THE RISE AND FALL OF BEAR STEARNS

The latest entry in the why-Wall-Street-collapsed genre.

Currently the vice chairman emeritus of JP Morgan Chase, “Ace” Greenberg (Memos from the Chairman, 1996) served for years as CEO and chairman of Bear Stearns, the venerable investment bank that was sold to Chase two years ago. Collaborating with New Yorker staff writer Singer (Character Studies: Encounters with the Curiously Obsessed, 2005, etc.), Greenberg, now in his early 80s, includes some self-deprecation along with hubris. The dominant aspect of the narrative, however, is his dismay with Jimmy Cayne, recognized by the public as the driving force at Bear Stearns leading up to the collapse. The author describes Cayne as mean, self-centered and untruthful, and portrays himself as invariably kind to and respectful of Bear Stearns employees (about 15,000 at its apex). Throughout the book, Greenberg peppers lessons from his father, who owned clothing stores in Oklahoma. Many of the lessons detail the appropriate treatment of employees and customers, and the author writes that he adapted the retail-clothing wisdom to investment banking. Oddly, he ends the book with a non-contextual quotation from his father—“I’ll give you three pieces of advice—never make fun of a millionaire, never hit a cripple, and never have sex with an idiot”—adding, “To the best of my knowledge, I’ve remembered all three.” Extraordinarily wealthy during the firm’s golden decades, Greenberg apparently earned the riches by ruling out major risk-taking in favor of moderate risk-taking, and he surrendered primary responsibility for the company’s operations about seven years before the demise. He suggests that if Cayne had paid more attention to business in general and to Greenberg’s moderate advice in particular, Bear Stearns might have survived.

While revealing occurrences inside Bear Stearns that might have contributed to the larger financial meltdown, Greenberg provides few fresh insights about the diseased atmosphere on Wall Street.