Too Big to Fail [1]
Given the continuing controversy surrounding many of these events—several criminal investigations are still ongoing as of this writing, and countless civil lawsuits have been filed—most of the subjects interviewed took part only on the condition that they not be identified as a source. As a result, and because of the number of sources used to confirm every scene, readers should not assume that the individual whose dialogue or specific feeling is recorded was necessarily the person who provided that information. In many cases the account came from him or her directly, but it may also have come from other eyewitnesses in the room or on the opposite side of a phone call (often via speakerphone), or from someone briefed directly on the conversation immediately afterward, or, as often as possible, from contemporaneous notes or other written evidence.
Much has already been written about the financial crisis, and this book has tried to build upon the extraordinary record created by my esteemed colleagues in financial journalism, whose work I cite at the end of this volume. But what I hope I have provided here is the first detailed, moment-by-moment account of one of the most calamitous times in our history. The individuals who propel this narrative genuinely believed they were—and may in fact have been—staring into the economic abyss.
Galileo Galilei said, “All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.” I hope I have discovered at least some of them, and that in doing so I have made the often bewildering financial events of the past few years a little easier to understand.
THE CAST OF CHARACTERS AND THE COMPANIES THEY KEPT
FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
American International Group (AIG)
Steven J. Bensinger, chief financial officer and executive vice president
Joseph J. Cassano, head, London-based AIG Financial Products; former chief operating officer
David Herzog, controller
Brian T. Schreiber, senior vice president, strategic planning
Martin J. Sullivan, former president and chief executive officer
Robert B. Willumstad, chief executive; former chairman
Bank of America
Gregory L. Curl, director of corporate planning
Kenneth D. Lewis, president, chairman, and chief executive officer
Brian T. Moynihan, president, global corporate and investment banking
Joe L. Price, chief financial officer
Barclays
Archibald Cox Jr., chairman, Barclays Americas
Jerry del Missier, president, Barclays Capital
Robert E. Diamond Jr., president, Barclays PLC; chief executive officer, Barclays Capital
Michael Klein, independent adviser
John S. Varley, chief executive officer
Berkshire Hathaway
Warren E. Buffett, chairman, chief executive officer
Ajit Jain, president, reinsurance unit
BlackRock
Larry Fink, chief executive officer
Blackstone Group
Peter G. Peterson, co-founder
Stephen A. Schwarzman, chairman, chief executive officer, and co-founder
John Studzinski, senior managing director
China Investment Corporation
Gao Xiqing, president
Citigroup
Edward “Ned” Kelly, head, global banking for the institutional clients group
Vikram S. Pandit, chief executive
Stephen R. Volk, vice chairman
Evercore Partners
Roger C. Altman, founder and chairman
Fannie Mae
Daniel H. Mudd, president and chief executive officer
Freddie Mac
Richard F. Syron, chief executive officer
Goldman Sachs
Lloyd C. Blankfein, chairman and chief executive officer
Gary D. Cohn, co-president and co-chief operating officer
Christopher A. Cole, chairman, investment banking
John F. W. Rogers, secretary to the board
Harvey M. Schwartz, head, global securities division sales
David Solomon, managing director and co-head, investment banking
Byron Trott, vice chairman, investment banking
David A. Viniar, chief financial officer
Jon Winkelried, co-president and co-chief operating officer
Greenlight Capital
David M. Einhorn, chairman and co-founder
J.C. Flowers & Company
J. Christopher Flowers, chairman and founder
JP Morgan Chase
Steven D. Black, co-head, Investment Bank
Douglas J. Braunstein, head,