Too Big to Fail

So I had the opportunity to listen to Mr. Andrew Sorkin, the author of " Too Big to Fail."

I have not been reading books lately, not reading at all I must admit. It was a whole different thing back in Boston. Truthfully speaking, I blame the train system here in Chicago.... Well... "why"- why the train system one could ask... The train system back in Boston was the subway system, where upon getting in the train you would have no choice but to either read the books,newspaper or to simply stare at the 'pitch' black tunnel outside the train window... until you reach the " Charles MGH" station.. where all of a sudden you are introduced to the.. I mean " THE" most scenic /panoramic view which truly encapsulates the beauty of the city. It is so so phenonemal! Charles river, the prudential tower, the dome.. ah... ! One of the bestest ( not really sure if there is a word called "bestest," if not, then I just created one ) views of Boston... I really enjoyed the 4 season everyone morning at this particular stop.....

Anyways, before I get off track again... the reason- why I do not or I should say-- why I am so less motivated to read during my 1 hour train ride from Evanston to Chicago is primarily because of the view as well. It is not much of a scenic route, except when you getting close towards the city.. ( as you can embrace the enriched architectural skyline) nonetheless, I find myself enjoying the view outside the window.. Sometimes, I look at the people, sometimes I look at a building and to top it off --my complements the view..

On the other hand, I, however, leave the apartment with two newspapers i) Wall Street and ii) The Financial Times (FT).. ... which usually ( I should bluntly say always) does not get opened until I get to my office at 9:00. I get to work, turn on my computer and then skim the newspaper.

For somereason, last week, I decided to open the FT and ended up reading an interview with the Adithya Mittal, the CFO of the Mittal Industries... The last question the interviewee was posed with was " What is the current book you are reading..."

" Too Big to Fail"-

This book had come out in July ish.. I had not heard about this.. So I note down the name, get to work, google the book, and do a quick read of the summary. It was bascially about the financial crises. It was also listed as the NY times best seller. It must be a good book i ponder.....

I get home and tell about this to Pras. The following week he sends me an email saying, Andrew Sorkin was going to be speaking at Kellogg's downtown campus. Wow... what a coincidence. I quickly put down on my calendar. Even though we had a semi blizzard that day, I decided to head to the downtown campus after work and get the opportunity to hear the story from the author himself...

Too Big to Fail-- is the book about the Financial Crisis. The fall of Lehman brothers and the subsequent government bailout. The book debut at No. 4 best sellers at NY times. Andrew is the financial columinst at NY times and has his blog in the NY times as well and is well known person in the financial arena.. He virtually had the chance to interveiw all the major players of the Wall Street and those involved in the finanical crises.

His talk was so interesting. It was sort of like a story telling. Since he had interviewed all the players, the whole talk was basically an anecdote of his interactions with different leaders/CEO's .He talked about his interview with the players from Bear Stearns, then Lehman Brothers, then AIG, and Citi... Goldman Sachs and so on.. Some of the things he said completely took the audience by surprise...For eg. the case where he talks about the conversation with Jamie Dimon ( JP Morgan ) and Vikram Pandit ( Citi). How BoA initially had an interest to buy Wachovia before purchasing Merrill Lynch... All in All, the overall story told by Sorkin was very interesting, very politicized..

I have yet to read the book... attending his talk has sort of given me a broad view of the book. Those who have read this book say, it is a must- read for anyone who wants clearconcise picture of the decisions that led to Lehman's bankruptcy and the resulting chaotic weeks on Wall Streets.