Informationen zum Autor Kate Kelly is a staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal and a former reporter for Time magazine and the New York Observer . She attracted international attention for her three-part series of articles on Bear Stearns, which ran on the front pages of The Wall Street Journal in May 2008. This is her first book. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. Klappentext The acclaimed New York Times bestseller-updated for the second anniversary of the collapse of Bear Stearns The fall of Bear Stearns in March 2008 set off a wave of global financial turmoil that continues to ripple. How could one of the oldest, most resilient firms on Wall Street go so far astray that it had to be sold at a fire sale price? How could the street fighters who ran Bear so aggressively miscalculate so completely? Expanding with fresh detail from her acclaimed front-page series in The Wall Street Journal , Kate Kelly captures every sight, sound, and smell of Bear's three final days. She also shows how Bear's top executives descended into civil war as the mortgage crisis began to brew.5:30 P.M. Early on the evening of Thursday, March 13, Sam Molinaro, chief financial officer of The Bear Stearns Companies, called the firm's CEO, Alan Schwartz. "We have a serious problem," Molinaro said. Up in his fortysecondfloor office, Schwartz had been hearing snippets of bad news all afternoon. Bear traders, trying to do business with rival firms, were getting pointed questions about whether they could make good on their financial obligations, and hedge funds had been yanking money out of their Bear accounts. By the time he got the call from Molinaro, Bear's cash supply appeared to be draining fast. "This is looking pretty serious," Schwartz replied. "I'll be right down." Schwartz took the elevator to the sixth floor, where executives were slowly congregating outside Molinaro's corner office. Though no one had sent out an email, the word got around that the firm's top managers were meeting at 6:00. Like many meetings led by Molinaro, however, the tone seemed to be one of hurry up and wait. Bear's CFO was hopelessly disorganized, and had a knack for making important people hang around outside his office while he wrapped up a phone call or had an impromptu meeting. The delays sometimes lasted for hours. Molinaro's chaotic scheduling was so widely remarked on that Paul Friedman, the sardonic chief operating officer in the fixedincome division, liked to sum it up with a joke: "What time is our six o'clock meeting?" This time, Molinaro was tied up in his office with his former secretary, now a managing director in the firm's operations department, which handled Bear's real estate dealings around the world. Knowing the urgency of the meeting they awaited, managers rolled their eyes as they glanced from their watches to their BlackBerrys outside Molinaro's adjoining conference room. Finally Molinaro walked in and took a seat. Schwartz, at fiftyseven a towering, impeccably dressed former baseball star, sat near the door at the head of the table, legs crossed, silently leaning back in his chair. He had not expected this when he was named CEO barely three months earlier. He was surrounded by a wily group of fellow executives who over the years had supported one another, challenged one another, and vied for one another's jobs and pay. Bear was a dysfunctional family, driven by greed and a complex code of internal politics. Far above the lower and middle ranks, where most of the firm's fourteen thousand employees worked, was an upper tier of some seven hundred senior managing directors, or SMDs, who made fat bonuses and enjoyed perks like a private lunch room, special expense accounts for ordering meals and flight upgrades, and unique access to key clients and public figures. Partly to justify their pay, management forced ...

Autorentext

Kate Kelly is a staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal and a former reporter for Time magazine and the New York Observer. She attracted international attention for her three-part series of articles on Bear Stearns, which ran on the front pages of The Wall Street Journal in May 2008. This is her first book. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Klappentext

The acclaimed New York Times bestseller-updated for the second anniversary of the collapse of Bear Stearns

The fall of Bear Stearns in March 2008 set off a wave of global financial turmoil that continues to ripple. How could one of the oldest, most resilient firms on Wall Street go so far astray that it had to be sold at a fire sale price? How could the street fighters who ran Bear so aggressively miscalculate so completely?

Expanding with fresh detail from her acclaimed front-page series in The Wall Street Journal, Kate Kelly captures every sight, sound, and smell of Bear's three final days. She also shows how Bear's top executives descended into civil war as the mortgage crisis began to brew.

Zusammenfassung
The acclaimed New York Times bestseller—an explosive, inside look at the demise of a Wall Street giant

The fall of Bear Stearns in March 2008 set off a wave of global financial turmoil that rippled around the world. How could one of the oldest, most resilient firms on Wall Street go so far astray that it had to be sold at a fire sale price? How could the street fighters who ran Bear so aggressively miscalculate so completely?

Expanding with fresh detail from her highly praised front-page series in The Wall Street Journal, reporter Kate Kelly captures every sight, sound, and smell of Bear’s three final days. She also shows how Bear’s top executives descended into civil war as the mortgage crisis began to brew. A breathtaking piece of US history, Street Fighters is essential reading for anyone looking to understand the 2008 financial crisis—and for understanding how the actions of one Wall Street firm have affected the world to this day.

Leseprobe
5:30 P.M.

Early on the evening of Thursday, March 13, Sam Molinaro, chief financial officer of The Bear Stearns Companies, called the firm's CEO, Alan Schwartz. "We have a serious problem," Molinaro said.

Up in his forty–second–floor office, Schwartz had been hearing snippets of bad news all afternoon. Bear traders, trying to do business with rival firms, were getting pointed questions about whether they could make good on their financial obligations, and hedge funds had been yanking money out of their Bear accounts. By the time he got the call from Molinaro, Bear's cash supply appeared to be draining fast.

"This is looking pretty serious," Schwartz replied. "I'll be right down."

Schwartz took the elevator to the sixth floor, where executives were slowly congregating outside Molinaro's corner office. Though no one had sent out an e–mail, the word got around that the firm's top managers were meeting at 6:00.

Like many meetings led by Molinaro, however, the tone seemed to be one of hurry up and wait. Bear's CFO was hopelessly disorganized, and had a knack for making important people hang around outside his office while he wrapped up a phone call or had an impromptu meeting. The delays sometimes lasted for hours. Molinaro's chaotic scheduling was so widely remarked on that Paul Friedman, the sardonic chief operating officer in the fixed–income division, liked to sum it up with a joke: "What time is our six o'clock meeting?"

This time, Molinaro was tied up in his office with his former secretary, now a managing director in the firm's operations department, which handled Bear's real estate dealings around the world. Knowing the urgency of the meeting they awaited, managers rolled their eyes as they glanced from their watches to their BlackBerrys outside Molinaro's adjoining conference room.

Finally …