Financial Origami: How the Wall Street Model Broke

Praise for Financial Origami "Financial Origami is a total delight, one of those rare books that has the reader saying to himself, ′Ah–ha! Now I understand′ on almost every page. It′s the best introduction to Wall Street and its rapidly evolving ways I′ve ever read."—John Steele Gordon, author, Empire of Wealth and Hamilton′s Blessing "Financial Origami is an eminently readable diagnosis of the evolution of financial engineering, driven by competition, technology, and surplus savings. The building block approach—debt, equity, and derivatives—makes the book understandable to students, novices, and the seasoned professional. Moynihan′s historical understanding is critical and is deeper and richer than most of the more journalistic attempts to make sense of the worst financial crisis in a generation."—Marc Chandler, Global Head, Currency Strategy, Brown Brothers Harriman; Associate Professor, New York University, Center for Global Affairs "Brendan Moynihan may have come up with the defining metaphor for Wall Street; he′s certainly delivered a compelling, damning analysis of the financial system′s thirty–seven year march to its 2008 meltdown. In eschewing purple prose for hard facts and lucid arguments, Moynihan all the more effectively skewers those who created, hustled, and blessed Wall Street′s financial origami, all the way to doomsday."—John Helysar, coauthor of Barbarians at the Gate Praise for What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars "The best noncharlatanic finance book I know is What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars by Brendan Moynihan and Jim Paul."—Nassim Taleb, author of the bestseller The Black Swan and Fooled by Randomness "A new, novel approach aimed at pushing you inside your head and outside the losing habits most folks adopt right after multiple successes. A must–have for traders blessed with a string of hot trades."—Ken Fisher, Chairman, Fisher Investments and Forbes columnist

Author′s Note. Introduction. Chapter 1 Fold Sides to Center. Commercial Banks. Savings & Loans. Securities Firms. Transferring Risk. End of an Era. Chapter 2 Result, Turn Over. The Three Derivatives. Options. Futures. Swaps. Chapter 3 Fold Sides to Center, Again. Changing the Rules. A New Environment. Investing in Mortgages. Banker Incentives. Chapter 4 Fold Tip to Point. Other People′s Money: Equity. Agents Transferring Risk Become Principals Taking It. Chapter 5 Fold Point Back. Rules, Refold, Rave, Ruin. A New Environment. A New Risk. Chapter 6 Fold in Half. Mortgage Origami. Subprime Origami. The Rating Game. Banker Incentives. Manufactured Product. Chapter 7 Pull Neck Upright. Low Volatility, Low Risk. The CDS Market Develops. More Insurance Than Needed. Opaque Markets. Other People′s Money: Debt. Chapter 8 Pull Head to Suitable Angle. Vindicating Greenspan. How, Not Will, You Pay? Broken Markets. Chapter 9 Complete. What′s Wrong with Wall Street. Government Sponsored Enterprises. Government Sanctioned Credit Rating Agencies. Banks. What′s Right with Wall Street? Brown Brothers Harriman. Marketfield Asset Management. Egan–Jones Co. Epilogue. Notes. About the Author. Index.

Brendan Moynihan is an editor–at–large for Bloomberg News, where he manages the popular column "Chart of the Day" and writes about the economy and Wall Street. He has been with the company since 2006, after spending more than twenty years on Wall Street as a trader and risk manager. Moynihan is the author of Trading on Expectations (Wiley) and coauthor of What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars. He lives in Barrington Hills, Illinois, with his wife and two sons, and is currently writing a book on English grammar.