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The Accidental Investment Banker: Inside the Decade That Transformed Wall Street (Paperback)
by Jonathan A. Knee
| Category:
Investment banking, Wall Street, Financial market, Popular economics |
| Market price: ¥ 158.00
MSL price:
¥ 128.00
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
An excellent mix of Wall Street "war stories" and an analysis of the evolution of investment banking. |
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Author: Jonathan A. Knee
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Pub. in: July, 2007
ISBN: 0812978048
Pages: 288
Measurements: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BA01306
Other information: ISBN-13: 978-0812978049
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- MSL Picks -
Author Jonathon Knee's "The Accidental Investment Banker" provides a detailed but easily read account of the investment banking industry's own "bubble" - a period when Investment Banking Institutions were fundamentally transformed by the unprecedented number of deals that the forces they unleashed created.
The investment banking boom of the late 1990s brought the ascension of a celebrity culture at banking firms and a fundamental shift in investment banking to a more aggressive, opportunistic, and transactional business model from one rooted in long-term client relationship and deeply held business values. With it, a significant line was crossed when the firms moved from agent to principal.
Knee traces the roots of the "bubble" back to the emergence in the 1970s of sales and trading and M&A as profit centers - the seeds that changed the culture and structure of the investment banking industry. The cultural and structural evolution of the industry then converged with the boom calling into question historical values on which Goldman and Morgan where built. It is in this convergence that Knee tells his story gained from being an employee at both Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. He does not disappoint as he provides an excellent behind the scenes look as the industry moved to a new world order in which individual considerations reigned supreme over institutional ones where the firm and the client reigned supreme.
The behind the scenes story includes the battle between Phil Purcell and John Mack for control of Morgan Stanley which could be a book by itself - a detailed account of the Plebeians outwitting the patricians.
Knee, a philosophy major, describes himself throughout as one who, unlike most of his peers, became an investment banker by accident rather than by design. He rose within a few years from a modest salary to compensation well into the seven figures. And he rose to the "King of Publishing" in the world of investment banking during the bubble to wind up at the end of his reign as the "King of Shitty Little Companies."
Today, "the dirty little secret of investment banking is that these institutions are unsure of what there business model is and what role they really want to play. The emergence of the financial supermarkets has complicated the lives of investment bankers." With the change, a culture has emerged that undermines the integrity of investment banking in a way that will make it difficult if not impossible for these institutions to ever regain the role they once had.
(From quoting Thomas M. Loarie, USA)
Target readers:
Investment bankers, finance majors, academics, MBAs and other people interested in the topic of stock market.
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Jonathan A. Knee is now a partner at a boutique investment banking firm. He is also Adjunct Professor of Finance and Economics and Director of the Media Program at the Columbia Graduate School of Business. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and elsewhere.
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From Publisher
Investment bankers used to be known as respectful of their clients, loyal to their firms, and chary of the financial system that allowed them to prosper. What happened? From his prestigious Wall Street perches at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, Jonathan A. Knee witnessed firsthand the lavish deal-making of the freewheeling nineties, when bankers rode the wave of the Internet economy, often by devil-may-care means. By the turn of the twenty-first century, the bubble burst and the industry was in free fall. Told with biting humor and unflinching honesty, populated with power players, back-stabbers, and gazillionaires, The Accidental Investment Banker is Knee’s exhilarating insider’s account of this boom-and-bust anything-goes era, when fortunes were made and reputations were lost.
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| View all 13 comments |
Publishers Weekly (MSL quote), USA
<2008-04-08 00:00>
If "investment banking" gives you visions of stodgy New York geezers harumphing and gufawwing in a black-suited gaggle, Knee's look at high finance in the '90s will change that. A thumping ride across deep waters, Knee evokes the precarious, risky thrills courted by businesspeople great and small. Smart, clever and unfailingly articulate, Knee made, in the nineties, a seemingly sensible career choice: to become a startlingly well-paid investment banker among prestigious big boys (names are named) at Goldman Sachs, and later Morgan Stanley. Clear-eyed enough never to give his whole life over to banking-as did many of his colleagues-Knee maintains a reporter's sense of detachment, observing how the decade in question turned into an economic house of mirrors as money-guzzling dotcoms bloomed and withered, playing havoc with long-established rules and mores, nurturing an era of incompetence and brawling, veiled in the traditional pseudo-gentility of a privileged profession: "The goal was to do deals, generate revenue, and be noticed. ... whatever the cost, particularly when someone else bore that cost." Are bankers the "greediest people in the world?" Is an MBA one of the "poorest educational choices?" As the book progresses, these questions take on the quality of a whodunnit mystery, in which not only is everyone a suspect-almost everyone is guilty. Funny and knowing, this business memoir debut should appeal to a wide swath of business veterans.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. |
Booklist (MSL quote), USA
<2008-04-08 00:00>
Knee, an investment banker at Goldman Sachs for four years beginning in 1994 and at Morgan Stanley from 1998 to 2003, describes the operations of these firms and explains the role of investment bankers and how "deals" are done. He weaves a fascinating tale of his employers and a multibillion-dollar industry, which was transformed culturally and structurally by extraordinary growth and then devastating retrenchment at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Knee mourns what he contends is the loss of historic integrity in the transition from boom to bust and describes many industry changes, including competition from hedge funds and LBOs (leveraged buyout firms). This book will attract those in the -investment-banking community as well as students of Wall Street. However, the author's lavish praise of certain individuals at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley set against his stinging criticism of others reflect his judgment and perhaps that of his anonymous sources. His view of reality may not be shared by all. Mary Whaley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved |
Michael Lewis, Bloomberg.com, USA
<2008-04-08 00:00>
The best account I've read of how the Internet boom and bust was experienced inside the investment banking department of a big Wall Street firm. |
Andrew Ross Sorkin, The New York Times, USA
<2008-04-08 00:00>
A rare, ringside seat inside the madcap and often egomaniacal world of Wall Street's Masters of the Universe.... A memoir-cum-tell-all that skewers some of the industry's most expansive egos.... Offers important insights into problems with Wall Street's often ruthless and conflicted culture.... For would-be bankers, the book is an excellent primer on what it's really like; for current bankers it will be a guilty pleasure. |
View all 13 comments |
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