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Too Big To Fail is a med-to-fast paced novel on the 2008 market crash, from the perspectives of those closest to it: Wall Street, The Fed, and the Treasury. I picked this up nearly a year after reading The Big Short, which left me with just as many questions as I had going into it. It only made sense for me to read this next.
Sorkin’s writing really makes you feel as though you’re right there in the room with the likes of Dimon, Blankenfein, Fuld, and even Geithner and Paulson. There were times throughout reading this where I couldn’t put it down. I really enjoyed the way this book was written, it felt more like a dramatic economic fiction than a dry, historical textbook, or even moreso than what it actually is: a mostly dramatized recollection of real-life events with real people.
What I struggled most with this novel was how confusing it was at times. There is a large cast of characters, and the novel would often jump around events (albeit occurring concurrently). I often referred to the “character list” in the beginning of the novel, which proved to be mostly helpful. Towards the end, I began to grasp who was who and how they all interconnected (there is a LOT of interconnection between characters, everyone seems to know each other or have worked together at the same or multiple firms at some point). I also struggled with the density of this book: there is SO MUCH information. I had read this over the course of a month and felt uncertain I could accurately recall the Lehman bankruptcy by the time I got to the passing of TARP. This book also doesn’t divulge into the specifics of CDOs, subprime mortgages, ratings companies, and the economics or events surrounding the development and eventual decline of these assets.
I would recommend this novel to those who have a decent understanding of the events of the 2008 crash. I think if I had started this with little to no knowledge of the crash, I would be confused. I also recommend either taking notes (to keep track of events, characters, and general knowledge) or dedicating specific time to read this. Trying to read this while traveling or while distracted only made me revisit pages as I’d forgotten the previous events.
Overall, this was an exciting & informative read. I will certainly find myself reading this again.
Sorkin’s writing really makes you feel as though you’re right there in the room with the likes of Dimon, Blankenfein, Fuld, and even Geithner and Paulson. There were times throughout reading this where I couldn’t put it down. I really enjoyed the way this book was written, it felt more like a dramatic economic fiction than a dry, historical textbook, or even moreso than what it actually is: a mostly dramatized recollection of real-life events with real people.
What I struggled most with this novel was how confusing it was at times. There is a large cast of characters, and the novel would often jump around events (albeit occurring concurrently). I often referred to the “character list” in the beginning of the novel, which proved to be mostly helpful. Towards the end, I began to grasp who was who and how they all interconnected (there is a LOT of interconnection between characters, everyone seems to know each other or have worked together at the same or multiple firms at some point). I also struggled with the density of this book: there is SO MUCH information. I had read this over the course of a month and felt uncertain I could accurately recall the Lehman bankruptcy by the time I got to the passing of TARP. This book also doesn’t divulge into the specifics of CDOs, subprime mortgages, ratings companies, and the economics or events surrounding the development and eventual decline of these assets.
I would recommend this novel to those who have a decent understanding of the events of the 2008 crash. I think if I had started this with little to no knowledge of the crash, I would be confused. I also recommend either taking notes (to keep track of events, characters, and general knowledge) or dedicating specific time to read this. Trying to read this while traveling or while distracted only made me revisit pages as I’d forgotten the previous events.
Overall, this was an exciting & informative read. I will certainly find myself reading this again.
While a lengthy read, I found it wildly interesting, informative, and worthwhile.
Fascinating and absolutely infuriating. The personal dramas between all the major players involved in the 2008 financial collapse were really interesting, but it's also aggravating and terrifying that those personal dramas often played such an outsize role in the impacts this had for pretty much the entire world. The book organized the various threads of the system's undoing in a way that was digestible even to someone who barely knows how these financial institutions work.
Great fast-paced tale of the stress of 2008 from a fly on the wall perspective. You really get a sense of the actors in this drama as people and individuals who happen to be making difficult decisions under heavy duress, choices with life altering consequences for countless numbers of people. You also get the sense that it all would have played out so differently (not necessarily for the better) without the presence of key decision makers, especially Geithner and Paulson. Still an unbelievable period in our economic history five years later.
Fascinating but felt like I needed a character sheet at times to keep track of everyone