2023 Archive
Adam Smith’s America:
HOW A SCOTTISH PHILOSOPHER BECAME AN ICON OF AMERICAN CAPITALISM
Glory Liu
Historians would not be debating the real legacy of Adam Smith as moral philosopher or laissez-faire ideologue if those substantive issues had been resolved today. Throughout Liu’s careful and impressive effort, one thing is abundantly clear: a lot of people who do not agree with each other want Adam Smith on their side. In reading this work, you’ll be exposed to the tremendous reality that even the most reputable of scholars “bring their own set of beliefs and preoccupations to bear on his ideas.” And while I believe a harmonization of Smith’s vast contributions to the subjects of commercial society, political economic, and moral philosophy is quite achievable, I am struck by Liu’s success in portraying much of the 19th, 20th, and now 21st centuries’ analyses of Smith to be devoid of harmonization and heavy on selectivity.
Power Failure:
THE RISE AND FALL OF AN AMERICAN ICON
William D. Cohan
Power Failure, Cohan’s most recent work, is not a Wall Street saga per se, but it is adjacent. It tells the story of General Electric, an industrial conglomerate with iconic American roots. That Cohan chose to give us the entire 125-year history instead of starting the book in the last 20 years is to his credit. Students of business history deserve to know the intersection of capital and innovation that was instrumental to American progress in the 19th century, and Cohan makes the details and particulars riveting.
Merchants of Debt:
KKR AND THE MORTGAGING OF AMERICAN BUSINESS
George Anders
It can be really fun to read the “history” of something that is still going today, bigger and stronger than ever, yet the “history” was written almost thirty years ago. The origins of private equity behemoth started in the 1960’s, and this book was written in the early 1990’s, which means there was plenty to cover about KKR’s formation and first couple decades of existence when this was written, but I as a reader get to take it in knowing another ~30 years of history that the author didn’t know. All in all, the book was utterly fascinating, the warnings about leveraged buyouts comical to read in the context of what actually happened with interest rates, and the historical detail well worth the read. The demonization and misunderstanding of private equity is likely not going anywhere, but nor is private equity’s unmistakably positive contributions to our economy and quality of life.
WHO SAYS ELEPHANTS CAN’T DANCE?
Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.
The only thing I love more than a really good CEO memoir is a really good CEO memoir that the CEO actually wrote him or herself, sans ghostwriter. Gerstner is no longer with us but what he did for IBM in the 1990’s is one of the top five CEO legendary stories of all time, and his own raw memoir of his run there did not disappoint. Should be required business school reading, to the extent business schools still care about teaching one what it means to do business.
THE CAESAR’S PALACE COUP
Max Frumes and Sujeet Indap
You couldn’t make up an idea for a book that would suck me in more than this. Private Equity investors in a brawl with junior debtholders over one of the largest Las Vegas conglomerate of assets in the world. Lawyers. Lawsuits. Wall Street. Capital structure. Each side firmly convinced it is their ethical duty to get a pound of flesh out of the other side. A fiduciary duty to equity investors. The legal hierarchy of debtholders. All wrapped in a well-written narrative and story about one of the most bizarre legal and financial stories of the last decade. A stunning story with a who’s who of Wall Street cast.
THE ARISTOCRACY OF TALENT:
HOW MERITOCRACY MADE THE MODERN WORLD
Adrian Woolridge
The book was almost depressing just in the sense of how it captures the assault of meritocracy currently taking place by culture warriors of both the left and the right. The book acknowledges some realities that a high value on merit, work, talent, and intelligence mean in the society, but dares to point out the scariest thing we face as a culture: Hint: It’s not more meritocracy, but rather, what we would face if we got rid of it!