A Colossal Failure of Common Sense
A Colossal Failure of Common Sense reveals the culture and unspoken rules of the game like no book has ever done. You will get a close-up view of the participants in the Lehman collapse, especially those who saw it coming with a helpless, angry certainty. The Wall Street you will encounter here is a ruthless place, where brilliance, arrogance, ambition, greed, capacity for relentless toil, and other human traits combine in a potent mix that sometimes fuels prosperity but occasionally destroys it.
Praise for A Colossal Failure of Common Sense
“Gives the readers a visceral sense of what it was like to work at Lehman Brothers and the fateful decisions and events that led to the company’s death spiral.”
— Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
“Highly readable. A Colossal Failure of Common Sense largely rings true. It expresses the anger that many former Lehman employees still feel toward Mr. Fuld. And it convincingly characterizes the investment bank as a house divided against itself, between the bears who had foreseen bubbles and the bulls who wrongly believed that this time was different.”
“Describes a CEO acting as if his firm was too big to fail.”
— Wall Street Journal
“Poignantly told from an insider [who] witnessed, often in amazement and disgust, the corporate dysfunction and hubristic leadership that led to [Lehman’s] demise.”
— BusinessWeek
“Engaging and even funny.”
— Fortune