‘Too Big To Fail’

..by Andrew Ross Sorkin should be made compulsory reading for anyone in the financial services/banking industry. The pace of the book, just like that of life during the time of Lehman’s collapse, is incredible and indeed, the book proves to be ‘too good to put down’ at times. It is an excellent portrayal of the unintended consequences set into motion by the best intentions and of the risks of excessive hubris in one’s own way of thinking. While the book is written by someone who’s kinder to the characters of the drama than members of the general public would be, it does raise interesting philosophical questions on the fairness of risk borne by the collective society while rewards are always personal.

I foolishly picked up a very angsty book, ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being‘ by Milan Kundera, to follow the treatise on finance and I’m plodding through it reluctantly. Next, I would like to read a book which examines the financial crisis from the a non-banking perspective, i.e., an analysis of how the credit crunch and the following financial crisis were an inevitable result of changing social and economic value systems and spending habits. Any recommendations, folks?