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Rating: 
Summary: The Medium is the Message
Review: I picked up a reference to this book from the current issue of NYRB in a story about the Enron debacle. It seems the practice of "off balance sheet" derivative speculation is alive and well and that fund managers for pensions are still as inept as Mr Citron was for Orange County California. What is amazing is the continued hoodwinking of investors by rating agencies such as Moodys and Standard & Poor and the unregulated nature of these securities after the 20 billion dollar bailout of Mexico (or should we say the bailout of investment bank exposure) by the Clinton Administration during the Mid 90s Peso crisis. And yet it continues today, in effect a license to gamble with other people's money by "aggresive" fund managers, a conveniently legal fraud perpetuated by a lack of campaign finance reform and the sinister omnipotence of the televison medium. Who said the medium is the message? Mcluhan must feel justified wherever he is.
Rating: 
Summary: A Few good parts, A Few bad ones, Overall worth reading
Review: There are several very interesting parts of this book, the most notable being the chapters (4, 7 - 10) in which Mr. Partnoy gives a high level description of some of the transactions that he was involved in. Some of his anecdotes, particularly those in which he discusses the atmosphere in an investment bank around bonus time (pg.40 - 42, 202 - 205), are pretty amusing and dead on accurate. The author's descriptions of some of his deals are clearly told from a junior banker's perspective, but they do a good job of putting forth what was being done, how it was being done, what everyone's perceived incentives for the transaction were, the work required to get the deal done, what kind of money, and importantly what kind of fees were involved. In this regard, the book offers more than both "Liar's Poker" by Lewis and "When Genius Failed" by Lowenstein.Like all books written by former investment bankers the book contains liberally sprinkled anecdotes regarding job interviews from hell, the ridiculous daily escapades that can occur on a trading floor, strip clubs, the lack of personal lives, gambling trips and other stories which could easily have been pulled from the pages of Mr. Lewis's book or "Monkey Business" by Rolfe and Troob. All of these shenanigans culminate around the bank's (in this case Morgan Stanley), or more specifically, his group's annual sporting clay outing, FIASCO. The book also suffers from a somewhat poorly defined timeline and the lack of a defining event which drives the story. Due to these faults, it is at times little more than a book about the evils of investment bankers, the ignorance of their customers, all put forward to enforce Mr. Partnoy's somewhat guarded thesis; Derivatives are used by organizations that are legally prevented from investing in certain areas in order to skirt those laws. This is a good book that could have been better, the occasions where it shine through make it worth reading, but also unfortunately let us know the author could have produced a somewhat better product.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but at times confusing
Review: This book has two parts. The first would be the stories of the interaction with eccentric Wall St. characters. I enjoyed this part, just like I liked similar parts in books about high finance. The other part, the explanation of how derivatives were created and rated, was interesting but frigging confusing! I felt as though I needed a Yale Law degree (like the author) to grasp the financial language. I also understood how investors could be duped by these investments, because even after reading this book from an insider who wanted me to understand, I have very little retention of the technical side of what I read.
Overall a good book and a good look into the derivatives craze.
Rating:
Summary: Derivative Expose?
Review: This book is a rarity in the financial world: blessed both with fascinating subject matter and a gifted author. Frank Partnoy takes the reader through his experience on Wall Street, most of which was spent in Morgan Stanley's nascent but lucrative derivatives group. Partnoy tells the story through the entertaining personalities of those he worked with, and his explanations of the derivatives transactions his firm sold in the latter half of the nineties gives a magnificent introduction to the basics of how derivatives work. Along the way, Partnoy amicably illustrates the global-economic oddities that predicated these derivatives transactions' creation, the contempt their creators had for those who would be buying them, and the oddities of a corporate world awash in money but barren of values. I enjoyed Partnoy's account wholeheartedly, and I consider it an instant member of the Liars Poker/When Genius Failed canon.
Rating:
Summary: Funny and well-written introduction to derivatives
Review: This book is a rarity in the financial world: blessed both with fascinating subject matter and a gifted author. Frank Partnoy takes the reader through his experience on Wall Street, most of which was spent in Morgan Stanley's nascent but lucrative derivatives group. Partnoy tells the story through the entertaining personalities of those he worked with, and his explanations of the derivatives transactions his firm sold in the latter half of the nineties gives a magnificent introduction to the basics of how derivatives work. Along the way, Partnoy amicably illustrates the global-economic oddities that predicated these derivatives transactions' creation, the contempt their creators had for those who would be buying them, and the oddities of a corporate world awash in money but barren of values. I enjoyed Partnoy's account wholeheartedly, and I consider it an instant member of the Liars Poker/When Genius Failed canon.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining read, oftentimes sensationalist
Review: This book is an entertaining page turner, as we follow the author in his exploits and experiences in investment banking. However, as someone who knows a bit about the derivatives business, it is clear that the author tries to sensationalize the transactions, using the expression "ripping someone's face off" too often. Clients of investment banks are, for the most part, very experienced financial managers, who generally choose complex financial structures because these are the structures that exactly fit their needs. It is very rare (I have never seen it) that a customer would buy something he was not thoroughly familiar with. My only conclusion can be that the author was eager to write a book, and so chose every single transaction he was exposed to and created the image that customers were always innocent bystanders.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining read, oftentimes sensationalist
Review: This book is an entertaining page turner, as we follow the author in his exploits and experiences in investment banking. However, as someone who knows a bit about the derivatives business, it is clear that the author tries to sensationalize the transactions, using the expression "ripping someone's face off" too often. Clients of investment banks are, for the most part, very experienced financial managers, who generally choose complex financial structures because these are the structures that exactly fit their needs. It is very rare (I have never seen it) that a customer would buy something he was not thoroughly familiar with. My only conclusion can be that the author was eager to write a book, and so chose every single transaction he was exposed to and created the image that customers were always innocent bystanders.
Rating:
Summary: Derivative Expose?
Review: This book takes you back to the early 90s - when headlines were filled with news that under the stewardship of Bob Citron, Orange County announced that its pension fund had suffered a 1.6 billion loss. It is an expose on the marketing and sale of derivatives as well as a peek into the frat boy culture of wall street. The book was an entertaining and educational journey tracing the author's career at Morgan Stanley as a derivatives sales person. Its strongest aspect was boiling derivative-speak down to plain-speak. I also found refreshing the author's admission that very few people involved in the derivatives industry (including himself) really understand the risks of the products. The book almost reads as a farce for laypeople not employed in the financial services industry - but for the unease that lingers from the realization that nearly all of us invest in mutual funds that regularaly purchase these products. One weakness of the book is that one never learns why the author chose to work on wall street as a salesperson - rather than practicing law. Having this information would have provided a full circle narrative framework for the reader - when the book concludes with the author's return to the law.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining Twist of Wall Street's Tail
Review: This is an entertaining dirt disher, but has no other merit. If you think that life in a Wall Street firm is really like this - these days, at any rate - think again. If you want a really salacious dirt disher, only well written - try Michael Lewis' Liars' Poker, on which the format of this book was surely based. FIASCO is a thoroughly inferior product. Not only is it poorly written, it suffers from the fact that its author seems to have had very little understanding of what he was doing when employed at Morgan Stanley - this is apparent from simply reading his own explanations of the transactions. Mind you, this is no more than you'd expect from a junior associate who'd been on the derivatives desk for a very short period of time - investment banking is a difficult business (if it wasn't, people wouldn't get paid so much to do it) and it takes years to fully understand what is going on, let alone to get any good at it. And that's something this author never allowed himself the time to do. If he had (and was any good), my guess is he'd still be doing the job, rather than writing the kiss and tell expose. Still this silly book sells - but maybe the writing's on the wall: right now, some clunker ex-Enron employee is probably writing the successor in line to FIASCO, only about Enron. With any luck, though, at least this time it'll be written with some style.
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Summary: Great book to learn
Review: This is the only book which I bought because of the recommendation of a bookstore salesman. Thanks to him, I got a much insightful opinion of what went wrong in Asia starting summer 97 in Thailand which later smashed the entire Asia except perhaps PRC and Taiwan. As a professional spot and futures trader, I seldom trade derivatives. After reading the book, I become more skeptical of placing any bet on that, especially through Morgan Stanley, ha ha. Anyway, Fiasco is the kind of book you cannot miss, if you are a serious investor. BTW, I do feel very sorry for those who admire the big names (like Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs) so much. They are doomed! I mean the investors, of course.
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