Confidence Game

The collapse of the US credit markets in 2008 is described here as one of the biggest financial disasters in American history. The book tells how Bill Ackman spent six years warning that the bond insurance business was heading for catastrophe.

Ackman was branded a fraud by leading newspapers and investigated by regulators, yet his fund eventually made investors more than $1 billion when the bond insurers helped set off the collapse. The book argues that excessive leverage, dangerous financial models and blind reliance on triple-A ratings pushed Wall Street towards disaster.

Its story centres on one dissenting voice in a period of widespread delusion, and it draws on the author's close access to one of the best-known names on Wall Street. Published by Kogan Page in 2009 as edition 1, with 240 pages and ISBN-13 9781576603376.