Retelling Diary of a Very Bad Year - What Happens When Wall Street Falls Apart
I just finished reading one of the most interesting books about the 2008 financial crisis. And I want to walk you through it.
Diary of a Very Bad Year
An anonymous hedge fund manager's real-time interviews during the 2008 financial crisis, capturing Wall Street's fear, confusion, and eventual return to business as usual.
Diary of a Very Bad Year is a collection of nine interviews conducted between September 2007 and the summer of 2009, as the global financial system nearly collapsed. The anonymous hedge fund manager (HFM) talked with Keith Gessen of n+1 magazine, explaining in plain language what was happening on Wall Street while it was happening. No hindsight, no spin, just real-time analysis from inside the machine.
The book covers the full arc of the crisis. It starts with the first rumblings in the subprime mortgage market, moves through the collapse of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, the AIG bailout, the TARP controversy, and the slow, uneven recovery. Along the way, HFM explains how mortgage-backed securities worked, why bank runs still happen in the modern age, what zombie banks are, and why the financial system went right back to risky behavior as soon as the worst had passed.
What makes this book stand out is the honesty. HFM gets things wrong, changes his mind, and by the final interviews starts questioning whether his career in finance was worth it. He eventually leaves his hedge fund and buys a house in Texas. For anyone who wants to understand the 2008 crisis from the inside, without the jargon and without the sugar coating, this is one of the best books available.
Diary of a Very Bad Year - How a Literary Magazine Ended Up Interviewing a Hedge Fund Manager
This is part of my series retelling Diary of a Very Bad Year. Today we’re covering Keith Gessen’s introduction.
A friend of a friend
Keith Gessen got introduced to the anonymous hedge fund manager (HFM) in late 2006. Someone called HFM a “financial genius” who ran the emerging markets desk at a midtown hedge fund. Gessen was skeptical. He knew plenty of people from college who went into finance, but mostly for the lifestyle. Working hard, drinking beer, watching football.
Diary of a Very Bad Year Chapter 1 - When Subprime Was Just a Weird Word
This is part of my series retelling Diary of a Very Bad Year. Today we’re covering Chapter I.
The backstory
Before the interview starts, the book gives you context on how we got here. And it’s a story about cheap money and bad decisions stacking on top of each other.
Diary of a Very Bad Year Chapter 2 - Bear Stearns Goes Down
This is part of my series retelling Diary of a Very Bad Year. Today we’re covering Chapter II.
Six months have passed since the first interview. It’s March 26, 2008. The Dow is at 12,422. Unemployment is 5.1%. And Bear Stearns just got bought for pocket change.
Diary of a Very Bad Year Chapter 3 - Right Before Everything Broke
This is part of my series retelling Diary of a Very Bad Year. Today we’re covering Chapter III.
It’s September 4, 2008. The Dow is at 11,188. Unemployment just hit 6.2 percent. Over 300,000 foreclosures this month. And HFM is back in his midtown office, looking out the window at the same city. But things are worse now.
Diary of a Very Bad Year Chapter 4 - How Bad Is It Really
This is part of my series retelling Diary of a Very Bad Year. Today we’re covering Chapter IV - the start of Part 2: The Collapse.
Diary of a Very Bad Year Chapter 5 - End of Year, End of an Era
This is part of my series retelling Diary of a Very Bad Year. Today we’re covering Chapter V.
It’s January 16, 2009. The Dow is at 8,281. Unemployment is 7.6 percent. Over 300,000 foreclosures this month. And HFM just spent his New Year’s Eve chasing bank traders on ski slopes to get year-end prices for his portfolio. Welcome to year-end closing on Wall Street.
Diary of a Very Bad Year Chapter 6 - Everyone Gets Angry
This is part of my series retelling Diary of a Very Bad Year. Today we’re covering Chapter VI - the start of Part 3: Aftermath.
Diary of a Very Bad Year Chapter 7 - Picking Up the Pieces
This is part of my series retelling Diary of a Very Bad Year. Today we’re covering Chapter VII.
It’s May 2009. The Dow is at 8,504. Unemployment is 9.4 percent. Over 342,000 homes got foreclosed that month. But the worst of the panic? That part seems to be over.
Diary of a Very Bad Year Chapter 8 - Time to Step Back
This is part of my series retelling Diary of a Very Bad Year. Today we’re covering Chapter VIII.
It’s July 2, 2009. The Dow sits at 8,280. Unemployment is at 9.5%. And HFM is doing something he hasn’t done in a decade. He’s going on vacation. A real one.
Diary of a Very Bad Year Chapter 9 Part 1 - The End Begins
This is part of my series retelling Diary of a Very Bad Year. Today we’re covering Chapter IX, Part 1. The chapter was too long for one post so I split it in two.
Diary of a Very Bad Year Chapter 9 Part 2 - The Final Interview
This is part of my series retelling Diary of a Very Bad Year. Today we’re covering Chapter IX, Part 2 - the final interview.
Diary of a Very Bad Year - Epilogue and Final Thoughts on the 2008 Crisis Retelling
This is the final post in my series retelling Diary of a Very Bad Year. Here’s the epilogue and my closing thoughts.