books
the match king ivar kreuger the financial genius behind a century of wall street scandals
at the height of the roaring 20s swedish emigre ivar kreuger made a fortune raising money in america and loaning it to europe in exchange for matchstick monopolies . his enterprise was a rare success story throughout the great depression . p yet after kreugers suicide in 1932 the true nature of his empire emerged . driven by success to adopt ever more perilous practices kreuger had turned to shell companies in tax havens fudged accounting figures off balance sheet accounting even forgery . he created a raft of innovative financial products many of them precursors to instruments wreaking havoc in todays markets . when his wall street empire collapsed millions went bankrupt . p frank partnoy a frequent commentator on financial disaster for the financial times new york times npr and cbss 60 minutes recasts the life story of a remarkable yet forgotten genius in ways that force us to re think our ideas about the wisdom of crowds the invisible hand and the free and unfettered market .
hardcover publicaffairs 2009 isbn13 9781586487430 isbn10 1586487434
abridged n isbn 13 9781586487430 number in series 1 number of pages 272 publisher perseus books group release date 62135769600000