Partnoy writes an all-too prescient parable of how unregulated markets, greed, and unchecked ambition can wreak havoc on an economic system.
At the height of the roaring '20s, Swedish migr 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 his suicide in 1932, it became clear that Kreuger was not all he seemed: evidence surfaced of 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.
In this gripping financial biography, Frank Partnoy 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.
Seemed | Evidence surfaced of fudged accounting figures offbalancesheet accounting even forgery |
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