timely manner and management was less than truthful when confronted with this fact (pg. 52). Referring to ALD's managers, David writes "people who are willing to lie about small things have no problem lying about big things" (pg. 64). The rest of the book, almost 300 pages, is David's attempt, unsuccessful in my estimation, to substantiate this claim.

Why "Fooling..." is Worth Reading
Despite the fundamental flaw of stating a thesis that he then fails to substantiate, "Fooling..." is still a worthwhile read for four reasons:
1) David has made a lot of money, and his investment methodology is explained in detail. This is unique, and worthy of serious study.
2) The book documents the inability of regulatory authorities to protect investors from dishonest management practices. Very sobering. Allied did engage in a number of unauthorized accounting practices that victimized it's investors, and none of it's managers were ever punished. In fact, they got rich at their investors expense.
3) It shows that even superstar investors are human. On display is how a very rich man's obsession with proving he is right drove him to stick with a losing position, pouring time and resources into what became a personal crusade. I have made this mistake on a much smaller scale, and I imagine most investors have. Obviously, the book did not intend to teach this lesson, but there it is.
4) Allieds is a "Business Development Corporations" (BDC), and the book explains how BDCs operate and make their money. David opines that BDCs are similar to junk bond funds, but are riskier (pg. 48). BDCs in general are very lucrative and pay high distributions when the USA economy is doing well, and tend to lose a lot of money during a recession. There is a lot of info here that investors can put to work.

Synopsis of Events:
David Einhorn, who is about as successful as a man can be on Wall Street without being Warren Buffet, concluded that Allied Capital is a fraud. He invested almost 8% of his hedge fund selling ALD short (he profits if ALD goes down, loses if it goes up). He then proceeded to try to get regulatory authorities, including the SEC and Eliot Spitzer (at the time the NY Attorney General) to investigate improper practices at Allied. For his efforts, he got investigated himself by these authorities. He recently published "Fooling Some of the People All of the Time" to prove he is right, and the rest of the world (SEC, financial press, investors, the stock market) are all wrong. David calls ALD a "ponzi scheme" (pg. 330), continually raising new capital to pay the dividend. While this claim should be easy to substantiate, no evidence or proof of any kind is offered. David predicts that eventually, ALD's fraudulent practices will cause the demise of the company. When the book was published, despite 6 years of intense effort on David's part to expose ALD, he lost money on his position (when you factor in dividends which he had to pay having shorted the stock).

Epilogue
Today, 8 years after his accusation were first made, ALD is still in business. While it's stock price has under-performed the market, when you factor in the dividends (actually tax distributions) it has been a pretty decent investment. It is hard to imagine how a company that systematically defrauded it's investors could survive 8 years of constant hostile scrutiny from a smart and rich hedge fund, paying hefty dividends the whole time. If it was a ponzy scheme, it should have imploded years ago. As far as I am concerned, this fact, combined with David's lack of hard evidence, disproves his thesis.

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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An important work, May 18, 2008

By	M. Brodsky - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It would suffice that this book is well-written, engaging and informative, but it is more than that. It is an important book, for two reasons. First, it shows how much of an investment edge it can be to employ deep research and critical thought. The fact that many other investors continued to be fooled by the company even after Einhorn published his analysis may seem frustrating to the reader, but as an investor I view that reaction as confirmatory that there will always be lots of ways for independent, meticulous thinkers to make money. Second, the book demonstrates how difficult and lonely it can be to engage in activist investing, especially from the short side. Consistent with the story in this book, I have almost invariably found that the more correct the activist's views are, the more likely s/he will be subjected to ad hominem attacks; and that, when presented with cogent evidence of a serious problem, government officials either do nothing or protect the malefactor. Indeed, the business news of the last nine months is replete with examples of this. I am unaware of another book on investing that captures this second element. It is all the more commendable that Einhorn can tell this incredibly frustrating tale calmly, resisting the temptation to engage in histrionics or self-righteousness.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best investment books I've ever read, if not the best
Perhaps the only honest modern book on investments I have read. Also gives a limited insight into Einhorn's mind and way of thinking as an investor. Read more

Published 1 month ago by XYZ

5.0 out of 5 stars Inside the Mind of an Exceptional Investor
Many well-respected money managers -- some of them with track records that spanned decades -- saw their reputations utterly destroyed in 2008. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Justice Litle

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book
This is an excellent book that gives you a view into the hedge fund world. Einhorn speaks in depth about proper valuation while criticizing the government agencies that are... Read more

Published 3 months ago by Dino Christoforakis

3.0 out of 5 stars The Good and the Bad
I have mixed emotions about this book. I enjoy finance books and this book fits the bill with an author that understands finance, companies and investing quite well. Read more

Published 4 months ago by R. Spell

1.0 out of 5 stars Ghost Written Book!
Nice book but it was not written by Mr. Einhorn. It was ghost written by someone else. At least, Mr. Einhorn could have given credit to the real author.

Published 4 months ago by Hector A. Negroni

5.0 out of 5 stars The latest in the Allied story from the New York Times
Gretchen Morgenstern had an article in todays New York Times that mentioned this book:

Following Clues the S.E.C. Read more

Published 5 months ago by Bruce A. Wilcox

4.0 out of 5 stars Pre-Madoff warning
I read Mr. Einhorn book a couple months ago - it made me aware that the current public company regulation system is not perfect, that people who invest in public companies tend to... Read more

Published 5 months ago by R. Pawlikowski

5.0 out of 5 stars An Allied Owner Appreciates Einhorn
David Einhorn, like all of us, must ferret out information from every source possible. He is of course spending full time at it, while we dilatantes read and invest too often on... Read more

Published 5 months ago by Donald A. Collins

4.0 out of 5 stars entertained..
Unresponsive and ineffective govt (SBA) oversight? It will make you laugh (or cry) at how careless the SBA is with our tax dollars. Read more

Published 7 months ago by J. Gonzales

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but depressing
This is an interesting story of a hedge fund manager who becomes obsessed with a short position in a company that seems, at a minimum, a little shady. Read more

Published 8 months ago by American Bandersnatch

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