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When Genius Failed
- The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management
- Narrated by: Roger Lowenstein
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
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When Genius Failed
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Publisher's Summary
John Meriwether, a famously successful Wall Street trader, spent the 1980s as a partner at Salomon Brothers, establishing the best—and the brainiest—bond arbitrage group in the world. A mysterious and shy Midwesterner, he knitted together a group of Ph.D.-certified arbitrageurs who rewarded him with filial devotion and fabulous profits. Then, in 1991, in the wake of a scandal involving one of his traders, Meriwether abruptly resigned. For two years, his fiercely loyal team—convinced that the chief had been unfairly victimized—plotted their boss's return. Then, in 1993, Meriwether made a historic offer. He gathered together his former disciples and a handful of supereconomists from academia and proposed that they become partners in a new hedge fund different from any Wall Street had ever seen. And so Long-Term Capital Management was born.
In a decade that had seen the longest and most rewarding bull market in history, hedge funds were the ne plus ultra of investments: discreet, private clubs limited to those rich enough to pony up millions. They promised that the investors' money would be placed in a variety of trades simultaneously--a "hedging" strategy designed to minimize the possibility of loss. At Long-Term, Meriwether & Co. truly believed that their finely tuned computer models had tamed the genie of risk, and would allow them to bet on the future with near mathematical certainty. And thanks to their cast—which included a pair of future Nobel Prize winners—investors believed them.
From the moment Long-Term opened their offices in posh Greenwich, Connecticut, miles from the pandemonium of Wall Street, it was clear that this would be a hedge fund apart from all others. Though they viewed the big Wall Street investment banks with disdain, so great was Long-Term's aura that these very banks lined up to provide the firm with financing, and on the very sweetest of terms. So self-certain were Long-Term's traders that they borrowed with little concern about the leverage. At first, Long-Term's models stayed on script, and this new gold standard in hedge funds boasted such incredible returns that private investors and even central banks clamored to invest more money. It seemed the geniuses in Greenwich couldn't lose.
Four years later, when a default in Russia set off a global storm that Long-Term's models hadn't anticipated, its supposedly safe portfolios imploded. In five weeks, the professors went from mega-rich geniuses to discredited failures. With the firm about to go under, its staggering $100 billion balance sheet threatened to drag down markets around the world. At the eleventh hour, fearing that the financial system of the world was in peril, the Federal Reserve Bank hastily summoned Wall Street's leading banks to underwrite a bailout.
Roger Lowenstein, the bestselling author of Buffett, captures Long-Term's roller-coaster ride in gripping detail. Drawing on confidential internal memos and interviews with dozens of key players, Lowenstein crafts a story that reads like a first-rate thriller from beginning to end. He explains not just how the fund made and lost its money, but what it was about the personalities of Long-Term's partners, the arrogance of their mathematical certainties, and the late-nineties culture of Wall Street that made it all possible.
When Genius Failed is the cautionary financial tale of our time, the gripping saga of what happened when an elite group of investors believed they could actually deconstruct risk and use virtually limitless leverage to create limitless wealth. In Roger Lowenstein's hands, it is a brilliant tale peppered with fast money, vivid characters, and high drama.
What the critics say
"This book is story-telling journalism at its best." (The Economist)
"Lowenstein [is] one of the best financial journalists there is." (New York Times Book Review)
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What listeners say about When Genius Failed
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rupert
- 2019-04-29
A bit too dry for my liking
I found that the sheer number of players and numbers involved made it very hard to follow. Really well researched and delivered though because I don’t know how you’d deliver it any other way. It’s just not a gripping as some other similar books I’ve read/listened to.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
- Sean
- 2008-12-17
When Genius Failed
I could not listen for more than 30 minutes. The book may be good but I could not stand the narration. I suggest you listen to a sample before purchasing. Listen for a while to get a good sense of the narrator's style.
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24 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Pankaj
- 2004-03-01
Informative and interesting, full of suspense
I read this book with the aim of increasing my knowledge about the stock market and various terminologies etc. I did'nt want to read some dull boring book. My way of getting the hang of things when I am *very* new in a field is to listen (or read) on topics related to that field. Knowingly or unknowingly, you start to pick up terms that you had never heard of.
This Book was a very interesting reading all by itself. Many people are drawn towards the stock markets (or success in general) without understanding that success now can be followed by failure. That is the entire essence about being careful and playing safe. Risk management in short.
This book teaches how to be not blinded by present success blah blah blah. its a very interesting book. Informative and full of suspense. It surely teaches somethings. Besides risk management it teaches the value of experience and the concept of rising back from your fall. Many people just accept one defeat as their entire life. There is a lot that can be learnt from this book. Very interesting.
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17 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- david
- 2013-10-08
Great book poorly read
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
It is a clear exposition of the catastrophic failure of Long Term Capital and the hubris of its most important partners. It's a telling story of why those who wreak havoc on the financial system in pursuit of ridiculous wealth can go unpunished.
What other book might you compare When Genius Failed to and why?
The brightest men in the room and The Big Short
How did the narrator detract from the book?
It was read in a sing song voice which varied little in rhythm or pitch.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
no
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7 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Andy
- 2005-12-05
falling off a cliff
Listening to this book provides a great insight into how invincible a small group of people thought they were. Just when you think you have mastered the universe, it begins to unravel right in front of your eyes. Beyond that, you are a witness to how the US government will step in to "protect" the markets when things begin to melt down.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- D. Littman
- 2005-02-28
Excellent finance/economics piece
This is an excellent journalistic economics/finance piece that anyone with an interest in finance or economics would find to be a "must-read," and even those ordinarily intimidated by such subjects would find to be a rivetting human story. It is also a little-known financial failure ... even for me, deeply ensconced in the subject of banking, I was distracted at the very same time by President Clinton's dominance of the airwaves with the Lewinsky scandal. LTCM did receive its share of business page headlines, but was overwhelmed by this other event in the popular mind. The book moves along & is very well read too.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
- Darian
- 2003-05-08
Captivating Story
I could not stop listening to this book. It was an amazing story. I'm not sure that someone who is not in the financial business would fully appreciate this book, but it is a must read (listen) for anyone who works on Wall Street. One can see the reason that, in 1998, we were "starring into the abyss".
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
- Mark
- 2006-07-05
Almost...but not quite
This is a worthwhile book, and the only one I know of on LTCM, but there were two aspects I thought could have been much better. First, the author reads his own book, which is typically a bad idea and it is in this case as well. Second, the book is overly simplistic and a bit preachy. The author's thesis, that the LTCM managers underestimated the risk from fat tails, is implausible given their sophistication (I'm sure the former LTCM managers would think this explanation is simply ludicrous). I think that the author failed to distill and synthesize the numerous, complex, contributing factors that were actually behind the failure in an effort to have a nice neat bumper sticker rational for its cause.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
- Anthony
- 2007-04-23
longer than needed
while this is an interesting read, it could have been a shorter book without compromising the message. The first part was ok, the middle dragged on too much and the ending was very strong. Perhaps the problem was too much detail.
At any rate, the book is very well documented and is able to put you in the situation quite easily.
I would recommend this to anyone who wants to see first hand how being smart is not always a garantee to success, but rather business sense
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- daniel
- 2020-01-22
great listen
the author takes a story of comex finance and brings out the greed and arrogance that shook the world markets reaply well and digestably
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2019-06-20
Another good book ruined
I made it through chapter 1. I am perplexed at how many very bad narrations there have been in Audible's collection; this is certainly one of them. I am going to get the Kindle because this, like many, is just not possible to get through due to the performance.
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1 person found this helpful