Freeman march 14 banner     Books about the 2008 financial
crisis keep coming, and New York Times reporter Andrew Ross
Sorkin offers one of the better accounts of the meltdown. Using
a large number of interviews, he reconstructs the words and acts
of key people during the six months from the near-collapse of
Bear Stearns in March to the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in
September.  The book is somewhat bloated, but the tale is
compelling. It starts as Bear Stearns, the smallest of the five
Wall Street investment houses, wobbles on the edge of
bankruptcy. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and the Federal
Reserve facilitate JP Morgan’s takeover of Bear, leaving Lehman
the smallest of the remaining investment banks. Its stock drops
precipitously.  From a huge cast of characters, one man emerges
as a tragic figure—Lehman chief executive Richard Fuld. He
became obsessed with short sellers (traders who borrow and sell
shares to profit from a future price decline), blaming them for
spreading malicious rumors about Leh