The Sellout: How Three Decades of Wall Street Greed and Government Mismanagement Destroyed the Global Financial System - Tapa dura

"[A] splendid account of the financial meltdown." -- Wall Street Journal The most comprehensive anecdotal account to date of the crisis... Gasparino cuts his way through Wall Street rhetoric and in the process uncovers in considerable detail how blind profit-making ambition led to the destruction of the markets. -- New York Review of Books "Gasparino has consistently broken news on some of the biggest financial scandals of recent years, including the fall of Martha Stewart, Henry Blodget, and Jack Grubman. As anyone who reads the business pages knows, Charlie is one of the best reporters in the field." -- Mark Whitaker, former editor, Newsweek "Gasparino describes, in page-turning detail, a Wall Street world of ruthless financial titans... No collection of courtroom documents will ever tell the story...as well as Mr. Gasparino does." -- Wall Street Journal, on King of the Club "A tough outsider willing to go to battle with anyone--colleague or contact-in pursuit of the story." -- Financial Times "An especially aggressive reporter." -- Vanity Fair "Gasparino is credited with breaking some of the more titillating tales of Wall Street misconduct." -- New York Post "Born in the Bronx to a construction worker and a housewife, Gasparino has risen from his working-class roots to become one of the most influential business reporters at work today." -- PR Week "Charles Gasparino sees the guts of Wall Street and the wreckage it leaves behind, day in and day out." -- San Antonio Express-News

In the spirit of classics such as "Barbarians at the Gate" and "Liar's Poker", Charles Gasparino traces the rise in power and wealth of America's largest investment banks and brokerage houses beginning in 2002. He shows how and why several of these storied institutions have suffered staggering losses in assets and influence since then, triggering the vast financial crisis that is now devastating individual and institutional wallets through the United States and across the globe. Gasparino is known as a dogged reporter who regularly breaks news about Wall Street's inner workings and who has a direct line into Wall Street's most prominent dealmakers. His book promises to be one of the first books out of the gate in what will prove to be a crowded market of 'financial crisis' books, but his talent for delivering a dramatic narrative and colorful anecdotes and explaining complex financial maneuvers in accessible terms.