Book description
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.
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
.
