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Chasing Goldman Sachs: How the Masters of the Universe Melted Wall Street Down...And Why They'll Take Us to the Brink Again Paperback – October 11, 2011

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Suzanne McGee (Author)
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Suzanne McGee (Author)
3.4 out of 5 stars 23 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 421 pages
  • Publisher: Crown Business (October 11, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0307888312
  • ISBN-13: 978-0307888310
  • Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1 x 8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,159,947 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsEnlightening Account of WHY Wall Street Went Hog Wild with Leverage and Risk.
By mirasreviews HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on June 15, 2010
Format: Hardcover
In "Chasing Goldman Sachs", financial journalist Suzanne McGee takes us through the changes in the financial industry over the past few decades that transformed Wall Street "from quasi-utility to...profit-maximizing behemoth" whose appetite for leverage and risk nearly destroyed itself and played a key role in the continuing global financial crisis. The book's subtitle -"How the Masters of the Universe Melted Wall Street Down...and Why They'll Take Us to the Brink Again"- is perhaps hyperbolic, and I was pleased to find that McGee's analysis is more balanced and considered than that title might suggest.

First, the history: McGee explains how and why investment banks began to drift away from their core function of enabling capital to flow through the economy in the 1970s, leading to the pursuit of maximum profits irrespective of systemic risk in the 2000s. This includes the evolution of mortgage-backed securities, the deregulation of fixed commission structures, the transformation of banks from private partnerships into publicly traded companies, and refocusing their increasingly complex products to serve hedge funds rather than traditional investment firms. Goldman Sachs was the best and the brightest, which other banks tried madly to emulate, often without sufficient talent or risk management to do so.

Then, the financial crisis: McGee dedicates a chapter each to the "greed, recklessness, and negligence" that combined to create the "perfect storm" that almost brought the global economy to a halt and necessitated an infusion of $250 billion of taxpayer-sponsored liquidity. She explains the history of the executive compensation system whose incentive structures unfortunately encouraged "excessive risk-taking and shortsighted behavior.Read more ›
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2.0 out of 5 starsSkirting Goldman while sticking to surface events
By Charles de Trenck on July 27, 2011
Format: Hardcover
I was looking forward to a book updater about Goldman related issues and the Financial Crisis, though I understood flicking through the book quickly before catching a plane that it would only touch Goldman at the periphery, and that it would be more about how the financial crisis was created by the likes of Merrill Lynch and so many other bulge bracket banks trying to emulate Goldman's performances (ie, high ROEs). What I found though, as I sat down to read and mark-up the book, was more of a generic recap of the Crisis. Looking later through the footnotes I realized this book relied mostly on mainstream accounts. The book is good for people who were not addicted to financial blogs and the few good articles (and there are some good ones I found and listed in prior reviews) out there before, during and after the crisis. And it is ok in terms of offering some sort of reference function.

I certainly don't disagree with the blame meted out at some of the senior bank executives, sometimes referred to as banksters in the blogosphere. On the whole the book is readable and good as a summary. But the book also proved a little too soft and general on developments at the big banks during the Financial Crisis, and a bit too hopeful that the Obama Administration could/can bring about any changes (ie, implementation of the oft repeated Volcker Rule).

Parts of the book were quite readable. Other parts tended to repetition and news recaps. During one of my many breaks reading the book, I happened over to a bookshelf of partly read books, and found new interest in Where Are the Customers' Yachts? The book was written around 1940 (based on experiences of 1929) and has many truisms reminding us of what many brokers [bankers, etc] do for a living.Read more ›
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4.0 out of 5 starsFinally, a finance book that's not boring!
By Richard Derus on June 24, 2010
Format: Hardcover
Not to put too fine a point on it, but does the world *really* need another book about The Meltdown That Ate Our Jobs? Do we *really* have anything left to learn about these greedy so-and-sos whose pursuit of their own profits gifted us with a huge expansion of the Federal debt?

In a word, yes.

Suzanne McGee assumes that her readers are smart, savvy, and plugged in, so she hits only the highlights of the WHAT about the crisis. Her brief, as the subtitle of the book "How the Masters of the Universe Melted Down Wall Street...and Why They'll Take Us to the Brink Again" makes clear, is analyzing and explaining WHY.

She does this in as honest and non-judmental a way as anyone could. She's not pointing fingers at one person per chapter, she's pointing up the systemic and cultural failings that, quite naturally and seemingly inevitably, led to a culture of no-risk gambling that permeated late twentieth century business. It took until the end of the Aughties for the chickens to come home to roost, but as they always do, they did. And who pays? All of us peons, that's who, which is exactly how the system is set up and remains set up to this day.

Her style is spare, unfussy, and dryly witty. Her story provides its own plot, so I can't say whether she's good at plotting. She knows how to give a telling detail! "'When {the New York Stock} Exchange is public, when people are willing to own it, it's a sign of a stable financial system, argues {a Canadian investment-firm billionaire},' who also owns stakes in publicly traded stock exchanges worldwide, from Europe to Latin America...'The kind of push that come from shareholder-investors to become more competitive and efficient is the best way to make sure an organization is as effective as possible,' he adds.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 starsInteresting at first, but then trails off

I have read several books on the financial crisis and there are few of them I don't enjoy, but this was definitely one of them. Read more

Published on January 9, 2014 by Brian T. Geier
4.0 out of 5 starsShows a knack for explaining difficult topics in understandable...

I rarely ever read business/finance-type books but if more of them were like this one, I probably would read more of them. Read more

Published on October 24, 2013 by lindapanzo
1.0 out of 5 starsA Fictional Account of the Financial Melt Down

There appears to be several versions of what happened to address the financial crisis of 2007. The author chooses to do no real research for this book. Read more

Published on February 9, 2013 by Dexter
4.0 out of 5 starsHow & Why

Mcgeee presents a good overview of the policies and procedures of the investment banks and the congress that got us into the economic mess we're experiencing today. Read more

Published on December 4, 2011 by lois
5.0 out of 5 starsA Great Overview of a Very Complex Situation

First of all, I am not in the area of finance, and followed the economic events of the last decade primarily through newspapers and PBS coverage. Read more

Published on November 4, 2011 by R. Cash
2.0 out of 5 starsNot worth reading

In "Chasing Goldman Sachs" author Suzanne McGee targets readers outside of the finance community hoping to provide them with insights into the events leading up to and immediately... Read more

Published on February 22, 2011 by Money Honey
2.0 out of 5 starsbuy another one

this book was one great disappointment..
Just a very,very broad overview but it lacked details. Read more

Published on February 15, 2011 by crocodile andy
4.0 out of 5 starsgood historical overview

Author makes a compelling case of why and how the wall street hubris is related to GS. Overall great read. Read more

Published on December 20, 2010 by Majik P
2.0 out of 5 starsInteresting, Worth Reading but Disappointingly Scant on Details.

A disappointing book - excellent conceptual points, too little detail. We all know that Goldman too often is not fully upfront w/clients about the side of the trade they are being... Read more

Published on November 27, 2010 by Geoff Hasler
5.0 out of 5 starsA Brilliant Contribution - Devour it!

After having read and reviewed the following VOLUMES about U.S. economic crisis during 2010 --- Roger Lowenstein's, The End of Wall Street, The Quants by Scott Patterson, 13... Read more

Published on November 23, 2010 by William Dahl

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