The Number: Why Companies Lied and the Stock Market Crashed - Hardcover

Berenson, Alex

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743240146 ISBN 13: 9780743240147

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd, 2003

Synopsis

To financial analysts and investors, it is the earnings per share figure or 'the number' which is the most important sign of a company's health and future prospects. To chief executives whose colossal bonus packages are increasingly linked to 'the number' it is even more important that it doesn't fall short. Not surprisingly the temptation to 'massage' this number by booking non-existent sales or hiding capital expenses proved too much for some, even though their deception amounted to theft on a massive scale from shareholders and their employees. Part detective story, part financial history, THE NUMBER gives an insider's account of the balance-sheet lies which have so tarnished the reputation of Corporate America, as well as a comprehensive overview of how Wall Street and Big Business lost their way during the long bull market that began in 1982.

About this title

Review:

"Alex Berenson, a whip-smart "New York Times" business reporter, is [a] wisecracking play-by-play commentator. In The Number, he offers a compelling account of how many large-number corporations went astray in the late 1990s. . . . Berenson knows this material cold, and he has a way with a phrase." --"The Washington Post" "Berenson's book is about far more than one financial concept or dictionary definition. It is a well-written, informative, fact-filled review of how we got into this mess. More, it's the sort of book those of us who plan to be around the financial-services industry for a long time can take down from our bookshelves years from now, during the next bubble, and say to the younger folks, 'Let me tell you something, this has happened before.'" --"The Mercury News" "If you're still trying to get a handle on what happened in the stock market for the last five years, [The Number] serves as a concise and readablecrash course." --"The New York Times Book Review" "Alex Berenson, a whip-smart "New York Times business reporter, is [a] wisecracking play-by-play commentator. In The Number, he offers a compelling account of how many large-number corporations went astray in the late 1990s. . . . Berenson knows this material cold, and he has a way with a phrase." --"The Washington Post "Berenson's book is about far more than one financial concept or dictionary definition. It is a well-written, informative, fact-filled review of how we got into this mess. More, it's the sort of book those of us who plan to be around the financial-services industry for a long time can take down from our bookshelves years from now, during the next bubble, and say to the younger folks, 'Let me tell you something, this has happened before.'" --"The Mercury News "If you're still trying to get a handle on what happened in the stock market for the last five years, [The Number] serves as a concise and readablecrash course." --"The New York Times Book Review

About the Author:

Alex Berenson is a financial reporter for THE NEW YORK TIMES and one of America's leading investigative journalists. Long before the Enron and Worldcom scandals hit the headlines he had been exposing the practice of fraudulent accounting and has been named on three occassions as one of the top business reporters under 30 years old.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0743240146
• ISBN 13: 9780743240147
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288