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The Spider Network: The Wild Story of a Math Genius, a Gang of Backstabbing Bankers, and One of the Greatest Scams in Financial History

May 10, 2019 Filed Under: Books Read

The Spider Network: The Wild Story of a Math Genius, a Gang of Backstabbing Bankers, and One of the Greatest Scams in Financial History

The Spider Network: The Wild Story of a Math Genius, a Gang of Backstabbing Bankers, and One of the Greatest Scams in Financial History by David Enrich
Published by Custom House/Harper Collins on March 21, 2017
Pages: 384
Format: ebook
Genres: Banks & Banking, Business and Economics, Nonfiction, True Crime, White Collar
See it @ Goodreads


Synopsis

In 2006, an oddball group of bankers, traders and brokers from some of the largest financial institutions made a startling realization: Libor—the London interbank offered rate, which determines the interest rates on trillions in loans worldwide—was set daily by a small group of easily manipulated administrators, and that they could reap huge profits by nudging it fractions of a percent to suit their trading portfolios. Tom Hayes, a brilliant but troubled mathematician, became the lynchpin of a wild alliance that included a prickly French trader nicknamed “Gollum”; the broker “Abbo,” who liked to publicly strip naked when drinking; a nervous Kazakh chicken farmer known as “Derka Derka”; a broker known as “Village” (short for “Village Idiot”) who racked up huge expense account bills; an executive called “Clumpy” because of his patchwork hair loss; and a broker uncreatively nicknamed “Big Nose” who had once been a semi-professional boxer. This group generated incredible riches —until it all unraveled in spectacularly vicious, backstabbing fashion.

With exclusive access to key characters and evidence, The Spider Network is not only a rollicking account of the scam, but also a provocative examination of a financial system that was crooked throughout.

The Hill to Die on: The Battle for Congress and the Future of Trump’s America

May 4, 2019 Filed Under: Books Read

The Hill to Die on: The Battle for Congress and the Future of Trump’s America

The Hill to Die on: The Battle for Congress and the Future of Trump's America by Jake Sherman, Anna Palmer
Published by Crown Publishing Group (NY) on April 9, 2019
Pages: 432
Format: hardback
Genres: 21st Century U.S. History, Domestic Politics, Nonfiction
See it @ Goodreads


Synopsis


The inside story of the battle to control Congress and the unsparing fight for advantage in the 2018 midterm elections

With control of both the House and Senate up for grabs in 2018 and the direction of the nation resting on the outcome, never has a more savage, unrelenting fight been waged in the raptor cage that is the U.S. congress. From the torrid struggle between the conservative Freedom Caucus and Speaker Paul Ryan for control of the House, to the sexual assault accusations against Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh that threw the Senate into turmoil, to the pitched battles across America in primaries, the road to the midterm election has been paved with chaos and intrigue. And that's before one considers that it's all refracted through the kaleidoscopic lens of President Trump, who can turn any situation on its head with just a single tweet. With inside access that ushers readers deep into the inner workings and hidden secrets of party leadership, Politico Playbook writers Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman trace the strategy and the impulsiveness, the dealmaking and the backstabbing, in a blow-by-blow account of the power struggle roiling the halls of Congress. The Hill to Die On will be an unforgettable story of power and politics, where the stakes are nothing less than the future of Congress and the fate of America.

The Last Stone

April 29, 2019 Filed Under: Books Read

The Last Stone

The Last Stone by Mark Bowden
Published by Atlantic Monthly Press on April 2, 2019
Pages: 304
Format: hardback
Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime
See it @ Goodreads


Synopsis

On March 29, 1975, sisters Katherine and Sheila Lyons, age 10 and 12, vanished from a shopping mall in suburban Washington, D.C. As shock spread, then grief, a massive police effort found nothing. The investigation was shelved, and mystery endured. Then, in 2013, a cold case squad detective found something he and a generation of detectives had missed. It pointed them toward a man named Lloyd Welch, then serving time for child molestation in Delaware.

As a cub reporter for a Baltimore newspaper, Mark Bowden covered the frantic first weeks of the story. In The Last Stone, he returns to write its ending. Over months of intense questioning and extensive investigation of Welch's sprawling, sinister Appalachian clan, five skilled detectives learned to sift truth from determined lies. How do you get a compulsive liar with every reason in the world to lie to tell the truth? The Last Stone recounts a masterpiece of criminal interrogation, and delivers a chilling and unprecedented look inside a disturbing criminal mind.

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2024 Reading Challenge
The Pfaeffle Journal (Diane) has read 12 books toward her goal of 35 books.
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