More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of the New EliteThe first book of its kind: a fascinating and entertaining examination of hedge funds today Shortlisted for the Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award 'An enormously satisfying book: a gripping chronicle of the cutting edge of the financial markets and a fascinating perspective on what was going on in these shadowy institutions as the crash hit' Observer Wealthy, powerful, and potentially dangerous, hedge-find managers have emerged as the stars of twenty-first century capitalism. Based on unprecedented access to the industry, More Money Than God provides the first authoritative history of hedge funds. This is the inside story of their origins in the 1960s and 1970s, their explosive battles with central banks in the 1980s and 1990s, and finally their role in the financial crisis of 2007-9. Hedge funds reward risk takers, so they tend to attract larger-than-life personalities. Jim Simons began life as a code-breaker and mathematician, co-authoring a paper on theoretical geometry that led to breakthroughs in string theory. Ken Griffin started out trading convertible bonds from his Harvard dorm room. Paul Tudor Jones happily declared that a 1929-style crash would be 'total rock-and-roll' for him. Michael Steinhardt was capable of reducing underlings to sobs. 'All I want to do is kill myself,' one said. 'Can I watch?' Steinhardt responded. A saga of riches and rich egos, this is also a history of discovery. Drawing on insights from mathematics, economics and psychology to crack the mysteries of the market, hedge funds have transformed the world, spawning new markets in exotic financial instruments and rewriting the rules of capitalism. And while major banks, brokers, home lenders, insurers and money market funds failed or were bailed out during the crisis of 2007-9, the hedge-fund industry survived the test, proving that money can be successfully managed without taxpayer safety nets. Anybody pondering fixes to the financial system could usefully start here: the future of finance lies in the history of hedge funds. |
Other editions - View all
More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite Sebastian Mallaby Limited preview - 2011 |
More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite Sebastian Mallaby Limited preview - 2010 |
More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of the New Elite Sebastian Mallaby Limited preview - 2011 |
Common terms and phrases
assets banks began bets better billion bonds bought brokers bubble called capital central collapse Commodities Corporation crash created crisis currency dollar Druckenmiller early earnings economic equity example exchange failed fall fees firm forced futures going Goldman hand hedge funds hedge-fund idea institutional interest interview investment investors John Jones Jones’s July knew late later less leverage liquidity Long-Term looked losses LTCM managers March meeting months mortgage move needed Paul percent performance portfolio positions profits raise rates reason recalls reported returns risk Robertson seemed sell September shares short Soros Soros’s South Korea speculators started Steinhardt success thing Tiger took trading trend turned Wall Street wanted worth York