Den
of Thieves
By
James Brewer Stewart
TouchStone Books, 1992
This is a book that many have told me to
read as I indirectly worked for (2 people above me) one of the
individuals discussed in this book, albeit at a firm he later
worked for and still works for.
The 1980's were known as the "Greed Decade"
but, for many, the true excesses of that greed were never
fully known or are now only a distant memory.
James Stewart's book, "Den of
Thieves" apparently provides a comprehensive, fascinating
and readable look at the insider trading scandals of the
1980's which brought words like arbitrageur and LBO into the
mainstream and people like Boesky and Milken household names.
Stewart begins by looking at the rise of
some of Wall Street's highest fliers and, in many cases,
providing exhaustive details of how the prevailing mantra of
"greed is good" led them to orchestrate their own
downfall. The audacity of many of these people is almost
breathtaking, as is the wealth they accumulated. Stewart moves
on to detail the process by which the government, in the form
of the SEC and then-US Attorney Rudy Giuliani, brought this
house of cards tumbling down. The various players in the game
are portrayed with varying degrees of sympathy. However, the
government authorities are not necessarily portrayed in the
most flattering light and Stewart raises a number of questions
about the overall handling of the investigations.
One word of caution according to people
who have read the book - don't get bogged down in the details
of the story. The insider trading scandal involved hundreds of
players and transactions and it is almost impossible to
assimilate the entire story without getting somewhat confused.
Nevertheless, the book is at its most effective when you take
a step back and look at the grand scheme of the insider
trades, the methods by which the perpetrators were brought to
justice and the punishment they suffered from their crimes.
Overall, I hear that the book that is
well written and raises fundamental questions about the
way business was, and is, conducted and the way in which the
justice system operates. I would highly recommend it as the
definitive account of the insider trading scandals of the
1980s.
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