Reviewer: Breeze Riley
“Too Big to Fail” has become a phrase synonymous with the 2008 financial crisis, and Andrew Ross Sorkin is part of the reason why. Too Big to Fail is also the name of his account of the 2008 financial crisis and specifically the collapse of Lehman Brothers. The novel is also the basis for the 2011 HBO film of the same name.
Sorkin’s account is rich with insider information, taking you into the psyche of the decision-makers of the crisis, including Lehman Brothers CEO Richard S. Fuld, Jr. and Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson.
Sorkin, a New York Times’s chief mergers and acquisitions reporter and columnist, humanizes the crisis rather than giving a textbook account you might read in Econ 101. The cast itself is as large, and as psychologically complex, as that of any Shakespearean tragedy.
Although Sorkin might not dedicate large sections of the book to the crisis communications strategies used during the crisis, references to the ceaseless media blitz that occurred throughout the crisis are woven throughout. Not a chapter goes by without a key interview, press release or shareholder’s communication thrown into the mix.
Immediately after Bear Stearns was sold, Lehman Brothers arranged interviews with key financial journalists in order to halt the speculation that had devalued Lehman’s stock by 48 percent in one day. However, containing the speculation proved more difficult when the U.S. Department of Treasury decided to announce what Wall Street had been afraid of all along: There would be no bailout for Lehman Brothers. The banks tried to use the media to protect themselves. The government used the media to send a very different message to the public-a message that it would not bail out financial services firms that had engaged in excessive risk-taking.
Throughout the novel the actions of the CEOs and their communications team show what a crisis communicator might be dealing with when his or her client hits a wall as hard and fast as they did on Wall Street. The events in this book are especially telling of the types of barriers a communicator might deal with while working in a highly regulated industry such as financial services.
By no means is the book light reading- the 2009 hardcover edition is 600 pages including an index and sometimes seems a little too big to read. Penguin Books also released a longer, updated version in 2010. However, Too Big to Fail would serve as excellent supplemental reading or as a case study of the role of the crisis communications in the 2008 financial crisis.
Breeze Riley
“Too Big to Fail” has become a phrase synonymous with the 2008 financial crisis, and Andrew Ross Sorkin is part of the reason why. Too Big to Fail is also the name of his account of the 2008 financial crisis and specifically the collapse of Lehman Brothers. The novel is also the basis for the 2011 HBO film of the same name.
Sorkin’s account is rich with insider information, taking you into the psyche of the decision-makers of the crisis, including Lehman Brothers CEO Richard S. Fuld, Jr. and Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson.
Sorkin, a New York Times’s chief mergers and acquisitions reporter and columnist, humanizes the crisis rather than giving a textbook account you might read in Econ 101. The cast itself is as large, and as psychologically complex, as that of any Shakespearean tragedy.
Although Sorkin might not dedicate large sections of the book to the crisis communications strategies used during the crisis, references to the ceaseless media blitz that occurred throughout the crisis are woven throughout. Not a chapter goes by without a key interview, press release or shareholder’s communication thrown into the mix.
Immediately after Bear Stearns was sold, Lehman Brothers arranged interviews with key financial journalists in order to halt the speculation that had devalued Lehman’s stock by 48 percent in one day. However, containing the speculation proved more difficult when the U.S. Department of Treasury decided to announce what Wall Street had been afraid of all along: There would be no bailout for Lehman Brothers. The banks tried to use the media to protect themselves. The government used the media to send a very different message to the public-a message that it would not bail out financial services firms that had engaged in excessive risk-taking.
Throughout the novel the actions of the CEOs and their communications team show what a crisis communicator might be dealing with when his or her client hits a wall as hard and fast as they did on Wall Street. The events in this book are especially telling of the types of barriers a communicator might deal with while working in a highly regulated industry such as financial services.
By no means is the book light reading- the 2009 hardcover edition is 600 pages including an index and sometimes seems a little too big to read. Penguin Books also released a longer, updated version in 2010. However, Too Big to Fail would serve as excellent supplemental reading or as a case study of the role of the crisis communications in the 2008 financial crisis.
Breeze Riley