| The Match King: Ivar Kreuger, The Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals Contributor(s): Partnoy, Frank (Author) |
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ISBN: 1586488120 ISBN-13: 9781586488123 Publisher: PublicAffairs OUR PRICE: $20.89 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: March 2010 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Biography & Autobiography | Business - Business & Economics | Finance - General - Business & Economics | Economic History |
| Dewey: B |
| Physical Information: 0.9" H x 5.5" W x 8.4" (0.60 lbs) 288 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: 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 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. |