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[0] checkbox [#] position [cover] cover [title] title Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System from Crisis — and Themselves [author] author Sorkin, Andrew Ross [isbn] isbn 0670021253 [isbn13] isbn13 9780670021253 [asin] asin [num pages] num pages 600 pp [avg rating] avg rating 4.04 [num ratings] num ratings 19,774 [date pub] date pub 2008 [date pub (ed.)] date pub edition Oct 20, 2009 [rating] Lucas's rating 3 of 5 stars [my rating] my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves [notes] notes Notes are private! [recommender] recommender none [comments] comments 0 [votes] votes 0 [read count] # times read 1 [date started] date started Apr 28, 2011 [date read] date read Jun 02, 2011 [date added] date added Apr 30, 2011 [date purchased] date purchased [owned] owned [purchase location] purchase location [condition] condition [format] format Hardcover [29] actions view [review] 
review It's hard to find the author's voice anywhere but in the epilogue, everything is direct quotes or summarized interview material. Mosts facts or analys It's hard to find the author's voice anywhere but in the epilogue, everything is direct quotes or summarized interview material. Mosts facts or analysis I understand to be the facts and analysis known to persons that are the subject of any given section of the book at the point in chronology the book has progressed to, not anything stemming from independent research by the author. The books is only about the meetings and conversations of dozens of regulators and corporate participants from financial institutions occurring from perhaps the beginning of 2008 to the passing of TARP late in that year. I couldn't keep track of all the people, the book would benefit from more frequent reminders of which company any person was working for. The same applies to what month or day events happened during. As for the subject matter, the thing I understood the least is the uncertainty regarding the financial positions of various companies. It's easy to suggest that more transparency and more consistent reporting should be uniformly required (and though I know little of the financial regulation bill later passed I imagine it requires more of both), but the more radical alternatives I tend to think of are these: Why isn't there a financial/economic NSA? In other words an agency with tremendous resources to monitor the state of the financial world both through normal channels (documents produced as required by law), and other channels the regular NSA or CIA uses such as wiretapping, informants and spies and so forth. The less ominous suggestion is to create more types of corporations that have a spectrum of privileged information allowance, and with significant tax and regulatory advantages to creating the most transparent type. ...more
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