Books like The End of Wall Street

01

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine

Michael Lewis · Economics

The Big Short is Michael Lewis's account of the 2008 financial crisis as seen through the eyes of a handful of contrarians who saw the collapse coming, bet against the American housing market, and were right.

Shares financial crisis and risk with The End of Wall Street.

02

When Genius Failed

Roger Lowenstein · Economics

When Genius Failed is Roger Lowenstein's account of Long-Term Capital Management, the hedge fund that almost took down the global financial system in 1998.

A kindred economics read.

03

Liar's Poker

Michael Lewis · Business

Liar's Poker is Michael Lewis's account of his years as a bond salesman at Salomon Brothers in the 1980s, the decade when Wall Street stopped being a gentleman's club and became something closer to a casino.

Shares risk and greed with The End of Wall Street.

04

Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk

Peter L. Bernstein · History

Against the Gods is Peter Bernstein's intellectual history of how humanity learned to measure, quantify, and manage risk — a story he traces from ancient gambling in the Mediterranean through the development of modern probability theory, statistics, and financial derivatives.

Both dig into risk.

05

Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts

Annie Duke · Psychology

Thinking in Bets is Annie Duke's argument that most decisions in life share a fundamental feature with poker hands: you're choosing under uncertainty, with incomplete information, and luck will affect the outcome regardless of how well you reasoned.

Both dig into risk.

06

The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World

Niall Ferguson · Economics

Niall Ferguson published The Ascent of Money in 2008, with timing that turned out to be acute: the book appeared just as the global financial crisis was unfolding, making its subject matter suddenly urgent for readers who had barely thought about the mechanics of credit default swaps or mortgage securitization.

Shares risk and banking with The End of Wall Street.

07

More Money Than God

Sebastian Mallaby · Economics

Sebastian Mallaby's history of hedge funds begins with Alfred Winslow Jones, who in 1949 invented the basic structure that still defines the industry: borrow money to buy what you think will go up, sell short what you think will go down, take a 20 percent cut of the profits.

Both dig into risk.

08

Panic: The Story of Modern Financial Insanity

ed. Michael Lewis · Economics

Panic is an anthology edited by Michael Lewis, collecting journalism, essays, and firsthand accounts about five major financial crises from 1987 to 2007: the Black Monday crash, the emerging markets panics of the 1990s, the Long-Term Capital Management collapse, the dot-com bust, and the early signals of the subprime mortgage crisis.

Both dig into risk.

09

The Misbehavior of Markets

Benoit Mandelbrot · Economics

Benoit Mandelbrot, the mathematician who discovered fractal geometry, spent decades arguing that standard financial theory systematically underestimates the riskiness of markets.

Both dig into risk.

10

America's Bank: The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve

Roger Lowenstein · History

The Federal Reserve was created in 1913, but the story of how it came into existence spans three decades and involves a level of political resistance, financial panic, and legislative maneuvering that makes the eventual outcome seem unlikely in retrospect.

Both dig into banking.

11

Bad Pharma

Ben Goldacre · Health

Bad Pharma is Ben Goldacre's sustained indictment of the pharmaceutical industry's manipulation of clinical trial evidence, and of the regulatory and academic institutions that have failed to stop it.

Both dig into regulation.

12

Barbarians at the Gate

Bryan Burrough · Business

Barbarians at the Gate is Bryan Burrough and John Helyar's account of the 1988 leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco, at the time the largest corporate transaction in history.

Both dig into greed.