Inventing Money: The Story of Long-Term Capital Management and the Legends Behind It

Inventing Money: The Story of Long-Term Capital Management and the Legends Behind It

by NicholasDunbar (Author)

Synopsis

LTCM (Long-Term Capital Management) - a portmfolio of bonds worth $100 billion - owned 5% of the global interest rate swap market plus other derivatives, it had a notional value of $1 trillion. The people involved in the LTCM were the "dream team": Robert Merton and Myron Scholes (both Nobel Prize winners for their work on option pricing), John Meriwether (the former vice-chairman of Salomon Brothers and one-time Wall Street star of bond trading), and David Mullins (ex-Harvard Business School Professor and previously vice-chairman of the Federal Reserve). Even with all this financial expertise, in September 1998, LTCM collapsed, making financial headline news across the world and requiring 14 investment banks to provide $3.6 billion in cash to stop the fund going under and dragging each of them down as well.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 262
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Published: 01 Oct 1999

ISBN 10: 0471899992
ISBN 13: 9780471899990

Media Reviews
.. .a primer for those interested in the world of financial theory. --Financial Times Inventing Money is not the last word on the subject, but it is a good start. --The Economist Dunbar tells the full story of this most public of financial disasters, unveiling previously undisclosed information, in captivating and accessible terms. --EuroBusiness Mr Dunbar has gained the rare distinction of writing an interesting and informative book on a very complex financial subject and for that he deserves much credit. --Offshore Financial Review Dunbar offers us a well-written and informative account of how the company's culture developed, and why LTCM plummeted so dramatically. --Balance Sheet It is a fast moving and readable account that explains the development of finance over the centuries before recounting the brief but eventful life of LTCM. --Risk A fascinating tale, not to be missed. --Chartered Secretary .. .his brave effort to explore the LTCM fiasco, its origins, and its ramifications. Dunbar is a former academician and journalist, making him an ideal writer to explore the theoretical origins of LTCM. The author excels with his affectionate portrait of financial-theory giants such as the late Fischer Black. This book is a good source of information on the theoretical underpinnings of modern arbitrage. --Business Week Nicholas Dunbar has written a fascinating account of this spectacular episode, and in doing so has provided an instructive insight into the functioning of global capitalism. --CIB News Nicholas Dunbar's fascinating book is well-written. The book should appeal to a wide audience. Economists should certainly read it. Dunbar writes in a clear and accessible manner.
Author Bio
NICHOLAS DUNBAR studied physics in the UK at Manchester and Cambridge and finally in the US at Harvard University, where he gained a Master's degree in earth and planetary sciences. During this period his interests ranged from quantum mechanics and black holes to evolution and the history of global climate change. His teachers included Stephen Hawking at Cambridge and Stephen Jay Gould at Harvard. In 1990, Dunbar decided to leave academia. He spent the next few years working in feature films and television, in a wide range of capacities. In 1996, after launching the television production company Flicker Films, a chance encounter with some old Harvard friends set him on a new path of finance and science writing, focusing on the derivatives industry. In 1998, he joined Risk magazine as technical editor. He is 33 and lives in London.