Keyword Results ( "Books" )

Singularly Exceptional
Article : Premiere Issue
To master the distinctions between Scottish single-malts, one must take a tasting pilgrimage through its many regions — or simply buy these six superior bottles
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Greed is Good (or Very Bad)
Article : Premiere Issue
A serious manifesto and rollicking potboiler sound oddly similar themes
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Banking’s Noble Side (and Not So Much)
Article : March/April 2007
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Connecting the Dots
Article : May/June 2007
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What’s Your Lazard I.Q.?
Article : May/June 2007
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Additional Results ( 50 shown )

Losing Lehman
Article : December/January 2009
It was the collapse felt all across Wall Street and beyond. Though Lehman Brothers had survived the Civil War, two world wars and the Great Depression, the 2008 credit crisis took it down. In the wake of its demise, those still standing are left to wonder: Is this the ­beginning of the end . . . or just the end of the beginning? Here, we reveal the inside scoop of the final days of one of Wall Street’s most venerable firms.
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Borders Off the Block
Article : November 2008
Borders Group Inc. took itself off the market Tuesday as it reported lower sales and profits. The Ann Arbor-based bookseller may still sell its Paperchase Products unit to Pershing Square Capital Management LP for $65 million, the company said. Borders CEO George Jones said the company went through a long and thorough process in exploring a sale, but that it was in the best interest of the company not to sell.
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Blue Sky
Article : December/January 2009
The new Gulfstream G650 is the world’s best pure business jet — even in a world gone wrong.
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Power Trip
Article : December/January 2009
Apple's top-of-the-line MacBook Pro just got better
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You’ve Got To Be Kidding Us...
Article : November 2008
Only the Federal Reserve could possibly come up with a program (in this case, one that backs not only banks, but also the $1 trillion asset-backed commercial paper market) boasting an acronym like ABCPMMMFLF. Just a tip, fellas: acronyms were invented to make references easier – not entirely inconceivable. Now, for how deep-pocketed players like JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas are finding ways to take advantage.
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WEB EXCLUSIVE: How To Lead In Unprecedented Times
Article : November 2008
In a market racked by writedowns, bailouts, layoffs and no shortage of negativity, three top minds in restructuring share their thoughts on how to persevere.
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Head Butler -- Books: The Wine Trials
Posting : Jesse Kornbluth : 10/31/2008

Robin Goldstein has no use for wine snobs. To prove it, he invented a restaurant -- a chic place named Osteria L'Intrepido, in the great restaurant city of Milan -- and entered it in Wine Spectator's annual competition.

Collateral Conundrum
Article : October 2008
How a $970 million position recently popped up on Barclays’s balance sheet in the latest travail to get a bank’s knickers in a knot.
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Head Butler -- Books: Isaac's Storm
Posting : Jesse Kornbluth : 10/24/2008

Isaac Cline was more than a meteorologist. He was also a doctor. A fastidious dresser, a model citizen, a pillar of his community. As the 1900s began, he was a man of his time -- a man of certainty. Galveston was not, he believed, in any danger from hurricanes. The very idea that Galveston could be seriously damaged by a hurricane was, he opined, "simply an absurd delusion."

Head Butler -- Books: D.V.
Posting : Jesse Kornbluth : 10/10/2008

You know all about "pink is the navy blue of India" and "wash your blond child's hair with dead champagne" and "the bikini is the most important invention since the H-bomb," but you may have been busy elsewhere when Diana Vreeland's memoir appeared.

Playing With Fire Is What They Do
Article : October 2008
The U.S. Treasury is supposedly surveying (and hopefully not just a certain 35-year-old rocket scientist we might mention) those looking to handle its $700 billion of soon-to-be-purchased mortgage assets. Among the bidders, guess which world-class money managers, including banks, are stepping up to the plate?
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Creativity Wanted
Posting : Ann Lee : 10/08/2008

While the central banks of the world grasp at straws to resolve the current credit crisis, our nation must not forget that the best answers to problems comes from human creativity.

Overseas Banks Sweat It Out
Article : October 2008
In Europe, there’s been a new flashpoint every day this week. Today, it’s the Royal Bank of Scotland reportedly seeking a hefty chunk of a multibillion-dollar capital infusion the U.K. government is now considering. In solidarity with its troubles, RBS’s shares have attempted to build on the devastating market action seen yesterday, when the Dow closed below the key 10,000 mark. With the FTSE 100 challenging the carnage of Black Monday, England’s five largest banks watching helplessly as roughly $40 billion in combined value is wiped off their books and many wondering if the world’s financial tourniquets are not working, here’s what Old Blighty is planning to do about it.
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Paulson's Kash N' Kari?
Article : October 2008
Now we've seen it all. While the U.S. frets en masse over who will manage the $700 billion bailout, people close to Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson say he has come up with a winning formula: why not put 35-year-old ex-Goldmanite assistant secretary for international affairs Neel Kashkari in charge of it?
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Working Vacation
Article : October 2008
Who on earth would haul pitchbooks and prospectuses along on a trip to a tropical paradise? You, that's who. But you can't go lugging just any old briefcase to the lands of sandals and sand. These elegant travel bags will bear your far-flung burdens in style.
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Head Butler -- Books: Playing the Enemy
Posting : Jesse Kornbluth : 10/03/2008

If you read nothing else this year, get your hands on Playing the Enemy and read pages 201 to 253.

It won't take long.

This Week In Wall Street History September 28 - October 4
Posting : This Week In Wall Street History : 09/28/2008

Playing for high stakes, Michael Lewis tossed aside a chest beating bond sales position at the "Law of the Jungle" cultured Salomon Bros. for the wilds of financial journalism. He hit the jackpot with his semi-autobiographical novel, Liar's Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage of Wall Street, arriving on bookstore shelves this week on October 1, 1989.

Head Butler -- Books: The Sex Lives of Cannibals
Posting : Jesse Kornbluth : 09/26/2008

Travel books are advertisements. A writer goes somewhere, finds what's fascinating, obscures what isn't, and produces a book that makes you want to go there too.

Working Vacation
Article : September 2008
Who on earth would haul pitchbooks and prospectuses along on a trip to a tropical paradise? You, that's who. But you can't go lugging just any old briefcase to the lands of sandals and sand. These elegant travel bags will bear your far-flung burdens in style.
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National Treasure
Article : September 2008
With a crisis at hand, Corsair's Ignacio Jayanti used his nearly two decades of experience in bank restructurings to help rescue National City and keep it independent.
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Cost Of Doing Business Just Went Up (Again)
Article : September 2008
Color us appalled. Just as stocks rallied on new hopes that the so-called “toxic” bank – a global waste-disposal unit for highly rancid assets – might materialize to wash away the subprime sins of the world, ratings agency Standard & Poor’s quietly boosted its estimate of those mortgage assets it expects will be written off by, oh, another $100 billion. Check out the new bill of damaged goods.
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Quoth Of Noth: Goldman Guru
Article : September 2008
``The ability to raise capital, no matter who you are, has changed dramatically,'' Richard Friedman, global head of merchant banking at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., said Sept. 16 at the Dow Jones Private Equity Analyst conference in New York. ``People are winning by not losing at the moment.” Blackstone CEO Stevie Schwarzman and Seer of Omaha Warren Buffett are cases in point. Get a load of their playbooks and perhaps, you too, can raise capital for anything, anytime, anyplace.
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Head Butler -- Books: The Night of the Gun
Posting : Jesse Kornbluth : 09/19/2008

"Let's say, for the sake of argument, that a guy threw himself under a crosstown bus and lived to tell the tale," David Carr writes. "Is that a book you'd like to read?"

Untying The Gordian Knots
Article : September 2008
The knots, in this case, being the outstanding derivatives trades between Lehman and its counterparties, which amount to…to…uh, where was that piece of paper again? Oh, yeah. Nobody knows. Starting last weekend, the fact that everyone wanted out of their contracts, but nobody knew if they would find anyone to net their trades with or the value of the assets themselves, meant that some market participants actually had to open their books to each other. With the credit-default swaps market worth an estimated $62 trillion and the mess expected to last through 2009, do you think it’s time for a central clearinghouse yet?
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Head Butler -- Books: Shining City
Posting : Jesse Kornbluth : 09/12/2008

I have, at long last, read a new novel I wish I'd written.

‘Strategic Arrangement,’ Anyone?
Article : September 2008
We don’t care, Lehman is now moving to the No. 2 spot on our daily line-up of stories until something huge happens. It can’t be scene-stealing the headlines all the time. But don’t make the mistake of thinking we won’t be continuing to talk about it. Our two cents for the day: While it’s no surprise that the bank is on the hunt for a buyer (not HSBC or Deutsche Bank, we’re now hearing, but possibly Bank of America) we do find it a bit startling that U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Fed chief Ben Bernanke are helping make sure that CEO Dick Fuld does his job right. Are they also dressing him, too?
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Head Butler -- Books: Havana Nocturne
Posting : Jesse Kornbluth : 09/05/2008

In Havana Nocturne, T.J. English isn't shy about the scope of the Mafia's ambition for Havana -- "to serve as the front for a far more ambitious agenda: the creation of a criminal state whose gross national product, union pension funds, public utilities, banks and other financial institutions would become the means to launch further criminal enterprises around the globe."

Head Butler -- Books: Childhood's End
Posting : Jesse Kornbluth : 08/29/2008

It's probably the greatest opening in all of science fiction. Earthlings are going about their lives when they suddenly notice movement in the sky.

And there they are -- alien spaceships, miles above the clouds but slowly descending:

Head Butler -- Books: The Perfect Summer
Posting : Jesse Kornbluth : 08/22/2008

In our secret hearts, many of us imagine that we belong elsewhere -- say, in England, at a great country estate, in good weather, where we enjoy every luxury because we are rich and titled.

Head Butler -- Books: Beatrice's Goat
Posting : Jesse Kornbluth : 08/08/2008

We're putting this book in the bedtime reading pile. Because, as the saga of Beatrice Biira proves, you never really know how far a pebble can ripple.

Head Butler -- Books: The Driver's Seat
Posting : Jesse Kornbluth : 08/01/2008

There is no writer more despicable than the reviewer who spoils a book by revealing significant plot points.

Head Butler -- Books: Nemesis
Posting : Jesse Kornbluth : 07/25/2008

Like conspiracies that involve the Kennedys? The True Story of Aristotle Onassis, Jackie O, and the Love Triangle That Brought Down the Kennedys.

Nothing’s Shocking
Article : July 2008
U.S. federal officials are incensed that the nation’s lenders failed to stop giving out high-cost home loans to borrowers who couldn’t afford to pay them back, thus touching off the subprime crisis heard ‘round the world. Now, it turns out the U.S. government’s own Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. may have been doing exactly the same thing, which is…uh…awkward. But here’s the coup de grace: apparently, the FDIC’s chairman, Sheila Bair actually wrote a children’s book awhile back called “Rock, Brock and the Savings Shock.” Coincidence, or psychic phenomena? You decide.
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Head Butler -- Books: The Spies of Warsaw
Posting : Jesse Kornbluth : 07/18/2008

The "spy" is "an ordinary-looking man, who led a rather ordinary life" -- he's a mid-level engineer at a German ironworks, married, with three children. But as he takes the train to Warsaw in the autumn of 1937, his leather satchel contains some engineering diagrams. Once in Warsaw, he'll give them to his contact.

Taming ‘King Of Beers’ For, Oh, Just $52 Billion
Article : July 2008
It took a pretty penny, but only three months after Anheuser-Busch CEO August Busch IV pounded his chest and vowed a sale wouldn’t happen "on my watch,” Belgium’s InBev has succeeded in luring its prey to the marital bed. A look at how this about-face took place (hint: a $5-a-share boost in the offering price probably didn’t hurt any) and what it means for a further consolidation of the rest of this old-guard industry.
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Head Butler -- Books: Lamentations of the Father
Posting : Jesse Kornbluth : 07/11/2008

How does a man become a murderer?

No One Goes to Either Store Anyway...
Article : July 2008
What happens when two struggling players in the board game classic Monopoly try and team up and take down the big brother who has been dominating throughout? They often still lose. While it’s hard to say such a deal would have revived once strong franchises Blockbuster and Circuit City, now the argument is all but moot.
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Face-to-Face with a Polar Bear
Posting : Travel : 06/30/2008

The polar bear in the Central Park Zoo is far from reality. Sure you can get close, but a layer of glass obscures the view. You never get to become a part of the experience. The Travel Lab, on the other hand, puts you in the bear's natural habitat.

Head Butler -- Music: All I Intended to Be
Posting : Jesse Kornbluth : 06/27/2008

Emmylou Harris is an Old School musician in many ways, but especially in this --- she's plowed the same field for almost all her career. There have been modest detours, but nothing requiring her to change her hair or buy a drum machine. She just sings American Roots music, straight ahead and unadorned.

Lehman Teams Up With LSE On ‘Dark Pool’ Trading Platform
Article : June 2008
It’s no secret that in recent years the big banks have been more than eager to do deals with exchanges (or in competition with them) carving out trading pools in a global arena where exchanges are raking it in on trading volumes that rise, rain or shine. Here’s how the bank positioned itself to cash in when London Stock Exchange CEO Clara Furse found herself looking for a partner, plus a preview of what this new multilateral trading facility will be capable of.
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Head Butler -- Books -- One Writer's Beginnings
Posting : Jesse Kornbluth : 06/20/2008

Eudora Welty won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award, and she is generally considered among the three or four female American writers of the last century whose fiction is likely to endure.

When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Creative
Article : June 2008
From WSJ: In January, Astoria Financial Corp. told investors that its pile of nonperforming loans had grown to about $106 million as of the end of last year. Three months later, the thrift holding company said the number was just $68 million. How did Astoria do it?
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Book Value: Déjà Vu?
Article : June 2008
Just when you thought you knew everything you needed to know about the Kennedys, along come a pair of books that prove they're as fascinating, and relevant, as ever.
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Head Butler -- Books -- The War of Art
Posting : Jesse Kornbluth : 06/13/2008

Self-help books are like diet books -- the people who mostly get helped are their authors and publishers.

Former Citi Manager Scores With Cross-Dressing Sleuth Novels
Article : June 2008
Uh, if that headline didn’t say it all, we don’t know what will.
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Lehman’s Fuld: All The Right Moves?
Article : June 2008
As Lehman Brothers gets ready to report its second-quarter earnings, there is no shortage of dilettantes and pundits out there armchair-quarterbacking it to death: how many hits it has taken and how well it’s taken them. As news leaks today that Lehman unloaded at least $120 billion of holdings in the latest period – at least $18 billion of it supposedly tied to mortgages and leveraged-buyout loans whose value tanked – here’s why some seem to think things are starting to look up again for the gutsy, if beleaguered, institution.
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Head Butler -- Books -- The Art of Racing in the Rain
Posting : Jesse Kornbluth : 06/06/2008

At a publishing party, I was chatting with a literary agent who's one of the titans of this troubled business.

"In the last year, can you name a new novel you couldn't put down?" I asked.

Long pause. He couldn't. Nor could I.

Flipping for Nothing
Article : June 2008
Usually when a private equity firm buys something, they expect to flip for a huge profit. In the case of Alltel, not so much. TPG might get a slight premium, according to a source, but the debt holders would get screwed. But if the deal does go through, Verizon will be king of the US cell phone market once again, surpassing AT&T and their mighty IPhone monopoly.
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The Maxi Mini
Article : June/July 2008
An HP that lets you travel lightly ­without leaving anything behind.
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Head Butler - Books - The Book of General Ignorance, by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson
Posting : Jesse Kornbluth : 05/30/2008

Life ain't fair. We have the diving dollar. Brits have the powerful pound...