My Favorite Business Mischief Books
collapses, impropriety, boardroom battles, and palace coups.
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I just finished Rob Copeland’s book, The Fund, about Bridgewater Associates. The book is one of my favorites of 2024, filled with “truth is stranger than fiction” stories about one of the world’s biggest hedge funds.
Financial shenanigans, cultural shenanigans, collapses, impropriety, boardroom battles, and palace coups.
I love this genre of business reads so I made a list.
Here’s my list in no particular order:
The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron, Bethany McLean, Peter Elkind - probably one of my favorite books
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, John Carreyrou- how much was this “fake it till you make it”, like the majority of startups vs. “fraud”? The composition of Theranos’ Board is remarkable in that is was all old white men (that part’s not remarkable at all), that had expertise in fields completely outside Theranos’ industry.
Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry, Jacquie McNish, Sean Silcoff- “We’re the kings of the world! No one is going to ever use a phone that doesn’t have a keyboard built in.” Uh-oh.
Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street, Sheelah Kolhatkar- Stevie Cohen and SAC Capital- reads like a thriller
When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management, Roger Lowenstein- This is a financial history “table stakes”(have to read it) book- how the Financial Super Friends imploded.
Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System--and Themselves, Andrew Ross Sorkin- Another table stakes book-vast, expansive, retelling of the financial crisis. Excellent.
The Fund: Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, and the Unraveling of a Wall Street Legend, Rob Copeland- I still can’t believe some of the stories from this book.
Hedge Hogs: The Cowboy Traders Behind Wall Street's Largest Hedge Fund Disaster, Barbara T. Dreyfuss- The famous (in hedge fund history anyway) natural gas trading battle between John Arnold and Brian Hunter. So, so interesting. I went to work for Amaranth for a bit when they rebranded as Verition. They were nice people.
The Bond King: How One Man Made a Market, Built an Empire, and Lost It All, Mary Childs- How one person can seemingly dominate an entire asset class for a period of time. The rise and fall of Bill Gross.
Lights Out: Pride, Delusion, and the Fall of General Electric, Thomas Gryta, Ted Mann- How GE collapsed.
Number Go Up: Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall, Zeke Faux - Loved this book, crazy stories of the delusion that was/is crypto. Coming soon- The AI Underwriter NFT collection!
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Michael Lewis- table stakes book- required reading to understand what happened during the mortgage crisis.
I heartily endorse the AI Underwriter's List list "My Favorite Business Mischief Books".
I had read Principles by Ray Dalio when it was first published and we attempted to implement parts of it into my company, Arteric. I always wondered how Ray got it to work without tearing the culture and company apart. "The Fund" provided a satisfyingly confirmatory yet comical perspective on what my leadership team and I experienced with radical transparency and creating an Idea Meritocracy. There were multiple times while listening to the book that I felt sick to my stomach.
I've read about half the list on his personal recommendation and they've been really insightful and educational.
I have left to read on the list: "Bad Blood...", "Losing the Signal...", "The Bond King...", and "Numbers Go Up..".
I will add a little to the conversation with some recommendations of my own.
Conspiracy of Fools, Kurt Eichenwald
The story of Enron
https://a.co/d/bIbaGo2
Disrupted, Dan Lyons
The story of Hubspot
https://a.co/d/gXyHkbl
The Guns of August, Barbara W. Tuchman
The history of miscommunication and blunders that lead to WWI
https://a.co/d/fbPwy3j