A Financial Times Best Book of 2014 “He’s written a really good book — we might as well get that out of the way, as so much else about Timothy F. Geithner remains unsettled… There’s hardly a moment in Geithner’s story when the reader feels he is being anything but straightforward — a near-superhuman feat for someone who spent so much time in public life defending himself from careless and dishonest personal attacks. The decisions he made are easier to criticize than they are to improve upon. I doubt many readers will put his book down and think the man did anything but his best. On his feet he might have stammered and wavered. That in itself was always a sign he was unusually brave.” –Michael Lewis, New York Times Book Review “An intimate take on the financial crisis… gripping… conveys in visceral terms just how precarious things were during the crisis, just how frightened many first responders were, and just what an achievement it was to avert a major depression… [Geithner] demonstrates that he can discuss economics in an accessible fashion, making the situation the country faced in 2008 and 2009 tactile, comprehensible—and harrowing—to the lay reader. Along the way, he also gives us a telling portrait of himself.” –New York Times “A how-to manual for anyone faced with a financial crisis… Mr Geithner was known for his brutal candor, and as an author, he does not disappoint.” — The Economist “A fascinating memoir about life in the maelstrom of the financial crisis… Earlier books have described much of what happened that September, but Geithner was present for all the frantic meetings, the thousands of phone calls — and in the case of Lehman, the failure to find a buyer that could keep it alive. New problems cropped up almost weekly, if not daily. He explains each in easy-to-understand language and what the issues were that shaped the responses… There could be another crisis someday, of course, but what Geithner and his colleagues did has made one far less likely.” –USA Today “Sharply worded and candid memoir.” — Financial Times “Geithner does an admirable job of explaining the origins and complexities of the crisis for the average person. But there’s enough detail and retrospective lessons-learned to make it valuable for students of financial history….fast-paced and colorful…. Stress Test goes beyond other crisis books.” – Los Angeles Times “Throughout Stress Test, one gains a deep appreciation for the heart-pumping decisions made by Geithner and his colleagues from 2007 through 2012. And he makes a compelling case that overhwelming force is necessary in crisis, and that the measures taken by the Fed and two successive administrations prevented even more pain for ordinary Americans.” – WashingtonPost.com “An unsparing insider’s account of the financial crisis from the former Secretary of the Treasury, unpacking the hard decisions and terrible trade-offs that devastated the economy but staved off a deep, lasting depression.” — TIME.com “The central irony of Stress Test, the new memoir by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, is that a guy who was accused of being a lousy communicator while in office has penned a book that is such a good read…I’ve now read four or five of these first drafts of the history of the Great Recession, and I believe Stress Test represents the biggest contribution of the bunch.” — Bill Gates “Sensational . . . Tim’s book will forever be the definitive work on what causes financial panics and what must be done to stem them when they occur.” — Warren Buffett “Very few important subjects in American history have been the subject of as much disinformation and deliberate distortion as the events surrounding the financial crisis that broke in 2008. Tim Geithner’s candid, clear-headed, and refreshingly self-effacing account of his role in formulating the federal government’s response is a very welcome antidote. Geithner’s book is a triple threat: it is first-rate economic history, insightful political s

"Behind almost every painting is a fortune and behind that a sin or a crime.” With these words as a starting point, Michael Gross, leading chronicler of the American rich, begins the first independent, unauthorized look at the saga of the nation's greatest museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In this endlessly entertaining follow-up to his bestselling social history 740 Park, Gross pulls back the shades of secrecy that have long shrouded the upper class's cultural and philanthropic ambitions and maneuvers. And he paints a revealing portrait of a previously hidden face of American wealth and power. The Metropolitan, Gross writes, "is a huge alchemical experiment, turning the worst of man's attributes—extravagance; lust, gluttony, acquisitiveness, envy, avarice, greed, egotism, and pride—into the very best, transmuting deadly sins into priceless treasure.” The book covers the entire 138-year history of the Met, focusing on the museum's most colorful characters. Opening with the lame-duck director Philippe de Montebello, the museum's longest-serving leader who finally stepped down in 2008, Rogues' Gallery then goes back to the very beginning, highlighting, among many others: the first director, Luigi Palma di Cesnola, an Italian-born epic phony, whose legacy is a trove of plundered ancient relics, some of which remain on display today; John Pierpont Morgan, the greatest capitalist and art collector of his day, who turned the museum from the plaything of a handful of rich amateurs into a professional operation dedicated, sort of, to the public good; John D. Rockefeller Jr., who never served the Met in any official capacity but who, during the Great Depression, proved the only man willing and rich enough to be its benefactor, which made him its behind-the-scenes puppeteer; the controversial Thomas Hoving, whose tenure as director during the sixties and seventies revolutionized museums around the world but left the Met in chaos; and Jane Engelhard and Annette de la Renta, a mother-daughter trustee tag team whose stories will astonish you (think Casablanca rewritten by Edith Wharton). With a supporting cast that includes artists, forgers, and looters, financial geniuses and scoundrels, museum officers (like its chairman Arthur Amory Houghton, head of Corning Glass, who once ripped apart a priceless and ancient Islamic book in order to sell it off piecemeal), trustees (like Jayne Wrightsman, the Hollywood party girl turned society grand dame), curators (like the aging Dietrich von Bothmer, a refugee from Nazi Germany with a Bronze Star for heroism whose greatest acquisitions turned out to be looted), and donors (like Irwin Untermyer, whose collecting obsession drove his wife and children to suicide), and with cameo appearances by everyone from Vogue editors Anna Wintour and Diana Vreeland to Sex Pistols front man Johnny Rotten, Rogues' Gallery is a rich, satisfying, alternately hilarious and horrifying look at America's upper class, and what is perhaps its greatest creation.

How Excessive Risk Destroyed Lehman and Nearly Brought Down the Financial Industry "Uncontrolled Risk will ruffle feathers-and for good reason-as voters and legislators learn thediffi cult lessons of Lehman's collapse and demand that we never forget them." Dr. David C. Shimko, Board of Trustees, Global Association of Risk Professionals "Uncontrolled Risk is a drama as gripping as any work of fiction. Williams's recommendations forchanges in the governance of financial institutions should be of interest to anyone concernedabout the welfare of global financial markets." Geoffrey Miller, Stuyvesant Comfort Professor of Law and Director, Center for the Study ofCentral Banks and Financial Institutions, New York University "The complex balance of free enterprise on Wall Street and the healthyregulation of its participants is the central economic issue of today.Williams's forensic study of Lehman's collapse may be the bestperspective so far on the issues that now face regulators." Jeffrey P. Davis, CFA, Chief Investment Officer,Lee Munder Capital Group "Provides a very perceptive analysis of the fl aws inherent in risk management systems and modernfi nancial markets. Mandatory reading for risk managers and financial industry executives." Vincent Kaminski, Professor in the Practice of Management,Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business, Rice University "Gives the reader much food for thought on the regulation of our financial system and its interplaywith corporate governance reform in the United States and around the world." Professor Charles M. Elson, Edgar S. Woolard Jr. Chair in Corporate Governance,University of Delaware The risk taking behind Wall Street's largest bankruptcy . . . In this dramatic and compelling account ofLehman Brothers' spectacular rise and fall,author Mark T. Williams explains how uncontrolledrisk toppled a 158-year-old institution-and whatit says about Wall Street, Washington, D.C., and theworld financial system. A former trading floor executiveand Fed bank examiner, Williams sees Lehman's2008 collapse as a microcosm of the industry-aworst-case scenario of smart decisions, stupid mistakes,ignored warnings, and important lessons inmoney, power, and policy that affect us all.This book reveals: The Congressional inquisition of disgracedCEO Dick Fuld: Did he really deserve it? How the investment-banking money machinebroke down: Can it be fixed? The key drivers that caused the financialmeltdown: Can lessons be learnedfrom them? The wild risk taking denounced by PresidentObama: Is Washington to blame, too? The ongoing debate on reform andregulation: Can meaningful reform avertanother financial catastrophe? This fascinating account traces Lehman's historyfrom its humble beginnings in 1850 to its collapsein 2008. Lehman's story exemplifies the everchangingtrends in finance-from investmentvehicles to federal policies-and exposes thedanger and infectious nature of uncontrolled risk. Drawing upon first-person interviews with riskmanagement experts and former Lehman employees,Williams provides more than just a frontlinereport: it's a call to action for Wall Street bankers,Washington policymakers, and U.S. citizens-a livinglesson in risk management on which to build astronger fi nancial future. Williams provides a tenpointplan to implement today-so another Lehmandoesn't collapse tomorrow. Includes aten-point plan toensure a strongfinancial future forboth Wall Street andMain Street

How Excessive Risk Destroyed Lehman and Nearly Brought Down the Financial Industry "Uncontrolled Risk will ruffle feathers-and for good reason-as voters and legislators learn thediffi cult lessons of Lehman's collapse and demand that we never forget them." Dr. David C. Shimko, Board of Trustees, Global Association of Risk Professionals "Uncontrolled Risk is a drama as gripping as any work of fiction. Williams's recommendations forchanges in the governance of financial institutions should be of interest to anyone concernedabout the welfare of global financial markets." Geoffrey Miller, Stuyvesant Comfort Professor of Law and Director, Center for the Study ofCentral Banks and Financial Institutions, New York University "The complex balance of free enterprise on Wall Street and the healthyregulation of its participants is the central economic issue of today.Williams's forensic study of Lehman's collapse may be the bestperspective so far on the issues that now face regulators." Jeffrey P. Davis, CFA, Chief Investment Officer,Lee Munder Capital Group "Provides a very perceptive analysis of the fl aws inherent in risk management systems and modernfi nancial markets. Mandatory reading for risk managers and financial industry executives." Vincent Kaminski, Professor in the Practice of Management,Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business, Rice University "Gives the reader much food for thought on the regulation of our financial system and its interplaywith corporate governance reform in the United States and around the world." Professor Charles M. Elson, Edgar S. Woolard Jr. Chair in Corporate Governance,University of Delaware The risk taking behind Wall Street's largest bankruptcy . . . In this dramatic and compelling account ofLehman Brothers' spectacular rise and fall,author Mark T. Williams explains how uncontrolledrisk toppled a 158-year-old institution-and whatit says about Wall Street, Washington, D.C., and theworld financial system. A former trading floor executiveand Fed bank examiner, Williams sees Lehman's2008 collapse as a microcosm of the industry-aworst-case scenario of smart decisions, stupid mistakes,ignored warnings, and important lessons inmoney, power, and policy that affect us all.This book reveals: The Congressional inquisition of disgracedCEO Dick Fuld: Did he really deserve it? How the investment-banking money machinebroke down: Can it be fixed? The key drivers that caused the financialmeltdown: Can lessons be learnedfrom them? The wild risk taking denounced by PresidentObama: Is Washington to blame, too? The ongoing debate on reform andregulation: Can meaningful reform avertanother financial catastrophe? This fascinating account traces Lehman's historyfrom its humble beginnings in 1850 to its collapsein 2008. Lehman's story exemplifies the everchangingtrends in finance-from investmentvehicles to federal policies-and exposes thedanger and infectious nature of uncontrolled risk. Drawing upon first-person interviews with riskmanagement experts and former Lehman employees,Williams provides more than just a frontlinereport: it's a call to action for Wall Street bankers,Washington policymakers, and U.S. citizens-a livinglesson in risk management on which to build astronger fi nancial future. Williams provides a tenpointplan to implement today-so another Lehmandoesn't collapse tomorrow. Includes aten-point plan toensure a strongfinancial future forboth Wall Street andMain Street