Too Big to Fail - Andrew Ross Sorkin [328]
“Morgan Stanley applauds Attorney General Cuomo”: Press release, September 18, 2008. Find full text in Press section of Morgan Stanley’s company Web site, http://www.morgan-stanley.com.
“There are no atheists in foxholes”: Peter Baker, “A Professor and a Wall Street Deal Maker Bury Old Dogma on Free Markets,” New York Times, September 21, 2008.
Resolution Trust Corporation: Lee Davidson, “The Resolution Trust Corporation and Congress, 1989–1993,” 18, no. 2, FDIC Banking Review, 2006.
L. William Seidman: Greenspan, The Age of Turbulence, 116.
“This new governmental body”: Excerpt of an editorial written by Nicholas F. Brady, Eugene A. Ludwig, and Paul A. Volcker, “Resurrect the Resolution Trust Corp.,” Wall Street Journal, September 17, 2008.
“As Fears Grow, Wall St. Titans”: Ben White and Eric Dash, “As Fears Grow, Wall St. Titans See Shares Fall,” New York Times, September 17, 2008.
“We need a merger partner or we’re not going to make it”: An appended editors’ note in the New York Times on September 17, 2008, said that both Morgan Stanley and Citigroup “vigorously” denied that Mack had ever made this comment.
Sulzberger family pulled its money from Morgan Stanley: Sarah Ellison, “New York Times Controlling Family Moves Assets from Morgan Stanley,” Wall Street Journal, February 3, 2007.
Morgan Stanley’s unfailingly bearish economist: Sarah McBride, “Bearish Economist Roach Says U.S. Caused Global Recession,” Asian Wall Street Journal, July 13, 2001.
George Soros acolyte worth more than $3.5 billion: That week, Stanley Druckenmiller had been ranked 105 on Forbes’s annual list of the four hundred richest Americans, with a net worth of $3.5 billion. “The Forbes 400 List,” Forbes, September 17, 2008.
sent out a companywide e-mail: Author obtained copy of e-mail.
Congress to increase the “debt ceiling” in July: The “debt ceiling” was a political hot potato that would require Congress to vote to increase the amount of debt the country could take on, and Congress had just increased the amount to $10.615 trillion in July.
“The market is trading under the assumption”: “European Shares Rise after Central Bank Plan, Asia Losses,” Agence France-Presse, September 18, 2008.
“The Star-Spangled Banner”: New York Times, October 2, 2008.
FSA announcing temporary ban on short-selling: David Prosser, “Hedge Funds’ Misery as FSA Bans Short-selling on 32 Firms,” The Independent, September 20, 2008.
“Treasury, Fed Weighing Wider Plan”: Alison Vekshin, “Treasury, Fed Weighing Wider Plan to Ease Crisis, Schumer Says,” Bloomberg, September 18, 2008.
Charlie Gasparino of CNBC reported what he was hearing from his sources on Wall Street”: “Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson is working on an RTC-type solution to the financial crisis, reports CNBC’s Charlie Gasparino.” CNBC, September 18, 2008.
“Mr. Secretary, we would like to meet with you”: On September 28, Pelosi relayed her phone conversation with Paulson to CBS’s 60 Minutes anchor Scott Pelley. Pelley also interviewed Paulson on the show. “Secretary Paulson Details the Federal Bailout,” 60 Minutes, CBS, September 28, 2008.
The notion of becoming a bank holding company: Jon Hilsenrath, Damian Paletta, and Aaron Lucchetti, “Goldman, Morgan Scrap Wall Street Model, Become Banks in Bid to Ride Out Crisis,” Wall Street Journal, September 22, 2008.
to meet with the congressional leadership at Nancy Pelosi’s office: The meeting took place on the second floor of the Capitol, in a conference room beside Pelosi’s personal suite. Carl Hulse and David M. Herszenhorn, “Behind Closed Doors, Warnings of Calamity,” New York Times, September 20, 2008.
“I spent my career as an academic studying great depressions”: Bernanke, as quoted by Wessel, In FED We Trust, 203.
noticeably gulped: As Schumer himself told the New York Times, “When you listened to him describe it, you gulped.” David M. Herszenhorn, “Congressional Leaders Stunned by Warnings,” New York Times, September 19, 2008.
“What about the homeowner?”: Wessel, In FED We Trust.
Richard