Winner of the Pulitzer Prize
“Erudite, entertaining macroeconomic history of the lead-up to the Great Depression as seen through the careers of the West’s principal bankers . . . Spellbinding, insightful and, perhaps most important, timely.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred)
“There is terrific prescience to be found in [Lords of Finance’s] portrait of times past . . . [A] writer of...

"Kir "Master" Vasiliev doesn't care whether he lives or dies. He's a burnt-out shell with no one and nothing but his club. Whatever Torpedo Ink needs, Master will put himself in harm's way time after time. If he doesn't make it back, he's certain everyone will move on just fine. Investment banker Ambrielle Moore knows her own mind, and she's not willing to settle for anyone. So when a second-rate gangster and his thugs try to coerce her into marriage--and...

Learn the ropes for interest rate swaps, the most popular financial derivative in the world. Then, see how a complex form of swaps, brokered by Bankers Trust in the early 1990s, led to huge losses for some famous corporations and an ensuing round of bitter lawsuits. The case holds lessons for anyone investing in financial instruments that they don't fully understand.

On an early morning in November, a couple boards a private plane bound for Geneva, flying into a storm. Soon after, it simply drops off the radar, and its wreckage is later uncovered in the Alps. Among the disappeared is Matthew Werner, a banking insider at Swiss United, a powerful offshore bank. His young widow, Annabel, is left grappling with the secrets he left behind, including an encrypted laptop and a shady client list. As she begins a desperate...

A female investment banker, fighting to rise to the top of the corporate ladder at a competitive Wall Street firm, navigates a controversial tech IPO in the post-financial crisis world, where loyalties are suspect, regulations are tight, but pressure to bring in "big money" remains high.

"When an old acquaintance reaches out to Stone Barrington requesting assistance, the job seems easy enough. She needs an expert in an esoteric field, someone with both the knowledge and careful dexterity to solve a puzzle. But the solution to one small problem blows the lid open on a bigger scandal going back decades, and involving numerous prominent New Yorkers who would prefer the past stay buried. With this explosive information in-hand, Stone...

"For the citizens of Spokane Falls, the fire of 1889 that destroyed their frontier boomtown was no disaster; it was an opportunity. Barton Heydale, manager of the only bank in Spokane Falls, is on the verge of ending his short, unpopular life. But when his city goes up in flames, he sees an ember of hope shimmering on the horizon, headed right for him. As citizens flock to the bank to cash out insurance policies and take out loans, he realizes he...

"The saga of the German-Jewish immigrants-with now familiar names like Goldman and Sachs, Kuhn and Loeb, Lehman and Seligman-who built the modern American finance system and shaped the world economy, from the New York Times bestselling author of Sons of Wichita. Joseph Seligman arrived in the United States in 1837, with the equivalent of $100 sewn into the lining of his pants. Then came Henry and Emanuel Lehman, who would open a general store in Montgomery,...

"Archie Goodwin's aunt Edna is about to lure him away from his work at Nero Wolfe's New York brownstone. After a phone call, he heads off to Ohio, where the president of Farmer's State Bank and Trust, an elderly widower, has died in an apparent suicide. But Archie's aunt has expressed nagging suspicions--which only grow stronger when someone takes a shot at a local reporter who wrote about the case. It wouldn't be a small town without some gossip,...

"Allegra Cobb's resume: Straight-A Princeton grad, second-year analyst at a top-tier bank, one-time American Yoga National Competition Champion. Allegra Cobb's reality: Spends twenty-four hours a day changing the colors on bar charts, overusing the word "team, " and daydreaming about quitting the minute her year-end bonus hits her account. She has no interest in the cutthroat banking world--she's going to launch her very own yoga practice. But her...