The Spider Network: The Wild Story of a Math Genius, a Gang of Backstabbing Bankers, and One of the Greatest Scams in Financial History

The Spider Network: The Wild Story of a Math Genius, a Gang of Backstabbing Bankers, and One of the Greatest Scams in Financial History

by David Enrich
The Spider Network: The Wild Story of a Math Genius, a Gang of Backstabbing Bankers, and One of the Greatest Scams in Financial History

The Spider Network: The Wild Story of a Math Genius, a Gang of Backstabbing Bankers, and One of the Greatest Scams in Financial History

by David Enrich

Hardcover

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Overview

SHORT-LISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR

The term “Libor” is obscure, but it determines a good deal of our financial lives-the interest rate on our credit card; our student loans; our mortgages; our car payments. How did a math genius, a handful of outrageous confederates, and a deeply corrupt banking system conspire to pickpocket you? They were in your wallet to already. 

In 2006, an oddball group of bankers, traders and brokers from some of the world’s largest financial institutions made a startling realization: Libor—the London interbank offered rate, which determines interest rates on trillions in loans worldwide—was set daily by a small group of easily manipulated functionaries. 

Tom Hayes, a brilliant but troubled mathematician, became the lynchpin of a shadowy team that used hook and crook to take over the process and set rates that made them a fortune, no matter the cost to others. Among the motley crew was a French trader nicknamed “Gollum”; the broker “Abbo,” who liked to publicly strip naked when drinking; a Kazakh chicken farmer turned something short of financial whiz kid; an executive called “Clumpy” because of his patchwork hair loss; and a broker uncreatively nicknamed “Big Nose.” Eventually known as the “Spider Network,” Hayes’s circle generated untold riches —until it all unraveled in spectacularly vicious, backstabbing fashion.

Praised as reading “like a fast-paced John le Carré thriller” (New York Times), “compelling” (Washington Post) and “jaw-dropping” (Financial Times), The Spider Network is not only a rollicking account of the scam, but a provocative examination of a financial system that was warped and shady throughout.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780062452986
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication date: 03/21/2017
Pages: 528
Product dimensions: 6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.80(d)

About the Author

David Enrich is the Business Investigations Editor at the New York Times and the #1 bestselling author of Dark Towers. He previously was an editor and reporter at the Wall Street Journal. He has won numerous journalism awards, including the 2016 Gerald Loeb Award for feature writing. His first book, The Spider Network: How a Math Genius and Gang of Scheming Bankers Pulled Off One of the Greatest Scams in History, was short-listed for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year award. Enrich grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts, and graduated from Claremont McKenna Collee in California. He currently lives in New York with his wife and two sons.

Table of Contents

Cast of Characters ix

Prologue 1

Part I The Scam

Chapter 1 Watching the Coronation 9

Chapter 2 The Hall of Mirrors 25

Chapter 3 Classy People 39

Chapter 4 Peak Performance 67

Chapter 5 The Lucky Turnstile 85

Chapter 6 The Sycophants 107

Chapter 7 Your Name in Print 137

Chapter 8 A Yacht in Monaco 157

Part II Ascendance

Chapter 9 What's a Cabal? 181

Chapter 10 Entre Nous 209

Chapter 11 Gods of the Sea 223

Chapter 12 In the Flag Room 243

Chapter 13 A Slap on the Wrist 273

Part III The Second Scam

Chapter 14 He's the One 311

Chapter 15 Spiders 341

Chapter 16 A Crook of the First Order 363

Chapter 17 The Unit Cost of Steak 393

Chapter 18 Charades 419

Part IV Victory

Chapter 19 Within the Ark 443

A Note on Sources 461

Acknowledgments 467

Notes 473

Index 485

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