Infectious greed - Frank Partnoy

From the author of the best-selling F.I.A.S.C.O., a riveting chronicle of the terrifying rise of financial skulduggery and the damage it is doing. F.I.A.S.C.O. was 'Blood in the Water on Wall Street', this is blood and guts everywhere. Like a virus infecting the very heart of our financial markets, our greed-driven culture has led to the generation of massive profits, but alongside this have come new levels of risk, widespread deception and high profile disasters such as Barings Bank, Enron and Worldcom. Confidence in corporate accounts and standards of behaviour has been destroyed and our global financial system has reached a perilous crossroads. Partnoy brings to bear his skills and experience as a securities attorney, financial analyst and law professor to demonstrate how many companies have obscured the real picture from shareholders by disguising risk and side-stepping regulations. Beginning in the mid-1980s with the introduction of the first proto-derivatives, Partnoy gives an intelligent and thorough account of the dangerous manipulations that have and continue to come to light. Blind faith in the financial system is no longer sufficient, but mercifully Partnoy offers a clear vision of the route back from the precipice. 'Partnoy's account of what happened within these companies will send a shiver down the spine of anyone with a humble investment in a unit or investment trust' - Bill Jamieson, The Scotsman