Fooling Some of the People All of the Time, A Long Short (and Now Complete) Story, Updated with New Epilogue

By David Einhorn & Joel Greenblatt

Fooling Some of the People All of the Time, A Long Short (and Now Complete) Story, Updated with New Epilogue - David Einhorn & Joel Greenblatt
  • Release Date: 2010-06-10
  • Genre: Investing
Score: 4.5
4.5
From 58 Ratings

Description

A revealing look at Wall Street, the financial media, and financial regulators by David Einhorn, the President of Greenlight Capital
Could 2008's credit crisis have been minimized or even avoided? In 2002, David Einhorn-one of the country's top investors-was asked at a charity investment conference to share his best investment advice. Short sell Allied Capital. At the time, Allied was a leader in the private financing industry. Einhorn claimed Allied was using questionable accounting practices to prop itself up. Sound familiar? At the time of the original version of Fooling Some of the People All of the Time: A Long Short Story the outcome of his advice was unknown. Now, the story is complete and we know Einhorn was right. In 2008, Einhorn advised the same conference to short sell Lehman Brothers. And had the market been more open to his warnings, yes, the market meltdown might have been avoided, or at least minimized.
Details the gripping battle between Allied Capital and Einhorn's Greenlight Capital Illuminates how questionable company practices are maintained and, at times, even protected by Wall Street Describes the failings of investment banks, analysts, journalists, and government regulators Describes how many parts of the Allied Capital story were replayed in the debate over Lehman Brothers
Fooling Some of the People All of the Time is an important call for effective government regulation, free speech, and fair play.

Reviews

  • Interesting and well written

    5
    By CLJ86
    As an investment banker in the financial institutions space (I focus on insurance and have never worked on any transactions involving BDCs), I thought this book was quite interesting and comprehensive yet I expect accessible to someone without a financial services background. A lot of the more popular Wall Street books are so oversimplified that they are painful for someone with even a modest degree of financial literacy to read. This is likely because most financial journalists don't "get it" and few actual financial services professionals are in positions to write books. This is also one of the few financial books I have read that I could not put down. I read from page 300 to the end in one siting. A financial book that can do that certainly deserves 5 stars.
  • Great story

    5
    By Willclar
    Truth is stranger than fiction. Too bad the book ended before Allied Capital did, Einhorn has the patience of a saint.