The Accidental Investment Banker: Inside the Decade That Transformed Wall Street

by JonathanKnee (Author)

• New

  Paperback
  2007

  $14.05

  Entertainingly indiscreet ...Knee's talent for wicked pen portraits is put to good use. --Financial Times Investment bankers used to be known as respectful of their clients, loyal to their firms, and chary of the financial system that allowed them to prosper. What happened? From his prestigious Wall Street perches at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, Jonathan A. Knee witnessed firsthand the lavish deal-making of the freewheeling nineties, when bankers rode the wave of the Internet economy, often by devil-may-care means. By the turn of the twenty-first century, the bubble burst and the industry was in free fall. Told with biting humor and unflinching honesty, populated with power players, back-stabbers, and gazillionaires, The Accidental Investment Banker is Knee's exhilarating insider's account of this boom-and-bust anything-goes era, when fortunes were made and reputations were lost. Not since Michael Lewis's Liar's Poker has there been as good, as accessible or as pithy a look at the world of investment banking. --The Washington Post For anyone who remembers the crazy boom times, and the even crazier bust, Jonathan A. Knee's The Accidental Investment Banker is a must. This tell-all chronicles Knee's time at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, revealing a world that rivals 24 in intrigue and drama. --Fortune [Knee] captures the glories and agonies of his profession ...Readers will marvel. --The Wall Street Journal Finally we have someone willing to lift the curtain...With refreshing candor and engaging prose, [this book] takes us inside the world of investment banking. --James B. Stewart, author of Den of Thieves and DisneyWar

• New

  Paperback
  2007

  $21.18

• New

  Hardcover
  2011

  $78.30

  Jonathan A. Knee had a ringside seat during the go-go, boom-and-bust decade and into the 21st century, at the two most prestigious investment banks on Wall Street-Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. In this candid and irreverent insider's account of an industry in free fall, Knee captures an exhilarating era of fabulous deal-making in a free-wheeling Internet economy-and the catastrophe that followed when the bubble burst. Populated with power players, back stabbers, celebrity bankers, and godzillionaires, here is a vivid account of the dramatic upheaval that took place in investment banking. Indeed, Knee entered an industry that was typified by the motto first-class business in a first-class way and saw it transformed in a decade to a free-for-all typified by the acronym IBG, YBG ( I'll be gone, you'll be gone ). Increasingly mercenary bankers signed off on weak deals, knowing they would leave them in the rear-view mirror. Once, investment bankers prospered largely on their success in serving the client, preserving the firm, and protecting the public interest. Now, in the financial supermarket era, bankers felt not only that each day might be their last, but that their worth was tied exclusively to how much revenue they generated for the firm on that day-regardless of the source. Today, most young executives feel no loyalty to their firms, and among their clients, Knee finds an unprecedented but understandable level of cynicism and distrust of investment banks. Brimming with insight into what investment bankers actually do, and told with biting humor and unflinching honesty, The Accidental Investment Banker offers a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes of the most powerful companies on Wall Street.