Comments on: “A Colossal Failure of Common Sense” Had Ultimate Inside Access.

By: Terrence Lagmen

Terrence Lagmen — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:24:49 +0000

Larry, I just finished your book. Very interesting and well worth the read, but I can’t decide whether Colossal… is meant to be an autobiographical, historical, or financial effort. While some personal background and perspective is great, you went overboard (’overbored’). Given your work in the securities industry, it would have been more compelling had you given more background on trading rationale, etc. Nonetheless, good effort. Thanks.

By: Larry Jordan

Larry Jordan — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 03:32:30 +0000

Larry, I enjoyed your book, finding it entertaining and, for the most part, squaring with the facts.

However, I’d like to point out a few things:

1) Your suggestion at the outset that the financial crisis was partly caused by Clinton and Achtenberg trying to help 1st time home buyers share in the American dream, is at odds with most of what you say in the book. For example, you say Clinton and Achtenberg were responsible for 2 million new home owners between 1993 - 1999, but that time frame is obviously years before the burst. And, about 50% of mortgage failures are concentrated in 4 states; California, Nevada, Florida and Arizona, yet 1st time home buyers are more uniformly distributed.

2) You mentioned Clinton and Achtenberg several times in your prologue as being responsible for the financial crisis, but little or no mention of folks like Gramm, Greenspan, Cassano, Corbet, Sandler, O’Neal, Ranieri, Greenberg, etc., all of whom played a much bigger role and, many of whom, profited handsomely.

3) You place yourself amongst a group of the best and the brightest, working long hours and employing clever strategies to make huge profits. You make it sound as if the investment banker is key to economic prosperity, yet no investment bank has ever made a nickel. You are amongst a group that simply redistributes the wealth created by others. People like Edison, Ford, Carnegie, and more contemporary folks like Jobs, Gates, Hewlett, are the creators of wealth, taking raw materials and intellect and producing products and jobs. You and the people you admire spend your energy concentrating wealth in the hands of a few at the expense of millions. You devise clever schemes to take money out of pension accounts and 401Ks and put it in the bank accounts of people like Dick Fuld.

I sometimes think about what this world would look like if the brilliant people feverishly working to move the money around, redirected their efforts to actually do some good, perhaps in medicine, engineering or education.

By: Elaine Camp

Elaine Camp — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 23:07:45 +0000

I wish this book was required reading for every politician in Washington, as well as all the commentators who are lambasting the “government bailout” of Wall Street. I hate to think what would have happened if the Government hadn’t come to the rescue of the American economy.

During the 90’s when the regulatory environment was relaxed, the Wall Street financiers became consumed with greed and totally indifferent to their fiduciary responsibility to the people whose money they were using. It’s hard to be optimistic about America’s future when so many of our politicians still spout ideological rhetoric about “free markets” and rabble-rousing slogans about the evils of “big government.” This book gave me a much better understanding of how critical it is for the government to protect the public’s interest. The financiers certainly won’t.

Somebody should make this book into a series for television or a good movie. There’s an important message here for the American public.

By: Eduardo M. Nogoy

Eduardo M. Nogoy — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:09:26 +0000

Larry, the moment I read the first page of your book I was already captivated. Not only do I want my children, nephews, and nieces to read this book to get a better understanding of how the world economy got here but also to learn how persevearance and honest-to-goodness hardwork can get you where you want to be because of your dreams and passion. Thank you for helping me better understand the workings of “Wall Street” and “Main Street”. Our system of capitalism is flawed and to date I have not seen any drastic changes in the system that will avert the next financial crisis. Like you father always said - “History always repeats itself”. And so the battle rages on between the Bulls and the Bears in Wall Street and World markets minus one icon of merchant banking, The Lehman Brothers. I learned a lot from the demise of Lehman Brothers because of you and Patrick Robinson.

By: Jane Marston

Jane Marston — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:57:36 +0000

Larry, I finished your book yesterday and want to say a word of thanks to you (and Patrick Robinson). I am a small investor, age 63, who might not otherwise have had a good way to understand either the day-to-day activities of a Wall Street investment bank, or the nature of the derivative instruments that weakened our economy. I greatly appreciate your detailed explanations, especially since they are hung on the “hook” of an interesting personal narrative that helps make them understandable. The conversational tone of the book is a great success, I think, as are the earmarks of high tragedy: the hubris of the king, the disintegration of the social order, the turning of–most certainly–fortune’s wheel. You have, indeed, informed Main Street and paid tribute to the many hardworking Wall Street traders and support staff whose lives were upset by the events of September 2008.

Athens, GA

By: Lynn and Gary Pakulla

Lynn and Gary Pakulla — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 21:57:16 +0000

Larry, My husband and I read your book. It was quite good and we learned a lot about the inner workings of wall street. We were one of the unfortunate people who had a Lehman Bond and lost it all. No problem, it was only our retirement. We can’t understand that there is nothing left, we thought a bond was safe. It makes one totally distrust wall street. It seems Wall Street runs on a money making fever there that spreads without regard to those of us on the bottom rung of the ladder. Those salarys and bonus’s are mind boggling. Whose money is it anyway? Is it really yours to take? I just don’t know anymore……..A collossal failure of course, but also a collossal disappointment and mistrust….