Uncontrolled Risk: Lessons of Lehman Brothers and How Systemic Risk Can Still Bring Down the World Financial System

How Excessive Risk Destroyed Lehman and Nearly Brought Down the Financial Industry

Uncontrolled Risk will ruffle feathersand for good reasonas voters and legislators learn thediffi cult lessons of Lehmans 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. Williamss 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.williamss forensic study of lehmans 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 institutionand whatit says about wall street, washington, d.c., and theworld financial system. a former trading floor executiveand fed bank examiner, williams sees lehmans2008 collapse as a microcosm of the industryaworst-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 lehmans historyfrom its humble beginnings in 1850 to its collapsein 2008. lehmans story exemplifies the ...