Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World - Softcover

Cohan, William D.

3.85

1,729 ratings by Goodreads

9780385535366: Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0385535368 ISBN 13: 9780385535366

Publisher: Doubleday, 2011

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When, in late 2008, the dust finally started to settle on one of the worst financial crises in history, only one Wall Street institution still stood virtually unassailed - Goldman Sachs. Why did Goldman survive, and even flourish, when so many of its peers were collapsing around them? Were the Goldman professionals simply the 'smartest guys in the room', the elite of the elite? Or was there more at work than simply the magic of 'The Goldman Way'?

In Money and Power William D Cohan peers behind the curtain to give us the inside story of why Goldman is so profitable, and so powerful. His behind-the-scenes account shows how, buttressed by the most aggressive and sophisticated PR machine in the financial industry, Goldman Sachs has continually projected an image of being superior to its competitors - smarter, more collegial, more ethical, more client-focused. But Cohan also reveals another way of viewing Goldman - as a secretive money-making machine that has walked an uneasy line between conflict-of-interest and legitimate deal-making for decades; a firm that has assiduously cultivated power and exerted its influence over government (to the extent that Sidney Weinberg, who ran the firm for nearly forty years, advised presidents from Roosevelt to Kennedy and was nicknamed 'The Politician'); a company kept in line by former CIA operatives and private investigators; a workplace rife with brutal power struggles.

William Cohan is the first author to chronicle and to interview the leaders of Goldman Sachs since the 2008 crash, and has gained unprecedented access to the firm's inner circle. Every living former chief executive of Goldman Sachs has spoken to him, as well as its current chairman and CEO, Lloyd Blankfein. Money and Power is the most penetrating study yet of these larger-than-life characters and their secretive world: the definitive account of an institution whose public claims of virtue look very much like ruthlessness when exposed to the light of day.

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Review:

Exhaustive, revelatory...engrossing...Cohan...is...a sympathetic listener, at his best once he has found a few people on the inside to pump for gossip....Such insights make Money and Power the most penetrating of the three major attempts to tell the Goldman story....Cohan revels in a good bust-up. (John Gapper Financial Times)

Cohan offers the most human portrayal of the firm yet...Seems destined to be a runaway bestseller. Such is the wonder of Goldman Sachs. (Ian McGugan Bloomberg Businessweek)

[An] imposing history...Cohan evinces an eye for telling images and an ear for deadpan quotations...brings the bank's sometimes "schizophrenic" behavior to vivid life. (James Pressley Bloomberg News)

[Cohan's] technique combines mastery of financial detail with extensive use of quotes to catch the authentic Wall Street voice... Cohan has done a comprehensive and highly professional job (Martin Vander Weyer Literary Review)

A rollercoaster account of how Goldman Sachs does business, and the best analysis yet of its increasingly tangled web of conflicts, by a master-storyteller (The Economist Books of the Year 2011)

About the Author:

William Cohan is an award-winning journalist and Wall Street veteran. His first book, The Last Tycoons, about Lazard, won the 2007 Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award and was a New York Times bestseller. His second book, House of Cards, also a bestseller, is an account of the last days of Bear Stearns & Co, described as "gripping...high drama" by Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times. He is a regular on the pages of the Financial Times, is a contributing editor at both Vanity Fair and Fortune, and is an online columnist for The New York Times.

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