Friday, September 15th marks the 14th anniversary of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. To commemorate the day, we wanted to offer our Lehman bankruptcy recommended reading list. Here are a few Lehman-focused books worth reading:
Of course, we start with Jared Dillian's book, but not because I did the publicity for the book. Jared's memoir about his time as an ETF trader at the investment bank while battling Bipolar disorder has aged like a fine wine.
Written by Johns Hopkins professor Laurence M. Ball, this 2018 book details through exhaustive research how the Fed could have prevented Lehman's bankruptcy. Ball examines why they didn't and explains that the decision was more about politics and optics.
Lawrence McDonald, like Dillian, worked at Lehman. He was a VP of Distressed Debt and Convertible Securities Trading up until 2008 and worked closely with the credit derivatives team. He gives a first-hand account of how financial instruments that led to the global financial crisis were created.
Vanity Fair Contributing Editor Vicky Ward's well-researched book is a rollicking ride that looks at roots of the demise of Lehman through the journey of four friends who helped the firm take its place as one of the biggest and scrappiest investment banks. Under this group - nicknamed the Ponderosa Boys - the firm started to grow but along the way the men started to change and the firm started to develop questionable habits and tactics.