The Match King: Ivar Kreuger, The Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals

The Match King: Ivar Kreuger, The Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals image
ISBN-10:

1586487434

ISBN-13:

9781586487430

Author(s): Partnoy, Frank
Edition: 1
Released: Apr 14, 2009
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Format: Hardcover, 288 pages
to view more data

Description:

At the height of the roaring '20s, Swedish émigré Ivar Kreuger made a fortune raising money in America and loaning it to Europe in exchange for matchstick monopolies. His enterprise was a rare success story throughout the Great Depression.

Yet after Kreuger's suicide in 1932, the true nature of his empire emerged. Driven by success to adopt ever-more perilous practices, Kreuger had turned to shell companies in tax havens, fudged accounting figures, off-balance-sheet accounting, even forgery. He created a raft of innovative financial products many of them precursors to instruments wreaking havoc in today's markets. When his Wall Street empire collapsed, millions went bankrupt.

Frank Partnoy, a frequent commentator on financial disaster for the Financial Times, New York Times, NPR, and CBS's 60 Minutes,” recasts the life story of a remarkable yet forgotten genius in ways that force us to re-think our ideas about the wisdom of crowds, the invisible hand, and the free and unfettered market.

Low Price Summary






Top Bookstores


























We're an Amazon Associate. We earn from qualifying purchases at Amazon and all stores listed here.

DISCLOSURE: We're an eBay Partner Network affiliate and we earn commissions from purchases you make on eBay via one of the links above.

Want a Better Price Offer?

Set a price alert and get notified when the book starts selling at your price.

Want to Report a Pricing Issue?

Let us know about the pricing issue you've noticed so that we can fix it.