GREG FARRELL is a correspondent for the Financial Times. In January 2009, he broke the news that Merrill Lynch had paid out its 2008 bonuses a month ahead of schedule, in December, even though Merrill was in the process of losing $28 billion for the year, and Bank of America needed an extra $20 billion in taxpayer funds to complete its acquisition of the firm. That story sparked an investigation by New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo. Greg is a past winner of the American Business Press’s Jesse Neal Award for investigative reporting and a recipient of the Knight-Bagehot Fellowship for business journalism. He earned a BA from Harvard University and an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University.More in 'Book Reviews'
More in 'Merrill Lynch'
More in 'Stan O'Neal'
Buy the Book
Amazon.comFollow Crash of the Titans
Forbes.com Recommends “Crash of the Titans” for a Weekend Read
Steve Schaefer, who writes the "Exile on Wall Street" column for Forbes.com, recommended "Crash of the Titans" for weekend reading. He says
"[Author Greg] Farrell tells a story based on hundreds of hours of interviews that builds like a hurricane. A storm that began with a mounting p
ile of of toxic debt that ultimately resulted in massive losses and [CEO Stan] O’Neal’s ouster, paused briefly after [following CEO John] Thain took over in December 2007 and set about raising billions in capital …
"The strength of “Crash Of The Titans” comes in the nearly 200 pages that detail that weekend, when Merrill would agree to a BofA takeover, and the months that followed before Thain’s departure from the combined company in January amid criticism over bonuses paid out by the firm before the deal closed, a story that Farrell broke at the FT."
You can read more of his review here.
