The old adage that a balance between greed and fear creates equilibrium on Wall Street seems hopelessly out of date in light of the revelations in this book. With each passing week of relative “calm”, chances grow greater that another crisis may be required to prompt reforms. The inability of Washington to come to any agreements on financial system reform was a significant failure in 2009, but one that received little attention outside the financial press. Sorkin’s book has received a great deal of media attention and book reviews, but there is also a need to step back and think about the lessons that must be learned if future crises are to be avoided. Sorkin’s coverage spans the timeframe from the failure of Bear Stearns up to the passage of the TARP legislation, but the narrative really shines when it comes to the events of a September weekend when the financial system came much closer to total collapse than anyone on the outside could have realized at the time. Sorkin is only 32 years old, he has obviously been able to build up a massive network of contacts on Wall Street and in Washington. If newspapers are the “first draft of history”, Andrew Ross Sorkin played a major role with his New York Times coverage of the financial crisis in 2008. Andrew Ross Sorkin’s Too Big To Fail has succeeded in delivering exactly what is needed to gain a better understanding of these historic events.

Ever since that tumultuous period, there has been a need for a comprehensive book covering the behind-the-scenes events. Most outside observers had difficulty keeping up with the momentous events of the weekend of September 14-15, 2008 with all of the twists and turns that finally led to Lehman Brothers’ historic bankruptcy filing, Bank of America’s ( BAC) purchase of Merrill Lynch, and AIG’s bailout only a few days later.

Andrew ross sorkin too big to fail