At the height of the roaring '20s, Swedish emigre Ivar Kreuger made a fortune raising money in America and loaning it to Europe in exchange for matchstick monopolies. His enterprise was a rare success story throughout the Great Depression. Yet after his suicide in 1932, it became clear that Kreuger was not all he seemed: evidence surfaced of fudged accounting figures, off-balance-sheet accounting, even forgery. He created a raft of innovative financial products-- many of them precursors to instruments wreaking havoc in today's markets. In this gripping financial biography, Frank Partnoy recasts the life story of a remarkable yet forgotten genius in ways that force us to re-think our ideas about the wisdom of crowds, the invisible hand, and the free and unfettered market.
| ISBN | 186197938X | | DEWEY edition | DC22 | | ISBN13 | 9781861979384
(What's this?) | | Pages | 288 | | Publisher | Profile Books Ltd | | Published in | London | | Imprint | Profile Books Ltd | | Previous ISBN | 9781861979667 | | Format | Paperback | | Height (mm) | 198 | | Publication date | 11 Mar 2010 | | Width (mm) | 129 | | DEWEY | 364.168092 | | Academic level | General |
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George A. Needham, Founder and Chairman of Needham & Company "The tale of Ivar Krueger, vividly brought to life by Frank Partnoy, is a reminder that Wall Street has not changed much since the late 1920's. The players change, but the animal spirits remain the same. Anyone interested in today's financial crisis will be captivated by this story."
"Time," January 13, 2009 "Frank Partnoy has an exceptionally well-timed book on Ivar Kreuger coming out."
Robert A. G. Monks, author of "Corpocracy" and "The New Global Investors"""The Match King" is a skillfully told tale of the romance and the corruption involved in attempting to be on top of the world. How did Krueger enlisted the loyalty of the people essential to him? Yes, some he bought, but most -- he beguiled."
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