Confidence Game - Christine Richard [0]
Praise
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Preface
Acknowledgements
Chapter One - The Meeting
Chapter Two - The Short Seller
Chapter Three - The Question
Chapter Four - Backlash
Chapter Five - The Worst That Could Happen
Chapter Six - The Trouble with Triple-A
Chapter Seven - Unanswered Questions
Chapter Eight - Crimes and Cockroaches
Chapter Nine - Turning the Tables
Chapter Ten - Scrutiny
Chapter Eleven - The Black Hole
Chapter Twelve - The Court of Public Opinion
Chapter Thirteen - The Insurance Charade
Chapter Fourteen - When Crack Houses Become Collateral
Chapter Fifteen - Storm Warnings
Chapter Sixteen - An Uncertain Spring
Chapter Seventeen - Apocalypse Now
Chapter Eighteen - Parting the Curtain
Chapter Nineteen - Ratings Revisited
Chapter Twenty - The Panic Begins
Chapter Twenty-One - Catastrophe and Revenge
Chapter Twenty-Two - Time Runs Out
Chapter Twenty-Three - Bailout
Chapter Twenty-Four - Judgment Day
Chapter Twenty-Five - The Nuclear Threat
Epilogue
Notes
Index
About the Author
Praise for
Confidence Game How a Hedge Fund Manager Called Wall Street’s Bluff
by Christine S. Richard
Bloomberg News
“Christine Richard’s Confidence Game is an insightful, timely, and fascinating high-speed drive into the often difficult-to-penetrate world of short sellers, with its particular focus on Bill Ackman and his campaign against monoline insurance giant MBIA.”
SCOTT B. MACDONALD
SENIOR MANAGING DIRECTOR
ALADDIN CAPITAL LLC AND COAUTHOR OF SEPARATING FOOLS FROM
THEIR MONEY
“How to head off the next crash? Listen to the dissidents now. Christine Richard’s deeply researched and deftly written account of Bill Ackman’s high-stakes struggle with a leading pillar of a now-collapsed system is the right book at the right time, and a mesmerizing read.”
DEAN STARKMAN
EDITOR
“THE AUDIT,” THE BUSINESS SECTION OF THE COLUMBIA JOURNALISM
REVIEW
“Bill Ackman’s battle with MBIA will be remembered as one of the great epics of Wall Street history, and no one followed the story more closely than Christine Richard.”
BETHANY MCLEAN
COAUTHOR OF THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM
“Finally, a financial crisis book with a hero. It’s a compelling morality tale of how one man uncovered a massive fraud and then fought tenaciously to show the world he was right. Richard had unparalleled access to the major players in this saga—from venal executives to incompetent regulators—and she weaves the threads of complex financial shenanigans into a page-turning narrative. Ackman emerges as the Don Quixote of financial markets: you will root for him and a happy ending.”
FRANK PARTNOY
AUTHOR OF F.I.A.S.C.O., INFECTIOUS GREED, AND THE MATCH KING
“Confidence Game is a lesson for all investors on the value of independent and exhaustive research. It’s also a riveting story.”
TODD SULLIVAN
CREATOR OF VALUEPLAYS.NET AND A REGULAR CONTRIBUTOR TO THE
STOCKTWITS BLOG NETWORK AND SEEKING ALPHA
Copyright © 2010 by Christine S. Richard. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book,