Book of the week: The End of Wall Street by Roger Lowenstein
The author deconstructs the financial crisis by explaining derivatives and other “creative instruments of financial destruction” in delightfully direct terms.
(The Penguin Press, $27.95)
Roger Lowenstein’s The End of Wall Street is “an especially useful piece of the jigsaw puzzle that current Wall Street books are busy creating,” said Janet Maslin in The New York Times. This isn’t a story of bankers’ “blowhard personalities” or a told-you-so tale reiterating errors that, in hindsight, seem obvious. Rather, it’s an “issue-oriented book” that deconstructs the financial crisis, explains derivatives and other “creative instruments of financial destruction” in delightfully direct terms, and “tries to envision new, improved business models” for Wall Street. The title is a bit of an exaggeration, though, said Carl Hartman in the Associated Press. “‘End’ is an awfully final word,” and one need only look at the stock market’s rebound to see that Wall Street is still surviving as of this moment. Nevertheless, Lowenstein does a stellar job of explaining how the financial crisis and subsequent government bailouts mark, in his words, “the eclipse of Wall Street’s golden age.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Today's political cartoons - November 7, 2024
Cartoons Thursday's cartoons - a narrow escape, no contest, and more
By The Week US Published
-
The Marbella Club at 70
The Blend A repeat guest admires the famed Spanish retreat's remarkable staying power
By Nick Foulkes Published
-
A bite-sized history of the canapé
The Blend Auguste Escoffier, who ran kitchens at The Savoy in London and The Ritz in Paris, set the standard for the modern canapé
By Simon Mills Published