cover image Exile on Wall Street: One Analyst's Fight to Save the Big Banks from Themselves

Exile on Wall Street: One Analyst's Fight to Save the Big Banks from Themselves

Mike Mayo. Wiley, $29.95 (208p) ISBN 978-1-118-11546-6

"The crisis didn't occur because of something that banks did. No, it was the natural consequence of the way banks are, even today." Financial analyst Mayo has had experience with many of the big names in banking, so it would seem prudent to heed this claim. In an attempt to shed light on what led to the financial crisis and how we can avoid another one, Mayo uses his life and career in the financial sector as a guide, beginning his account in the late 1980s with the S&L crisis and his years at the Federal Reserve. Later, he would work for UBS, Lehman Brothers, Credit Suisse, and Prudential, gaining a reputation for good work and tough, but accurate, calls. Mayo discusses the mortgage crisis and the unintended effects of subprime loans, the Lehman collapse, regulators, and the entire history of Citi, including its role in the 1929 stock market crash. Rather than simply calling foul, Mayo offers his vision for an improved version of capitalism with better systems of accounting and none of the "financial shenanigans" that have plagued the industry and weakened the economy. However, he still thinks someone should take the blame: "failure needs to carry consequences, and those consequences should be steep." Agent: David McCormick, McCormick & Williams (Nov.)