September 15, 2008.
306 “I assume we are going to talk about AIG?”: Tett,
306 “Stop being such a jerk ”: Kate Kelly, “The Fall of Bear Stearns,”
309 Fuld swallowed his pride and dialed Lewis’s home in Charlotte: According to the
310 the same home he had purchased in 1958 for $31,500: Roger Lowenstein, “King Midas—Warren Buffett,”
319 David Bonderman of Texas Pacific Group: Riva D. Atlas and Edward Wong, “Texas Pacific Goes Where Others Fear to Spend,”
319 watched his investment lose virtually all of its value in less than half a year: Peter Lattman, “WaMu Fall Crushes TPG,”
320 Paulson hated Flowers, and the antipathy was mutual: Peter Truell and Joseph Kahn, “Goldman Sachs Nears Decisive Talks on Going Public,”
324 “Urgent. Code name: Equinox”: Craig, McCracken, Lucchetti, and Kelly, “The Weekend that Wall Street Died,”
329 “If we do that”: Cohan,
332 Eric R. Dinallo: Matthew Karnitschnig, Liam Pleven, and Peter Lattman, “AIG Scrambles to Raise Cash, Talks to Fed,”
335 Merrill had just sold $8.55 billion of convertible stock: “Thain Gains $2 Mln on Merrill Lynch Share Purchase,” Reuters, July 31, 2008.
335 the restaurant plays host to Wall Street bigwigs over lunch: Landon Thomas Jr. “Make Your Best Offer and Pass the Parmesan, Please,”
338 the “good bank”: Cohan,
339 “How much equity do you need to raise”: This exchange between Gary Shedlin and Michael Klein was first reported in William D. Cohan’s article for
339 lost $20 billion more than anyone had recorded: Eric Dash and Andrew Ross Sorkin, “Throwing a Lifeline to a Troubled Giant,”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
342 “I don’t think I can take another day of this”: The “Goldman aide” referenced in the
342 not-so-subtle reference to John Whitehead: John C. Whitehead,
342 “Certain Deal Issues”: Author obtained copy of document.
343 had posed a decade earlier: “Merrill ’s Mr. Allison, reading from a handwritten sheet, spelled out the terms. ‘We think we need $4 billion to assure the fund can withstand any concerted attack by others against its positions.’ Sixteen firms were asked to pitch in $250 million.” Michael Siconolfi, Anita Raghavan, and Mitchell Pacelle, “All Bets Are Off: How the Salesmanship and Brainpower Failed at Long-Term Capital,”
343 “What the fuck are you doing?”: Lowenstein,
343 he had contributed only $100 million:
344 Merrill ’s market capitalization: According to Standard & Poor’s, Merrill’s market capitalization for Friday, September 12, 2008, was $26.1 billion. “Five Facts About Merrill Lynch and Bank of America,” Reuters, September 14, 2008.
345 “It looks like we may have the outlines of a deal around the financing”: William D. Cohan, “Three Days,”
345 tapped out a message on his BlackBerry to Michael Gelband: A version of this anecdote was reported by Steve Fishman, “Burning Down His House,”
345 McCarthy, meanwhile, in London …: Nick Mathiason, “Three Weeks That Changed the World,”
347 FSA’s refusal to waive shareholder-approval requirements: As reported by Bloomberg, Barclays spokesman Leigh Bruce said: “The only reason it didn’t happen is that there was no guarantee from the U.S. government, and a technical stock-exchange rule required prior shareholder approval for us to make a similar guarantee ourselves. We didn’t have that approval, so it wasn’t possible for us to do the deal. No U.K. bank could have done it. It was a technical rule that could not be overcome.” John Helyar and Yalman Onaran, “Fuld Sought Buffett Offer He Refused as Lehman Sank,” Bloomberg, November 10, 2008.
349 editorial in the
