Prophecy: Prediction, Power, and the Fight for the Future, from Ancient Oracles to AI
by Carissa Véliz · 21 Apr 2026 · 503pp · 129,255 words
the Expulsion of Jews from West Prussia, 1772–1786.” German History 39, no. 3 (2021): 335–57. Dalrymple, William. “The East India Company: The Original Corporate Raiders.” Guardian, March 4, 2015. Daniel, Caroline, and Maija Palmer. “Google’s Goal: To Organise Your Daily Life.” Financial Times, May 22, 2007. Dann, Elijah G
King of Capital: The Remarkable Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of Steve Schwarzman and Blackstone
by David Carey · 7 Feb 2012 · 421pp · 128,094 words
dogged the buyout business since the 1980s resurfaced. In part it was guilt by association. The industry had come of age in the heyday of corporate raiders, saber-rattling financiers who launched hostile takeover bids and worked to overthrow managements. Buyout firms rarely made hostile bids, preferring to strike deals with management
…
to finance takeovers, would soon provide undreamed-of amounts of new debt for buyout firms. Drexel’s ability to sell junk bonds also sustained the corporate raiders, a rowdy new cast of takeover artists whose bullying tactics shook loose subsidiaries and frequently drove whole companies into the arms of buyout firms. Over
…
horde that emerged on the corporate scene. The corporate establishment and a skeptical press coined a string of equally unflattering names for the new intruders: corporate raiders, buccaneers, bust-up artists, and, most famously, barbarians. Like wolves, the raiders stalked stumbling or poorly run public companies that had fallen behind the herd
…
Peltz were still plying their trade into the second decade of the twenty-first century.) While buyout firms typically enlisted management in their bids, the corporate raiders’ instrument of choice was the uninvited, or hostile, tender offer, a takeover bid that went over the heads of management and appealed directly to shareholders
…
help craft a takeover offer for Sea-Land Corporation, a shipping company that was seeking a friendly buyer after receiving a hostile bid from a corporate raider. However, when it came time to order a fairness opinion—a paid, written declaration that a deal is fair that carries great weight with investors
…
, a top official at USX Corporation, the parent of U.S. Steel. USX was battling for its corporate life with Carl Icahn, the much feared corporate raider. In 1986 Icahn had amassed a nearly 10 percent stake in USX and launched an $8 billion hostile takeover bid. U.S. Steel was three
…
Kravis and Ted Forstmann. Just as Drexel Burnham’s Michael Milken had created the junk-bond market, tapping the public capital markets to finance the corporate raiders and buyout shops of the 1980s, Lee reinvented the bank lending market with his syndicates, which allowed risk to be shared and thereby allowed much
…
in as a white knight—an ally of management—for a company facing a hostile takeover bid. In April 1989, Japonica Partners, a Drexel-backed corporate raider, launched a hostile offer for CNW Corporation, the railroad’s publicly traded parent, after buying up nearly 9 percent of CNW’s shares in the
…
the table and on June 6, Japonica dropped out—collecting a nice profit as the shares rose during the bidding. (Illustrating again that in the corporate raider game you can win by losing.) Although the $1.6 billion price was rich—Blackstone was paying eight times cash flow, twice what it had
…
the CEO and now promised to slash costs and carve up the company. To the man in the street, that was no different from what corporate raiders did. At $31.3 billion, the RJR buyout smashed all records. It was more than three times the size of the next biggest, KKR’s
…
, it did not even have internal mechanisms to gauge the profitability of its divisions or its investments. In 1986, Herbert and Robert Haft, two sometime corporate raiders whose family had owned the Dart Drug chain, thought they could do a better job running Safeway and began buying up the stock as a
…
had. Henry Silverman, who steered the HFS deal for Blackstone, was versed in the hotel franchise business from his years working for the financier and corporate raider Saul Steinberg, for whom he had led a successful LBO of the Days Inn of America chain. Steinberg was one of the early raiders, having
…
banks and, for unsecured junior debt, insurers. Drexel displaced the insurers by acting as a conduit, funneling money from the bond market to growing companies, corporate raiders, and buyout firms. Even before Drexel’s collapse, Jimmy Lee at Chemical had begun to assemble networks of banks to buy parcels of bank loans
…
Randall Smith, “Wasserstein Dies, Leaves Deal-Making Legacy,” WSJ, Oct. 16, 2009; Andrew Ross Sorkin and Michael J. de la Merced, “Obituary—Bruce Wasserstein, 61, Corporate Raider,” NYT, Oct. 16, 2009. 14 Wasserstein Perella soon won: Paltrow, “Nomura Buys Stake”; Michael Quint, “Yamaichi-Lodestar Deal Another Sign of the Trend,” NYT, July
Tailspin: The People and Forces Behind America's Fifty-Year Fall--And Those Fighting to Reverse It
by Steven Brill · 28 May 2018 · 519pp · 155,332 words
had purchased the bulk of the Stevens operations in 1988 had gone through a 2003 bankruptcy stemming from foreign competition. It was then bought by corporate raider Carl Icahn. Most of its manufacturing is now done overseas, and what remains has been highly automated. The industry as a whole shared the same
The Taking of Getty Oil: Pennzoil, Texaco, and the Takeover Battle That Made History
by Steve Coll · 12 Jun 2017 · 645pp · 190,680 words
proffered of large, publicly held oil companies such as Getty was persuasive. The domestic oil industry, Pickens said, was already in a state of liquidation; corporate raiders such as himself were only accelerating an inexorable trend. For more than ten years, the largest American oil companies had been unable to replace their
…
. He was distressed above all because the value gap meant that Getty Oil was a prime takeover target for Pickens or some other like-minded corporate raider. What Petersen appreciated better than Gordon Getty did, however, was that the debate on Wall Street and in corporate boardrooms over the oil industry’s
…
Getty Oil. In that position, he had certain legal obligations to protect the company’s shareholders. Turning over secret company documents to a competitive, aggressive corporate raider was hardly consistent with those obligations. What Gordon Getty did not realize when he wrote his hopeful, friendly letter to Sid Petersen on December 24
…
not an open-ended meeting, they said, with a vague agenda. It was a confrontation with Gordon Getty, an attempt to end his dalliances with corporate raiders and royalty trust analysts, all those outside encounters that Winokur described facetiously to Getty Oil executives as “Gordon Getty’s Odyssey of Discovery.” They gathered
…
career was ending for reasons beyond one’s control: the power of Wall Street, the value gap in the oil industry, the greed of a corporate raider. But it was another thing to feel that everything one cherished—career, power, position, community, the lifelong realization of work and ambition—was slipping away
…
secret effort by Petersen, Winokur, and Copley to instigate a family lawsuit against Gordon; the negotiations with Pickens; lingering concerns about the Cullens and other corporate raiders; the million-dollar restructuring study undertaken by Goldman, Sachs, now nearing completion; and the continued thinking and tinkering by Gordon at his Broadway mansion, from
…
for the stock price study. Neither had the board been fully informed about the overtures by Pickens and the contacts by Gordon with other potential corporate raiders. For his part, Gordon continued to act in similar isolation as sole trustee, receiving phone calls and reviewing documents in his basement study, never consulting
…
despite the personal fortune he had made during its halcyon days. He even drafted legislation and testified before Congress, urging that restrictions be imposed on corporate raiders such as Boone Pickens, Carl Icahn, and Irwin “The Liquidator” Jacobs. Lipton’s critics, and there were plenty of them, decried the hypocrisy of his
…
so modestly averted, its jaw slack and withdrawn—the face of a small-town high school principal—and suspect its owner was a ruthless, indefatigable corporate raider, a man intensely driven to acquire not only wealth, but to achieve recognition, political power, and sweeping reform of American industry? And yet it was
…
forward with his plans. Speed was critical; if Getty Oil’s vulnerability was now apparent to Liedtke, then it must also be apparent to other corporate raiders as well. Liedtke’s investment bankers at Lazard Frères advised that a good time to make a surprise hostile takeover announcement was over the Christmas
…
, Pennzoil v. Texaco had again come to life, and once more the puckish Jamail was at the center of things. Carl Icahn, an enormously successful corporate raider who had gained control of TWA Inc. in a hostile takeover, had decided there was potential for profit in Texaco’s travails. After the stock
Dear Chairman: Boardroom Battles and the Rise of Shareholder Activism
by Jeff Gramm · 23 Feb 2016 · 384pp · 103,658 words
Vanderbilt Line 3. Warren Buffett and American Express: The Great Salad Oil Swindle 4. Carl Icahn versus Phillips Petroleum: The Rise and Fall of the Corporate Raiders 5. Ross Perot versus General Motors: The Unmaking of the Modern Corporation 6. Karla Scherer versus R. P. Scherer: A Kingdom in a Capsule 7
…
General Motors in the 1980s to the well-publicized exploits of today’s fresh-faced hedge fund rabble-rousers. We’ll meet “Proxyteers,” conglomerators, and corporate raiders, and we’ll see how large public companies dealt with them. I’ve chosen eight important interventions from history, featuring original shareholder letters: BENJAMIN GRAHAM
…
letter to Chairman and CEO William Douce, February 4, 1985 After a brief interlude covering Jim Ling, Harold Simmons, and Saul Steinberg, we enter the corporate raider era to watch Carl Icahn’s Milken-funded frontal assault on hapless Phillips Petroleum. ROSS PEROT AND GENERAL MOTORS Ross Perot letter to Chairman and
…
investors ruled the markets, in the ’70s they were at its mercy, and in the ’80s they were “shorn like sheep” in the battles between corporate raiders and entrenched managers. But in time, institutional investors would begin to exert themselves. Today they are quietly teaming up with hedge fund activists to keep
…
you philosophically agree with, but it is the practical result of a corporate governance system based on shareholder-elected boards of directors. Thus, when a corporate raider wins control of Pacific Lumber and clear-cuts thousands of acres of old-growth redwoods, I view this as a regrettable result of unchecked capitalism
…
come to dominate it. And while most of the Proxyteers faded into obscurity, their tactics would be sharpened and used by later generations of conglomerators, corporate raiders, and hedge fund activists. A CONSTANT DOWNWARD SLOPE Robert Young’s first year as chairman of the New York Central lived up to his hype
…
open-market share purchases was the hostile tender offer. When the proxy fight gave way to the hostile tender, the Proxyteer was replaced by the corporate raider. 3 Warren Buffett and American Express: The Great Salad Oil Swindle “Let me assure you that the great majority of stockholders (although perhaps not the
…
growth, which was richly rewarded by Wall Street no matter how it was obtained. The go-go era collapsed quickly, but a new generation of corporate raiders emerged from the ruins. Jim Ling’s 1978 battle with Harold Simmons highlights the hostile raider’s ascendance. “Jimmy Ling the Merger King,” who ran
…
was brewing in academia based on the curious notion that financial markets are near perfect. It altered the debate on hostile takeovers and helped bring corporate raiders out of the shadows and into the boardrooms of America’s largest companies. The efficient market hypothesis came out of the University of Chicago in
…
years ahead of its time, but luckily for him he was not yet thirty years old. It wasn’t long until Steinberg and his fellow corporate raiders would have their day. With help from the efficient market hypothesis and the free market movement of the 1970s, raiders were viewed less as a
…
strong economic growth and Michael Milken’s blank checkbook to fame and riches. 4 Carl Icahn versus Phillips Petroleum: The Rise and Fall of the Corporate Raiders “However, what I strenuously oppose is the Board not allowing the shareholders to receive a fair price for all their shares.” —CARL ICAHN, 1985 ON
…
offer for control. Phillips was Icahn’s fifteenth target in his seven-year career as a raider, and his note to Douce was a classic corporate raider’s “bear hug letter”—an offer to purchase the company, followed by threats should he be ignored. While Icahn had used the same playbook for
…
everyone else, these clashes at the top of our largest companies were Hollywood material. Thirty years earlier, nobody really knew what to make of fledgling corporate raiders picking fights with company CEOs. By the 1980s, such men were known as “masters of the universe.” In many ways, the
…
corporate raiders of the ’80s were not so different from the ’50s Proxyteers. Both groups featured aggressive and motivated young businessmen operating on the fringes of Wall
…
Street. But while the Proxyteers struck fear into the hearts of CEOs with their ability to harness the discontent of public shareholders, the corporate raiders had something much more powerful at their disposal: ready cash. It came from Michael Milken and the vast market he created for new-issue junk
…
times over.10 But even in the mid-2000s, when the entire world binged on cheap capital, nobody lined up to buy bonds from unproven corporate raiders angling for a buying spree.11 That’s quite a testament to Milken’s immense power in the 1980s. Whether Milken’s machine at Drexel
…
good song. When the stock market crashed in 1987, pundits called it the end of an age of debt-fueled excess. They were wrong. The corporate raiders were not dancing on a house of cards. Economic growth in the ’80s was real, the stock market recovered its losses quickly, and the next
…
the decade. He had an unlikely ascent followed by a crash that almost left him ruined. Yet today he is the best known of the corporate raiders. And, to use the metric that probably matters most to him, he is also the richest. Early in his career, Icahn was dismissed as a
…
&A, with a very early version of Martin Lipton’s poison pill and the first “highly confident” letter. The drama began when Boone Pickens, a corporate raider who started his career at Phillips Petroleum, made a run at his former employer in late 1984. SURVIVAL OF THE UNFITTEST One of Carl Icahn
…
the company at $60 per share. Bartlesville was even less welcoming to Pickens the second time around. The town became a symbol of the threat corporate raiders held for small-town America. It was abuzz with residents in “Boone Buster” T-shirts at twenty-four-hour prayer vigils, who believed Pickens would
…
were rightfully indignant at the wave of greenmail buyouts in the early 1980s. They were proof that all the talk from CEOs, as well as corporate raiders, about working on behalf of shareholders was mere posturing. Self-interest reigns supreme, and CEOs jumped at the opportunity to use company funds to free
…
liquidating assets and building the company’s cash reserves. He would later invest Bayswater’s cash in his takeover attempts. ICAHN’S CAREER AS a corporate raider was off and running. He viewed his new investment strategy as “a kind of arbitrage.”29 In 1980, he wrote a memo for prospective investors
…
empire, rattled the junk bond market. Beneath the headline failures, junk default rates were creeping up and would blow open in the 1990–91 recession. Corporate raiders were having a harder time finding compelling bargains, it was more difficult to raise capital to pursue them, and, when they did, the target company
…
, fewer good targets, sophisticated corporate defenses, regulatory pressure, and slowing economic growth. What was different in the ’80s—what ushered in the era of superstar corporate raiders and then made it disappear forever—were the rise and fall of Michael Milken, and the hard-knocks education of large institutional investors. CORNERS CUT
…
-a-lifetime opportunity to raid America’s largest corporations. They wisely took advantage of it and never looked back. WE’RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT Corporate raiders in the 1980s were not only blessed with Michael Milken bearing wads of money; they were aided by passive institutional investors who struggled with their
…
shorn like sheep.”76 He meant it. After Perot, you could no longer count on large institutional shareholders to be pushovers. This helped end the corporate raider era, while encouraging the kind of shareholder activism that dominates markets today. 6 Karla Scherer versus R. P. Scherer: A Kingdom in a Capsule “In
…
methods turned out to be powerful, driving business headlines and shaking up the executive suites of some of America’s most iconic companies. Even superstar corporate raiders like Carl Icahn and Nelson Peltz would soon join their ranks. Hedge fund is a vestigial term that Fortune magazine’s Carol Loomis used in
…
as a letter from Drexel Burnham, but it sounded impressive. Chapman attached his bear hug as an exhibit to a 13D filing, much as a corporate raider would have done in the 1980s. The gambit worked. After announcing that the value of its assets had increased to more than $12 per share
…
up its stock. It used a seemingly rock-solid dividend to seduce income-seeking retail investors into levitating its shares. Taking a page from the corporate raiders’ playbook, Star Gas was also not afraid to leverage itself to the hilt. From its very inception, Star Gas promised investors a healthy dividend of
…
, and Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital took on the multilevel-marketing great white whale, Herbalife, in a fight-to-the-death cage match. WHEREAS CORPORATE RAIDERS busted through gates with hostile tender offers for control and a supporting army of arbitragers, early hedge fund activism was an exercise in persuasion. The
…
great return by owning less than 1% of Microsoft, for example, all Microsoft shareholders need to benefit. But just as with the Proxyteers and the corporate raiders, we shouldn’t get suckered into believing everyone who spouts pro-shareholder populism. A good window into activists’ real intentions with regard to other shareholders
…
wiser voting stockholder. As shareholder activism has become ubiquitous, it looks less and less like a defined movement, as it was in the Proxyteer or corporate raider eras. Instead, it is a fixture in the stock market—it is the reality that when enough shareholders are upset at a board or management
…
. Young, 146. 26. Brooks, 7 Fat Years, 12. Also see Diana B. Henriques, The White Sharks of Wall Street: Thomas Mellon Evans and the Original Corporate Raiders (New York: Scribner, 2000), 133. 27. Karr, Fight for Control, 15. 28. Ibid., 32. 29. Borkin, Robert R. Young, 151, citing New York Times, February
…
Bullish 60s (New York: Wiley, 1999), 238. 54. Ibid. 55. Ibid., 258–59. 4: CARL ICAHN VERSUS PHILLIPS PETROLEUM: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE CORPORATE RAIDERS 1. Mark Stevens, King Icahn: The Biography of a Renegade Capitalist (New York: Dutton, 1993), 133. 2. Ibid., 134. 3. Ibid., 150. 4. Ibid., 150
…
of, 72–73 Apple and, xvi, 72, 164 arbitrage and, 77–78, 93, 123, 192 childhood and youth of, 76–77 corporate governance philosophy, 79 corporate raider career beginnings, 78 on director independence, 142 greenmail and, 72, 74, 79, 92, 93–94 hedge fund activism and, 148, 168 investment strategy of, 78
Den of Thieves
by James B. Stewart · 14 Oct 1991 · 706pp · 206,202 words
Pletscher, banker Cast of Characters U At Merrill Lynch & Co., New York Stephen Hammerman, general counsel Richard Drew, vice president, compliance Major investors Carl Icahn, corporate raider and future chairman of TWA John Mulheren, head of Jamie Securities Henry Kravis, principal, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts Inc. At Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, New York
…
that he had big ambitions: he planned to earn from $10 million to $20 million fast, then set up his own operation, maybe as a corporate raider. Then he, Levine, would have the lawyers and investment bankers like himself and Reich working for him. "How are you going to make that kind
…
payments or "asset value" in the event of a breakup of a company, became the bywords of valuation, replacing the quaint, dated notion of earnings. Corporate raiders began to emerge, realizing that just about anybody could buy a company, slash expenses or break oflF pieces ruthlessly, and then unload the assets at
…
true cost of Milken's backing. Another "winner" in Milken's camp was the eccentric Miami financier, Victor Posner, one of the country's original corporate raiders. Nothing about him or his tactics did anything to burnish the raider image. He had a reputation for acquiring a controlling stake in a company
…
envisioned hobnobbing with Sir James Goldsmith and Ronald Perelman, a prelude to the day when Levine himself would step onto the stage as a major corporate raider. Hadley Lockwood did a custom resume for Levine specifically targeted at Drexel. It was almost a parody of the emerging values of the times: "Dennis
…
's old nemesis, the company that, by abruptly pulling out of the Cities Service deal, had nearly ruined him. Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens, the corporate raider and Drexel client, had disclosed a large stake in Gulf in September, about the time Boesky received his first Getty tip. Eventually, with Drexel's
…
did almost daily, and mentioned that he liked the stock of Walt Disney Co., adding that he owned a position for his own trading account. Corporate raider Saul Steinberg had taken a large position in Disney stock, and there had been speculation in the arbitrage community that Steinberg would make a bid
…
to do what you do, Marty." Then Freeman brazenly crossed the line of inside information. He explained that a close friend of his, a sometime corporate raider named David Mur-dock, was being lined up by Goldman as a white knight for Continental. Freeman spelled out details of the Murdock plan, and
…
, fearful that too enthusiastic an endorsement of Siegel could damage his own reputation. Another member had been roundly criticized for bringing up the name of corporate raider Ronald Perelman, who, it went without saying, was rejected out of hand. Now Gordon himself was beginning to share the doubts of others. After the
…
far more lucrative scale. At the time Freeman mentioned Coniston to Siegel, it was all but unknown and had little credibility as a would-be corporate raider. Freeman, however, vouched for them and said they were a force worth watching. Even now. Freeman told Siegel, Coniston was building up a large position
…
: Michael Milken, the junk-bond king; Martin Siegel, Drexel's star investment banker; Boyd Jeflf-eries, the prominent West Coast broker; and Carl Icahn, the corporate raider. He could have listed even more, but Pitt always liked to promise slightly less than he would ultimately deliver, ensuring that the government wouldn't
…
chairman of Primerica, which he reshaped into a financial services concern which owns Smith Barney, the brokerage firm. Irwin Jacobs is a corporate raider based in Minneapolis. The Hafts became corporate raiders, launching an unsuccessful bid for Safeway Stores. The Pritzker family owns Hyatt Hotels Corporation and invests in numerous other ventures. page 104
King Icahn: The Biography of a Renegade Capitalist
by Mark Stevens · 31 May 1993 · 414pp · 108,413 words
figure I’d seen on television walk across the village green of my hometown of Bedford, New York. My mind raced. “Is that the feared corporate raider dressed in faded tennis shorts and a wrinkled top walking into the village wine shop? Is it just a look alike? If it’s Icahn
…
W. R. Tappan, Icahn “seemed pleased that we took the time to talk to them about the company.” Icahn had yet to become a feared corporate raider, and the Blasius memo speaks volumes about corporate management’s naiveté concerning his intentions. Carl Icahn “pleased” that executives of a company in which he
…
that situation.” On every front, Icahn vs. Dan River was a clash of cultures, of geography, of insiders and outsiders, of company men and a corporate raider. But most of all, it was a clash between two individuals: one who wanted to keep control over a public corporation and one who wanted
…
that was quoted to him. Internally, Icahn was regarded as a difficult client; at the same time he was respected as the smartest of the corporate raiders, virtually all of whom had links to Drexel. “I knew all the raiders of the era,” said a former senior Drexel executive. “Boone Pickens, Jimmy
…
the real value in the mid-to low-$40s. Once again the management of a major American corporation had acted to protect itself from a corporate raider. As the price of his deal, Pickens signed a standstill agreeing to keep his distance from Phillips for fifteen years. But if the CEO and
…
the other end of the spectrum. In a speech, “The Pirates of Profitability,” Phillips Executive Vice President C. M. Kittrell attacked Icahn and his fellow corporate raiders for raping the shareholders. “Mr. Pickens and Mr. Icahn claim they reaped a windfall for Phillips shareholders. And to some degree that’s true. In
…
? “In Phillips’ case, we will not know the answer to these questions for many years, if ever. “But there’s one thing we know today; corporate raiders who say they represent shareholders . . . represent them, not by proxy but by piracy and they do so at great risk to everyone but themselves. “As
…
“the traveling public and the U.S. international aviation interests. This concern is based at least in part on the reputation of the so-called corporate raiders such as Mr. Icahn. They have the reputation for buying up the shares of an undervalued company and then milking or selling off the assets
…
was in their best interests was never mentioned. Instead, Meyer shifted attention from management’s intransigence by citing the popular notions about the evils of corporate raiders. “... Last month’s American Lawyer published an Icahn memo on his tactics, none of which concerned management of a target and quoted ‘his enemies and
…
this came as a rude awakening to a man who had run off a string of successes in the options business and subsequently as a corporate raider. When he acquired TWA, he assumed that those successes would continue. “When Carl took over, he was very cocky,” said Edward Gehrlein, TWA’s former
…
opportunity to lambast Icahn, expressing the pent-up hostility millions were experiencing as the biggest names in American industry were being ransacked by greenmailers and corporate raiders. This was the flip side of the Roaring Eighties—the wide gulf between the elite who were accumulating wealth and the majority who were losing
…
over U.S. Air, Icahn might be able to prevent or delay government approval of the Piedmont/U.S. Air merger. And as an experienced corporate raider, Icahn knew full well the devastating effect that a failed takeover attempt would have on a company. On the other hand, if Icahn is successful
…
an act of desperation by the defendant Icahn to ‘extricate’ himself from his TWA investment and to permit him to reemerge as American’s preeminent ‘corporate raider.’” In another suit, the IAM went to the crux of the issue, charging that “TWA is already highly-leveraged as a result of its takeover
…
was “beneath” the CEO to do so and in part because it would be viewed as a sign of weakness by Icahn and his fellow corporate raiders. By the time Corry came to power, Icahn’s plan for restructuring USX had evolved as a proposal to divide the company in two by
…
route to a Manhattan theater, Icahn was stricken with fear. Could everything he had worked for be taken from him? Could the widespread resentment of corporate raiders finally be coming home to roost? It seemed as if the establishment he had thumbed his nose at for so long had risen up to
The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Frères & Co.
by William D. Cohan · 25 Dec 2015 · 1,009pp · 329,520 words
run of increasing profitability, just as the M&A market exploded in a rare confluence of large strategic mergers and the emergence of well-financed corporate raiders and buyout shops. Nineteen eighty-one was also the year that Felix and Lazard were able to--finally and quietly--put the ITT scandal behind
…
at ITT. While far from the biggest deal, at a mere $1.83 billion, the Perelman-Revlon fight seemed to have it all: an upstart corporate raider, using money borrowed with the help of Michael Milken, trying to buy one of the world's best-known consumer brands, versus a proud corporate
…
Felix directed the firm professionally, too. Felix, of course, was a leading critic of the Wall Street fads of junk bonds, bridge loans, and advising corporate raiders, a source of huge but unsustainable profits at places like First Boston and Drexel Burnham in the 1980s. Michel defended Felix and the firm's
…
that, within four years, added yet another dimension to his growing legend. In this regard, he was taking after Sir James Goldsmith, the famed British corporate raider, who was Stern's distant cousin. In partnership with Goldsmith, Stern bought a number of hotel properties in Vietnam. Accounts vary as to just how
…
as "rather like the Rome city council slapping a demolition order on the Vatican." Bollore was--and remains--the French equivalent of a 1980s-style corporate raider, but unlike most raiders, he also controls his own corporate empire. The indirect investment in Lazard was but one of several Bernheim had recommended Bollore
…
sources--banks, insurance companies, and the public-equity markets--but also Milken pioneered the use of these securities to finance the huge financial ambitions of corporate raiders, like Carl Icahn and T. Boone Pickens, and of LBO firms, such as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. Before long, the unknown firm of Drexel Lambert was
…
brought him plenty of notoriety and, not for the first time, a seat at the table opposite Felix. Bruce agreed to advise Ron Perelman, the corporate raider, on his attempt in 1987 to buy Salomon Inc., the parent company of Salomon Brothers, the large Wall Street investment bank focused primarily on bond
…
BEGRUDGING ACCOLADES for Bruce keep coming despite the valid criticism he received in some circles for agreeing to represent, in late November 2005, the billionaire corporate raider Carl Icahn and a group of dissident Time Warner shareholders--who together owned some 3.3 percent of the company--in their very public battle
…
the same form in Felix G. Rohatyn, Twenty-Year Century (New York: Random House, 1984), p. 36. "For the handful of men": Leslie Wayne, "The Corporate Raiders," NYT, July 18, 1982. "These fees don't come from widows and orphans": Ibid. "The level of fees is so different": Ibid. "There's a
The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It
by Robert B. Reich · 24 Mar 2020 · 154pp · 47,880 words
Israeli Army, likened dealing with Icahn to negotiating with terrorists. Also like Trump, Icahn came to prominence in the roaring 1980s. As America’s preeminent corporate raider, he was part of the inspiration for the character Gordon Gekko in the 1987 film Wall Street. When Oliver Stone was researching the film, he
…
already deep in the red. Icahn bailed out Trump by purchasing its outstanding bonds at a steep discount. It’s no surprise that the ruthless corporate raider and ruthless real-estate developer were attracted to one another. Within days of his election, Trump asked Icahn to help him staff major government agencies
…
men on earth.” Greedy or not, Icahn ushered in a systemic change in the American corporation that continues to this day. As Icahn and other corporate raiders made fortunes, CEOs began to devote themselves entirely and obsessively to maximizing the short-term values of their shares of stock in order to prevent
…
a takeover. Before Icahn and the corporate raiders, it was assumed that large corporations had responsibilities to all their stakeholders, not just their shareholders. “The job of management,” proclaimed Frank Abrams, chair of
…
should not put stockholders first. They should “balance the interests of the stockholder, the community, the customer, and the employee.” Over the past forty years, corporate raiders have morphed into more respectable-sounding “shareholder activists” and “private equity managers” who take over “underperforming” companies. Outright hostile takeovers have become rare, but that
…
visibility of specific legal or regulatory changes that count but their consequences for how the system functions. Ronald Reagan’s administration looked favorably on the corporate raiders. Although the raiders’ tactics might easily have been seen to violate the Securities Acts of 1933 and 1934 because of their reliance on risky loans
…
Steven Greenhouse has observed, “In no other industrial nation do employers fight so hard to defeat, indeed quash, labor unions.” The pressure has come from corporate raiders and their more recent incarnations, private equity and hedge fund managers, demanding ever higher profits. Institutional investors (the managers of mutual funds, insurance funds, pension
How Money Became Dangerous
by Christopher Varelas · 15 Oct 2019 · 477pp · 144,329 words
important catalyst for moving me toward a career in the financial services industry. That morning, some portentous and confusing news appeared in the papers. A corporate raider named Saul Steinberg was targeting Walt Disney Productions in a hostile takeover. None of us knew what it meant, as we had never heard the
…
terms “corporate raider” and “hostile takeover” before—the same was true for most Americans—yet I was fascinated by the news and gleaned what I could from the
…
and our childhoods. There were new things brewing on Wall Street in the mid-1980s, entire markets that were born seemingly overnight. Hostile takeovers and corporate raiders were about to have their decade in the spotlight. No one could have predicted the massive shift in public awareness and opinion, as well as
…
history. And when companies stop innovating—no matter who they are—they become weak, which is often reflected in a falling share price. Enter the corporate raiders. Saul Steinberg, in the spring of 1984, sat in his Manhattan office with the declining fortunes of Disney spread out before him. In April and
…
, with his own team making a quick profit of more than $50 million. The public and press were outraged and vilified the greed of the corporate raiders. Yet hostile takeovers, which were becoming an increasingly common acquisition tactic, often worked this way. Steinberg, through his ability to gather support to pose a
…
capital from the new market he created grew so deep and his connections so vast that he developed the ability to rapidly assemble armies of corporate raiders who could target any struggling company, no matter the size, backed by his junk bond war chest. That was how Saul Steinberg got the firepower
…
followers flocked to him, as Milken became the financial prophet that drove Drexel’s revenue, culture, and operations. In the emergence of hostile takeovers and corporate raiders to the forefront of the American business landscape, Milken was the messiah. After his early success, he informed his bosses at Drexel Burnham Lambert that
…
story described an annual four-day conference that Milken and his boys would throw in Beverly Hills, inviting 1,500 of their top clients—investors, corporate raiders, and CEOs. The conference—named the Predators’ Ball by Milken and his partners—included presentations, extravagant dinners, performances by the likes of Frank Sinatra and
…
Lambert became an ink smudge in the history books. * * * Gradually, almost imperceptibly, I started coming around to agreeing with my classmates about the value of corporate raiders and hostile takeovers. That shift of belief concerned me. Was I simply being reprogrammed by Wharton, this expensive country club for Wall Street disciples? Was
…
for his role. It also illuminated a massive shift in American culture and consciousness. That an Oscar would be awarded for the portrayal of a corporate raider would have been unimaginable only a few years prior, as most Americans still didn’t know the ins and outs of the financial industry. Our
…
his audience would get it; they would be right there with him. In the enduring favorite Pretty Woman (1990), Richard Gere portrays Edward Lewis, a corporate raider who comes to Los Angeles to execute a hostile takeover of a struggling shipping company. While in town, he meets Vivian, a prostitute with a
…
through with his takeover—to be stupidly romantic and unrealistic. “So Gere’s character,” Bruce said, pulling his old BMW into traffic, “he’s a corporate raider. Is that what you’re gonna be, Chris?” “No,” I said. “I would either be on the financing side, representing a guy like Gere’s
…
. “Working Girl is about M&A, mergers and acquisitions, which is what I’m gonna do, while Wall Street is about sales and trading and corporate raiders.” As is often the case, Hollywood movies probably did more than anything else to formulate public perception and disseminate a limited understanding of the financial
…
Woman, and this was only a handful of years after the Saul Steinberg attack. It would be convenient to suggest that this story—featuring a corporate raider who flies from Manhattan to Southern California in order to perform a hostile takeover of a classic old business—may have hit a little too
…
know how to adjust to it. So an outside agent is often required to force that change. For Walt Disney Productions, that agent was the corporate raider. The resulting disruption from such change is seldom pleasant. To the incumbent managers—and to the other employees whose futures are now uncertain—the disruptors
…
are the bad guys. But the changes that they bring about can be necessary for the survival of the company. Before the corporate raiders of the ’80s, the mission statements of most companies were focused on creating the best product or providing the best service. Then
…
corporate raiders forced management teams to prioritize share price above all else. Maximizing shareholder value became the new mantra. In making management decisions, those in charge had
…
major publication, you’ll discover that an incredible change has taken place in the public perception of corporate raiders. Gone are the days when the media painted them as scoundrels. They aren’t even called corporate raiders anymore, but rather activist investors. And in general, they’re viewed as good guys because they keep
…
one says junk bond. The accepted term is high-yield bond. So Michael Milken is again a hero, junk bonds are high-yield bonds, and corporate raiders have become activist investors. This signals a major evolution in American business, from the time of Steinberg’s attack on Disney through to the current
…
first deal team, we were trying to find acquisition targets for an important financier. Before coming to Wall Street, I would have called him a corporate raider rather than a financier, but the terminology softened when someone became a client who might hire you for a lucrative job. I was barely more
…
, which in turn led to destructive behaviors, including the ability to make dangerously large bets with other people’s money. Chapter 3, “Milk and Balloons”: Corporate raiders and activist investors recharged American and global business by holding management teams accountable for their performance. And yet . . . When corporations were forced to pursue shareholder
…
your e-book reader’s search tools. accountability, 360, 362, 363, 368, 369 acquisitions, see mergers and acquisitions activist investors, 104, 106, 360 see also corporate raiders Adelson, Jay, 228, 240, 242, 244 Adult Video News (AVN) Awards, 218, 219 advertising, 294, 296, 298, 362 social media influencers and, 283, 294–96
…
(Russell), 248 Conquistadores del Cielo, 124–25, 146 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), 217–19 Conway, Cathy, 109–12 Corbat, Michael, 315, 324 Corning Inc., 201 corporate raiders, 82, 84, 88, 89, 94, 96, 103–4, 360 as activist investors, 104, 106, 360 in Pretty Woman, 98, 100–102 see also hostile takeovers
…
, 327 hostile takeovers, 82, 84, 88, 89, 96, 261 Steinberg’s targeting of Disney for, 81–84, 86–91, 98, 102–4, 111 see also corporate raiders Hotel Elysée, 70 housing, 322 mortgage market, 21 Huizenga, Wayne, 160 Hynek, J. Allen, 93 Hynek, Paul, 93, 94 IBM, 228, 240 ICOs (initial coin
The Predators' Ball: The Inside Story of Drexel Burnham and the Rise of the JunkBond Raiders
by Connie Bruck · 1 Jun 1989 · 507pp · 145,878 words
Buffett
by Roger Lowenstein · 24 Jul 2013 · 612pp · 179,328 words
Liar's Poker
by Michael Lewis · 1 Jan 1989 · 314pp · 101,452 words
Deep Value
by Tobias E. Carlisle · 19 Aug 2014
The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance
by Ron Chernow · 1 Jan 1990 · 1,335pp · 336,772 words
Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco
by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar · 1 Jan 1990 · 713pp · 203,688 words
Extreme Money: Masters of the Universe and the Cult of Risk
by Satyajit Das · 14 Oct 2011 · 741pp · 179,454 words
Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World
by William D. Cohan · 11 Apr 2011 · 1,073pp · 302,361 words
Americana: A 400-Year History of American Capitalism
by Bhu Srinivasan · 25 Sep 2017 · 801pp · 209,348 words
Makers and Takers: The Rise of Finance and the Fall of American Business
by Rana Foroohar · 16 May 2016 · 515pp · 132,295 words
The Impulse Society: America in the Age of Instant Gratification
by Paul Roberts · 1 Sep 2014 · 324pp · 92,805 words
The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
by Alice Schroeder · 1 Sep 2008 · 1,336pp · 415,037 words
When the Wolves Bite: Two Billionaires, One Company, and an Epic Wall Street Battle
by Scott Wapner · 23 Apr 2018 · 302pp · 80,287 words
Triumph of the Yuppies: America, the Eighties, and the Creation of an Unequal Nation
by Tom McGrath · 3 Jun 2024 · 326pp · 103,034 words
Cable Cowboy
by Mark Robichaux · 19 Oct 2002
A First-Class Catastrophe: The Road to Black Monday, the Worst Day in Wall Street History
by Diana B. Henriques · 18 Sep 2017 · 526pp · 144,019 words
Stolen: How to Save the World From Financialisation
by Grace Blakeley · 9 Sep 2019 · 263pp · 80,594 words
For Profit: A History of Corporations
by William Magnuson · 8 Nov 2022 · 356pp · 116,083 words
All the Money in the World
by Peter W. Bernstein · 17 Dec 2008 · 538pp · 147,612 words
Phishing for Phools: The Economics of Manipulation and Deception
by George A. Akerlof, Robert J. Shiller and Stanley B Resor Professor Of Economics Robert J Shiller · 21 Sep 2015 · 274pp · 93,758 words
file:///C:/Documents%20and%...
by vpavan
Circle of Greed: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Lawyer Who Brought Corporate America to Its Knees
by Patrick Dillon and Carl M. Cannon · 2 Mar 2010 · 613pp · 181,605 words
The Meritocracy Trap: How America's Foundational Myth Feeds Inequality, Dismantles the Middle Class, and Devours the Elite
by Daniel Markovits · 14 Sep 2019 · 976pp · 235,576 words
One Up on Wall Street
by Peter Lynch · 11 May 2012
WTF?: What's the Future and Why It's Up to Us
by Tim O'Reilly · 9 Oct 2017 · 561pp · 157,589 words
The Myth of the Rational Market: A History of Risk, Reward, and Delusion on Wall Street
by Justin Fox · 29 May 2009 · 461pp · 128,421 words
What Happened to Goldman Sachs: An Insider's Story of Organizational Drift and Its Unintended Consequences
by Steven G. Mandis · 9 Sep 2013 · 413pp · 117,782 words
The Future Was Now: Madmen, Mavericks, and the Epic Sci-Fi Summer Of 1982
by Chris Nashawaty · 251pp · 86,553 words
The Man Who Broke Capitalism: How Jack Welch Gutted the Heartland and Crushed the Soul of Corporate America—and How to Undo His Legacy
by David Gelles · 30 May 2022 · 318pp · 91,957 words
Buy Now, Pay Later: The Extraordinary Story of Afterpay
by Jonathan Shapiro and James Eyers · 2 Aug 2021 · 444pp · 124,631 words
Cloudmoney: Cash, Cards, Crypto, and the War for Our Wallets
by Brett Scott · 4 Jul 2022 · 308pp · 85,850 words
The Quiet Coup: Neoliberalism and the Looting of America
by Mehrsa Baradaran · 7 May 2024 · 470pp · 158,007 words
The Smartest Guys in the Room
by Bethany McLean · 25 Nov 2013 · 778pp · 233,096 words
Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism
by Kevin Phillips · 31 Mar 2008 · 422pp · 113,830 words
The Acquirer's Multiple: How the Billionaire Contrarians of Deep Value Beat the Market
by Tobias E. Carlisle · 13 Oct 2017 · 120pp · 33,892 words
The Third Pillar: How Markets and the State Leave the Community Behind
by Raghuram Rajan · 26 Feb 2019 · 596pp · 163,682 words
Bill Marriott: Success Is Never Final--His Life and the Decisions That Built a Hotel Empire
by Dale van Atta · 14 Aug 2019 · 520pp · 164,834 words
Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter
by Kate Conger and Ryan Mac · 17 Sep 2024
The King of Content: Sumner Redstone's Battle for Viacom, CBS, and Everlasting Control of His Media Empire
by Keach Hagey · 25 Jun 2018 · 499pp · 131,113 words
Palace Coup: The Billionaire Brawl Over the Bankrupt Caesars Gaming Empire
by Sujeet Indap and Max Frumes · 16 Mar 2021 · 362pp · 116,497 words
House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street
by William D. Cohan · 15 Nov 2009 · 620pp · 214,639 words
Capitalism in America: A History
by Adrian Wooldridge and Alan Greenspan · 15 Oct 2018 · 585pp · 151,239 words
Devil's Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Storming of the Presidency
by Joshua Green · 17 Jul 2017 · 296pp · 78,112 words
Wall Street: How It Works And for Whom
by Doug Henwood · 30 Aug 1998 · 586pp · 159,901 words
Narrative Economics: How Stories Go Viral and Drive Major Economic Events
by Robert J. Shiller · 14 Oct 2019 · 611pp · 130,419 words
Capitalism 3.0: A Guide to Reclaiming the Commons
by Peter Barnes · 29 Sep 2006 · 207pp · 52,716 words
The New Economics: A Bigger Picture
by David Boyle and Andrew Simms · 14 Jun 2009 · 207pp · 86,639 words
The America That Reagan Built
by J. David Woodard · 15 Mar 2006
740 Park: The Story of the World's Richest Apartment Building
by Michael Gross · 18 Dec 2007 · 601pp · 193,225 words
More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite
by Sebastian Mallaby · 9 Jun 2010 · 584pp · 187,436 words
Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local - and Helped Save an American Town
by Beth Macy · 14 Jul 2014 · 473pp · 140,480 words
Unreal Estate: Money, Ambition, and the Lust for Land in Los Angeles
by Michael Gross · 1 Nov 2011 · 613pp · 200,826 words
Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea
by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge · 4 Mar 2003 · 196pp · 57,974 words
Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America: A Recent History
by Kurt Andersen · 14 Sep 2020 · 486pp · 150,849 words
After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost Its Soul
by Tripp Mickle · 2 May 2022 · 535pp · 149,752 words
The Gods of New York: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City: 1986-1990
by Jonathan Mahler · 11 Aug 2025 · 559pp · 164,804 words
Londongrad: From Russia With Cash; The Inside Story of the Oligarchs
by Mark Hollingsworth and Stewart Lansley · 22 Jul 2009 · 471pp · 127,852 words
The Future of Money
by Bernard Lietaer · 28 Apr 2013
Tomorrow's Capitalist: My Search for the Soul of Business
by Alan Murray · 15 Dec 2022 · 263pp · 77,786 words
Obliquity: Why Our Goals Are Best Achieved Indirectly
by John Kay · 30 Apr 2010 · 237pp · 50,758 words
Drink: A Cultural History of Alcohol
by Iain Gately · 30 Jun 2008 · 686pp · 201,972 words
Reinventing the Bazaar: A Natural History of Markets
by John McMillan · 1 Jan 2002 · 350pp · 103,988 words
The Boom: How Fracking Ignited the American Energy Revolution and Changed the World
by Russell Gold · 7 Apr 2014 · 423pp · 118,002 words
MONEY Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom
by Tony Robbins · 18 Nov 2014 · 825pp · 228,141 words
Capital Ideas: The Improbable Origins of Modern Wall Street
by Peter L. Bernstein · 19 Jun 2005 · 425pp · 122,223 words
After the New Economy: The Binge . . . And the Hangover That Won't Go Away
by Doug Henwood · 9 May 2005 · 306pp · 78,893 words
The Raging 2020s: Companies, Countries, People - and the Fight for Our Future
by Alec Ross · 13 Sep 2021 · 363pp · 109,077 words
Spooked: The Trump Dossier, Black Cube, and the Rise of Private Spies
by Barry Meier · 17 May 2021 · 319pp · 89,192 words
Sunbelt Blues: The Failure of American Housing
by Andrew Ross · 25 Oct 2021 · 301pp · 90,276 words
Collision Course: Carlos Ghosn and the Culture Wars That Upended an Auto Empire
by Hans Gremeil and William Sposato · 15 Dec 2021 · 404pp · 126,447 words
Vassal State
by Angus Hanton · 25 Mar 2024 · 277pp · 81,718 words
The Golden Passport: Harvard Business School, the Limits of Capitalism, and the Moral Failure of the MBA Elite
by Duff McDonald · 24 Apr 2017 · 827pp · 239,762 words
Trillions: How a Band of Wall Street Renegades Invented the Index Fund and Changed Finance Forever
by Robin Wigglesworth · 11 Oct 2021 · 432pp · 106,612 words
Outliers
by Malcolm Gladwell · 29 May 2017 · 230pp · 71,320 words
The Cost of Inequality: Why Economic Equality Is Essential for Recovery
by Stewart Lansley · 19 Jan 2012 · 223pp · 10,010 words
Netflixed: The Epic Battle for America's Eyeballs
by Gina Keating · 10 Oct 2012 · 347pp · 91,318 words
Sabotage: The Financial System's Nasty Business
by Anastasia Nesvetailova and Ronen Palan · 28 Jan 2020 · 218pp · 62,889 words
Frenemies: The Epic Disruption of the Ad Business
by Ken Auletta · 4 Jun 2018 · 379pp · 109,223 words
Mastering Private Equity
by Zeisberger, Claudia,Prahl, Michael,White, Bowen, Michael Prahl and Bowen White · 15 Jun 2017
Traders, Guns & Money: Knowns and Unknowns in the Dazzling World of Derivatives
by Satyajit Das · 15 Nov 2006 · 349pp · 134,041 words
A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers
by Lawrence G. Mcdonald and Patrick Robinson · 21 Jul 2009 · 430pp · 140,405 words
Why Wall Street Matters
by William D. Cohan · 27 Feb 2017 · 113pp · 37,885 words
Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World
by Anand Giridharadas · 27 Aug 2018 · 296pp · 98,018 words
Making It in America: The Almost Impossible Quest to Manufacture in the U.S.A. (And How It Got That Way)
by Rachel Slade · 9 Jan 2024 · 392pp · 106,044 words
Make Your Own Job: How the Entrepreneurial Work Ethic Exhausted America
by Erik Baker · 13 Jan 2025 · 362pp · 132,186 words
Power Hungry: The Myths of "Green" Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future
by Robert Bryce · 26 Apr 2011 · 520pp · 129,887 words
Ashes to Ashes: America's Hundred-Year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris
by Richard Kluger · 1 Jan 1996 · 1,157pp · 379,558 words
Confidence Game: How a Hedge Fund Manager Called Wall Street's Bluff
by Christine S. Richard · 26 Apr 2010 · 459pp · 118,959 words
All the Devils Are Here
by Bethany McLean · 19 Oct 2010 · 543pp · 157,991 words
Bernie Madoff, the Wizard of Lies: Inside the Infamous $65 Billion Swindle
by Diana B. Henriques · 1 Aug 2011 · 598pp · 169,194 words
The Fissured Workplace
by David Weil · 17 Feb 2014 · 518pp · 147,036 words
Bean Counters: The Triumph of the Accountants and How They Broke Capitalism
by Richard Brooks · 23 Apr 2018 · 398pp · 105,917 words
Broke: How to Survive the Middle Class Crisis
by David Boyle · 15 Jan 2014 · 367pp · 108,689 words
The World for Sale: Money, Power and the Traders Who Barter the Earth’s Resources
by Javier Blas and Jack Farchy · 25 Feb 2021 · 565pp · 134,138 words
The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One: How Corporate Executives and Politicians Looted the S&L Industry
by William K. Black · 31 Mar 2005 · 432pp · 127,985 words
Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America
by Sarah Kendzior · 6 Apr 2020
The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World's Most Coveted Microchip
by Stephen Witt · 8 Apr 2025 · 260pp · 82,629 words
The Oil and the Glory: The Pursuit of Empire and Fortune on the Caspian Sea
by Steve Levine · 23 Oct 2007 · 568pp · 162,366 words
The Asylum: The Renegades Who Hijacked the World's Oil Market
by Leah McGrath Goodman · 15 Feb 2011 · 553pp · 168,111 words
Crapshoot Investing: How Tech-Savvy Traders and Clueless Regulators Turned the Stock Market Into a Casino
by Jim McTague · 1 Mar 2011 · 280pp · 73,420 words
Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India
by Shashi Tharoor · 1 Feb 2018 · 370pp · 111,129 words
The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead
by David Callahan · 1 Jan 2004 · 452pp · 110,488 words
The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World (Hardback) - Common
by Alan Greenspan · 14 Jun 2007
Conspiracy of Fools: A True Story
by Kurt Eichenwald · 14 Mar 2005 · 992pp · 292,389 words
How to Form Your Own California Corporation
by Anthony Mancuso · 2 Jan 1977
What Went Wrong: How the 1% Hijacked the American Middle Class . . . And What Other Countries Got Right
by George R. Tyler · 15 Jul 2013 · 772pp · 203,182 words
The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition
by Jonathan Tepper · 20 Nov 2018 · 417pp · 97,577 words
Rewriting the Rules of the European Economy: An Agenda for Growth and Shared Prosperity
by Joseph E. Stiglitz · 28 Jan 2020 · 408pp · 108,985 words
Strategy: A History
by Lawrence Freedman · 31 Oct 2013 · 1,073pp · 314,528 words
Trust: The Social Virtue and the Creation of Prosperity
by Francis Fukuyama · 1 Jan 1995 · 585pp · 165,304 words
The Elements of Power: A Story of War, Technology, and the Dirtiest Supply Chain on Earth
by Nicolas Niarchos · 20 Jan 2026 · 654pp · 170,150 words
The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity
by Tim Wu · 4 Nov 2025 · 246pp · 65,143 words
A Pelican Introduction Economics: A User's Guide
by Ha-Joon Chang · 26 May 2014 · 385pp · 111,807 words
Fed Up: An Insider's Take on Why the Federal Reserve Is Bad for America
by Danielle Dimartino Booth · 14 Feb 2017 · 479pp · 113,510 words
The Billionaire Raj: A Journey Through India's New Gilded Age
by James Crabtree · 2 Jul 2018 · 442pp · 130,526 words
The Self-Made Billionaire Effect: How Extreme Producers Create Massive Value
by John Sviokla and Mitch Cohen · 30 Dec 2014 · 252pp · 70,424 words
The Intelligent Investor (Collins Business Essentials)
by Benjamin Graham and Jason Zweig · 1 Jan 1949 · 670pp · 194,502 words
The Decline and Fall of IBM: End of an American Icon?
by Robert X. Cringely · 1 Jun 2014 · 232pp · 71,024 words
Binge Times: Inside Hollywood's Furious Billion-Dollar Battle to Take Down Netflix
by Dade Hayes and Dawn Chmielewski · 18 Apr 2022 · 414pp · 117,581 words
The Unknowers: How Strategic Ignorance Rules the World
by Linsey McGoey · 14 Sep 2019
Trillion Dollar Triage: How Jay Powell and the Fed Battled a President and a Pandemic---And Prevented Economic Disaster
by Nick Timiraos · 1 Mar 2022 · 357pp · 107,984 words
The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives
by Ernest Scheyder · 30 Jan 2024 · 355pp · 133,726 words
Security Analysis
by Benjamin Graham and David Dodd · 1 Jan 1962 · 1,042pp · 266,547 words
13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown
by Simon Johnson and James Kwak · 29 Mar 2010 · 430pp · 109,064 words
Chicken: The Dangerous Transformation of America's Favorite Food
by Steve Striffler · 24 Jul 2007 · 208pp · 51,277 words
The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires
by Tim Wu · 2 Nov 2010 · 418pp · 128,965 words
Inflated: How Money and Debt Built the American Dream
by R. Christopher Whalen · 7 Dec 2010 · 488pp · 144,145 words
The Finance Curse: How Global Finance Is Making Us All Poorer
by Nicholas Shaxson · 10 Oct 2018 · 482pp · 149,351 words
The Greed Merchants: How the Investment Banks Exploited the System
by Philip Augar · 20 Apr 2005 · 290pp · 83,248 words
The Theft of a Decade: How the Baby Boomers Stole the Millennials' Economic Future
by Joseph C. Sternberg · 13 May 2019 · 336pp · 95,773 words
Street Fighters: The Last 72 Hours of Bear Stearns, the Toughest Firm on Wall Street
by Kate Kelly · 14 Apr 2009 · 258pp · 71,880 words
Behemoth: A History of the Factory and the Making of the Modern World
by Joshua B. Freeman · 27 Feb 2018 · 538pp · 145,243 words
Overhaul: An Insider's Account of the Obama Administration's Emergency Rescue of the Auto Industry
by Steven Rattner · 19 Sep 2010 · 394pp · 124,743 words
Money Men: A Hot Startup, a Billion Dollar Fraud, a Fight for the Truth
by Dan McCrum · 15 Jun 2022 · 361pp · 117,566 words
The Wisdom of Finance: Discovering Humanity in the World of Risk and Return
by Mihir Desai · 22 May 2017 · 239pp · 69,496 words
The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America
by George Packer · 4 Mar 2014 · 559pp · 169,094 words
Broken Markets: A User's Guide to the Post-Finance Economy
by Kevin Mellyn · 18 Jun 2012 · 183pp · 17,571 words
Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition
by Charles Eisenstein · 11 Jul 2011 · 448pp · 142,946 words
The Secret World of Oil
by Ken Silverstein · 30 Apr 2014 · 233pp · 73,772 words
How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities
by John Cassidy · 10 Nov 2009 · 545pp · 137,789 words
The Land Grabbers: The New Fight Over Who Owns the Earth
by Fred Pearce · 28 May 2012 · 379pp · 114,807 words
Jim Henson: The Biography
by Brian Jay Jones · 23 Sep 2013 · 702pp · 215,002 words
The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power in a Dual Economy
by Peter Temin · 17 Mar 2017 · 273pp · 87,159 words
Global Financial Crisis
by Noah Berlatsky · 19 Feb 2010
In-N-Out Burger
by Stacy Perman · 11 May 2009 · 454pp · 122,612 words
Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity
by Douglas Rushkoff · 1 Mar 2016 · 366pp · 94,209 words
Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right
by Jane Mayer · 19 Jan 2016 · 558pp · 168,179 words
The People's Republic of Walmart: How the World's Biggest Corporations Are Laying the Foundation for Socialism
by Leigh Phillips and Michal Rozworski · 5 Mar 2019 · 202pp · 62,901 words
The New Tycoons: Inside the Trillion Dollar Private Equity Industry That Owns Everything
by Jason Kelly · 10 Sep 2012 · 274pp · 81,008 words
Concentrated Investing
by Allen C. Benello · 7 Dec 2016
Value Investing: From Graham to Buffett and Beyond
by Bruce C. N. Greenwald, Judd Kahn, Paul D. Sonkin and Michael van Biema · 26 Jan 2004 · 306pp · 97,211 words
Dead Companies Walking
by Scott Fearon · 10 Nov 2014 · 232pp · 71,965 words
Chokepoint Capitalism
by Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow · 26 Sep 2022 · 396pp · 113,613 words
Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets
by Nassim Nicholas Taleb · 1 Jan 2001 · 111pp · 1 words
Drowning in Oil: BP & the Reckless Pursuit of Profit
by Loren C. Steffy · 5 Nov 2010 · 305pp · 79,356 words
Why We Can't Afford the Rich
by Andrew Sayer · 6 Nov 2014 · 504pp · 143,303 words
When the Iron Lady Ruled Britain
by Robert Chesshyre · 15 Jan 2012 · 434pp · 150,773 words
The New Geography of Jobs
by Enrico Moretti · 21 May 2012 · 403pp · 87,035 words
Swimming With Sharks: My Journey into the World of the Bankers
by Joris Luyendijk · 14 Sep 2015 · 257pp · 71,686 words
Underwater: How Our American Dream of Homeownership Became a Nightmare
by Ryan Dezember · 13 Jul 2020 · 279pp · 87,875 words
Bezonomics: How Amazon Is Changing Our Lives and What the World's Best Companies Are Learning From It
by Brian Dumaine · 11 May 2020 · 411pp · 98,128 words
The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age
by Tim Wu · 14 Jun 2018 · 128pp · 38,847 words
The Glass Half-Empty: Debunking the Myth of Progress in the Twenty-First Century
by Rodrigo Aguilera · 10 Mar 2020 · 356pp · 106,161 words
Unscripted: The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy
by James B Stewart and Rachel Abrams · 14 Feb 2023 · 521pp · 136,802 words
Manias, Panics and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises, Sixth Edition
by Kindleberger, Charles P. and Robert Z., Aliber · 9 Aug 2011
The Crux
by Richard Rumelt · 27 Apr 2022 · 363pp · 109,834 words
Windfall: The Booming Business of Global Warming
by Mckenzie Funk · 22 Jan 2014 · 337pp · 101,281 words
Flight of the WASP
by Michael Gross · 562pp · 177,195 words
Empty Vessel: The Story of the Global Economy in One Barge
by Ian Kumekawa · 6 May 2025 · 422pp · 112,638 words
Democracy for Sale: Dark Money and Dirty Politics
by Peter Geoghegan · 2 Jan 2020 · 388pp · 111,099 words
Capitalism Without Capital: The Rise of the Intangible Economy
by Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake · 7 Nov 2017 · 346pp · 89,180 words
Shipping Greatness
by Chris Vander Mey · 23 Aug 2012 · 231pp · 71,248 words
The Frackers: The Outrageous Inside Story of the New Billionaire Wildcatters
by Gregory Zuckerman · 5 Nov 2013 · 483pp · 143,123 words
Money Mavericks: Confessions of a Hedge Fund Manager
by Lars Kroijer · 26 Jul 2010 · 244pp · 79,044 words
The Ripple Effect: The Fate of Fresh Water in the Twenty-First Century
by Alex Prud'Homme · 6 Jun 2011 · 692pp · 167,950 words
The New Rules of War: Victory in the Age of Durable Disorder
by Sean McFate · 22 Jan 2019 · 330pp · 83,319 words
Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time
by Howard Schultz and Dori Jones Yang
Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia
by Peter Pomerantsev · 11 Nov 2014 · 251pp · 80,243 words
Rush Hour: How 500 Million Commuters Survive the Daily Journey to Work
by Iain Gately · 6 Nov 2014 · 352pp · 104,411 words
The Little Book of Hedge Funds
by Anthony Scaramucci · 30 Apr 2012 · 162pp · 50,108 words
The Five-Year Party: How Colleges Have Given Up on Educating Your Child and What You Can Do About It
by Craig Brandon · 17 Aug 2010 · 282pp · 26,931 words
Who Needs the Fed?: What Taylor Swift, Uber, and Robots Tell Us About Money, Credit, and Why We Should Abolish America's Central Bank
by John Tamny · 30 Apr 2016 · 268pp · 74,724 words
The Mysterious Mr. Nakamoto: A Fifteen-Year Quest to Unmask the Secret Genius Behind Crypto
by Benjamin Wallace · 18 Mar 2025 · 431pp · 116,274 words
The Accidental Theorist: And Other Dispatches From the Dismal Science
by Paul Krugman · 18 Feb 2010 · 162pp · 51,473 words
Boom: Mad Money, Mega Dealers, and the Rise of Contemporary Art
by Michael Shnayerson · 20 May 2019 · 552pp · 163,292 words
Shoe Dog
by Phil Knight · 25 Apr 2016 · 399pp · 122,688 words
The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry
by Jon Ronson · 12 May 2011 · 274pp · 70,481 words
Filthy Rich: A Powerful Billionaire, the Sex Scandal That Undid Him, and All the Justice That Money Can Buy: The Shocking True Story of Jeffrey Epstein
by James Patterson, John Connolly and Tim Malloy · 10 Oct 2016 · 234pp · 63,844 words
They All Came to Barneys: A Personal History of the World's Greatest Store
by Gene Pressman · 2 Sep 2025 · 313pp · 107,586 words
Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel
by Max Blumenthal · 27 Nov 2012 · 840pp · 224,391 words
The Price of Tomorrow: Why Deflation Is the Key to an Abundant Future
by Jeff Booth · 14 Jan 2020 · 180pp · 55,805 words
The Wisdom of Frugality: Why Less Is More - More or Less
by Emrys Westacott · 14 Apr 2016 · 287pp · 80,050 words
Practical Ext JS Projects With Gears
by Frank Zammetti · 7 Jul 2009 · 602pp · 207,965 words
Political Ponerology (A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes)
by Andrew M. Lobaczewski · 1 Jan 2006 · 396pp · 116,332 words
The Retreat of Western Liberalism
by Edward Luce · 20 Apr 2017 · 223pp · 58,732 words