Best Selling Books by Frank Partnoy

At the height of the roaring ''20s, Swedish ''migr'' 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 Kreuger''s suicide in 1932, the true nature of his empire emerged. Driven by success to adopt ever-more perilous practices, Kreuger had turned to shell companies in tax havens, 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. When his Wall Street empire collapsed, millions went bankrupt. Frank Partnoy, a frequent commentator on financial disaster for the Financial Times, New York Times, NPR, and CBS''s "60 Minutes," 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.

The bestselling author of "F.I.A.S.C.O." presents a riveting chronicle of the rise of dangerous financial instruments and the growing crisis in American business. Partnoy recounts the rise of the trading instruments and corporate financial structures that now imperil the economic health of the country. Author speaking tour.

FIASCO is the shocking story of one man''s education in the jungles of Wall Street. As a young derivatives salesman at Morgan Stanley, Frank Partnoy learned to buy and sell billions of dollars worth of securities that were so complex many traders themselves didn''t understand them. In his behind-the-scenes look at the trading floor and the offices of one of the world''s top investment firms, Partnoy recounts the macho attitudes and fiercely competitive ploys of his office mates. And he takes us to the annual drunken skeet-shooting competition, FIASCO, where he and his colleagues sharpen the killer instincts they are encouraged to use against their competitiors, their clients, and each other. FIASCO is the first book to take on the derivatves trading industry, the most highly charged and risky sector of the stock market. More importantly, it is a blistering indictment of the largely unregulated market in derivatives and serves as a warning to unwary investors about real fiascos, which have cost billions of dollars.

In this behind-the-scenes look at one of the world''s top Wall Street investment firms, Partnoy recounts his experience during the annual drunken skeet-shooting competition where he and his colleagues sharpen the killer instincts they''re encouraged to use against competitors, clients, and each other.

What do these scenarios have in common: a professional tennis player returning a serve, a woman evaluating a first date across the table, a naval officer assessing a threat to his ship, and a comedian about to reveal a punch line? In this counterintuitive and insightful work, author Frank Partnoy weaves together findings from hundreds of scientific studies and interviews with wide-ranging experts to craft a picture of effective decision-making that runs counter to our brutally fast-paced world. Even as technology exerts new pressures to speed up our lives, it turns out that the choices we make -- unconsciously and consciously, in time frames varying from milliseconds to years -- benefit profoundly from delay. As this winning and provocative book reveals, taking control of time and slowing down our responses yields better results in almost every arena of life -- even when time seems to be of the essence. The procrastinator in all of us will delight in Partnoy''s accounts of celebrity "delay specialists," from Warren Buffett to Chris Evert to Steve Kroft, underscoring the myriad ways in which delaying our reactions to everyday choices -- large and small -- can improve the quality of our lives.

This book is an engaging and accessible text for a Business Associations or Corporations law course. The clear narrative that students love now includes full chapters on agency and partnership for professors who cover those concepts, as well as updated materials on environmental, social, and governance issues and on shareholder activism. The book uses explanatory and thought-provoking breakout boxes, as well as points for discussion, to prepare students for lively classroom conversation.

Softbound - New, softbound print book.

Ivar Kreuger (1880 – 1932) war die zentrale Figur des europäischen Zündwarenmonopols, ein genialer Geschäftsmann seiner Zeit. Faszinierend ist in erster Linie sein Erfindungsreichtum, mit dem er komplexe Finanzinstrumente entwickelte, um seine Transaktionen undurchsichtig zu machen. Nach seinem Selbstmord und dem Zusammenbruch seines Imperiums kamen immer mehr betrügerische Einzelheiten ans Licht. Sie führten schließlich zu den Wertpapiergesetzen von 1933 und 1934 in den USA, die u. a. Finanzderivate streng regulierten. Frank Partnoy hat diesen spannenden Stoff akribisch recherchiert und großartig nach-erzählt. Sein Buch zeichnet ein genaues Bild der schillernden Figur Ivar Kreuger und seiner dubiosen Methoden als Finanzgenie. Partnoy liefert ein Lehrstück aus der Vergangenheit mit klaren Bezügen zu vielen Fällen und Vorgängen der neuzeitlichen Finanzbranche: Bernie Madoff. Bernie Ebbers. Lehman. Flowtex.

Historien om den excentriske og karismatiske finansmand og tændstikfabrikant, svenskeren Ivar Kreuger, fra fødslen 1880 til selvmordet i Paris 1932. I 1930 fremstillede hans fabrikker tre fjerdedele af alle tændstikker i verden. Kreugerkrakket i 1932 udløste en global krise, hvor millioner mistede deres opsparing og job

This article responds to a proposal by Professor John C. Coffee, Jr. for a modified form of strict liability for gatekeepers. Professor Coffee''s proposal would convert gatekeepers into insurers, but cap their insurance obligations based on a multiple of the highest annual revenues the gatekeepers recently had received from their wrongdoing clients. My proposal, advanced in 2001, would allow gatekeepers to contract for a percentage of issuer damages, after settlement or judgment, subject to a legislatively-imposed floor. This article compares the proposals and concludes that a contractual system based on a percentage of the issuer''s liability would be preferable to a regulatory system with caps based on a multiple of gatekeeper revenues.Both proposals mark a shift in the scholarship addressing the problem of gatekeeper liability. Until recently, scholarship on gatekeepers had focused on reputation - not regulation or civil liability - as the key limitation on gatekeeper behavior. Indeed, many scholars have argued that liability should not be imposed on gatekeepers in various contexts, and that reputation-related incentives alone would lead gatekeepers to screen against fraudulent transactions and improper disclosure in an optimal way, even in the absence of liability. From a theoretical perspective, this article is an attempt to move the literature away from a focus on reputation to an assessment of a potential reinsurance market for securities risks, where gatekeepers would behave more like insurers than reputational intermediaries.

This article analyzes how financial innovation, particularly the development of the derivatives market, has changed basic corporate law concepts, in two primary ways. First, derivatives have altered fundamental notions of fiduciary duty. Corporations are able to slice and dice cash flows in so many novel ways that it no longer makes sense to speak of a fiduciary duty owed by managers and directors to shareholders. Options theory contributes principally to this analysis. Second, derivatives lurk beneath the surface in a variety of corporate law cases, in ways that illuminate and challenge the legal rules established in those cases. For example, in the well-known case of Smith v. Van Gorkom, an option to purchase shares can be analyzed using finance theory in ways that contribute to an understanding of the court''s duty of care discussion and provide additional insight into the behavior of the parties. In similar ways, derivatives are quot;uncoveredquot; in other cases.