Flash Boys
by Michael Lewis | 
The Origin of Wealth
by Eric D. Beinhocker | 
The Greatest Trade Ever
by Gregory Zuckerman | 
The Mystery of Banking
by Murray N. Rothbard | 
The Billionaire's Apprentice
by Anita Raghavan | 
The Holy Grail of Macroeconomics
by Richard C. Koo |
A Colossal Failure of Common Sense
by Lawrence G. McDonald | 
A History of the United States in Five Crashes
by Scott Nations |
Crash Course
by Paul Ingrassia | 
The End of Wall Street
by Roger Lowenstein |
The Sellout
by Charles Gasparino | 
Other People's Money
by John Kay |
Capital Ideas
by Peter L. Bernstein | 
Exorbitant Privilege
by Barry Eichengreen |
A Demon of Our Own Design
by Richard Bookstaber |
Car Guys vs. Bean Counters
by Bob Lutz | 
Starbucked
by Taylor Clark | 
Money Changes Everything
by William N. Goetzmann |
The Honourable Company
by John Keay | 
The Invisible Hook
by Peter T. Leeson |
The intimate, fly-on-the wall tale of the decline and fall of an America icon With one notable exception, the firms that make up what we know as Wall Street have always been part of an inbred, insular culture that most people only vaguely understand. The exception was Merrill Lynch, a firm that revolutionized the stock market by bringing Wall Street to Main Street, setting up offices in far-flung cities and towns long ignored by the giants of finance. With its "thundering herd" of financial advisers, perhaps no other business, whether in financial services or elsewhere, so epitomized the American spirit. Merrill Lynch was not only "bullish on America," it was a big reason why so many average Americans were able to grow wealthy by investing in the stock market. Merrill Lynch was an icon. Its sudden decline, collapse, and sale to Bank of America was a shock. How did it happen? Why did it happen? And what does this story of greed, hubris, and incompetence tell us about the culture of Wall Street that continues to this day even though it came close to destroying the American economy? A culture in which the CEO of a firm losing $28 billion pushes hard to be paid a $25 million bonus. A culture in which two Merrill Lynch executives are guaranteed bonuses of $30 million and $40 million for four months' work, even while the firm is struggling to reduce its losses by firing thousands of employees. Based on unparalleled sources at both Merrill Lynch and Bank of America, Greg Farrell's Crash of the Titans is a Shakespearean saga of three flawed masters of the universe. E. Stanley O'Neal, whose inspiring rise from the segregated South to the corner office of Merrill Lynch--where he engineered a successful turnaround--was undone by his belief that a smooth-talking salesman could handle one of the most difficult jobs on Wall Street. Because he enjoyed O'Neal's support, this executive was allowed to build