Frank Partnoy
PublicAffairs 226 Pages $26.95
This is the gripping story of a Swedish entrepreneur and financier of the 1920s who foreshadowed the current meltdown on Wall Street and in the broader economy. He built an empire based on a product that was as ubiquitous as it was prosaic, the sulphur match.
He also devised exotic derivatives and investment vehicles and accounting procedures so complex that no one could understand them, moved operations offshore to avoid U.S. taxes, and impoverished millions when his empire collapsed. Sound familiar? His life ended in suicide or by murder – no one is 100% sure which.
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