All That Glitters

I received a copy of All That Glitters by John Gapper and Nicholas Denton from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The definitive, classic account of the fall of the House of Baring, the oldest merchant bank in London, in 1995 and the ultimate rouge trader, Nick Leeson, who brought down the venerable institution with speculative investing.

John Gapper, associate editor of the Financial Times, and his coauthor Nick Denton, now founder of Gawker Media, interviewed all the major players involved in the collapse of one of England's oldest banks.

All That Glitters reveals the Faustian deal struck between the whiz-kid derivatives traders who seemed to be bringing in huge profits and the old guard who were happy to pocket them without asking too many questions. Gapper and Denton present a thrilling, in-depth account of Nick Leeson's motives and methods for hiding the unauthorized speculative trading as well as the final days of Barings and the last-ditch attempts by politicians and bankers to save the bank.

This book is very in-depth going into the back ground of the House of Baring. I didn't enjoy the book as much as I had hoped. One reason is it's all about happenings in England that I can't relate to much.