Andrew Ross Sorkin delivers the first true behind-the-scenes, moment-by-moment account of how the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression developed into a global tsunami. From inside the corner office at Lehman Brothers to secret meetings in South Korea, and the corridors of Washington, Too Big to Fail is the definitive story of the most powerful men and women in finance and politics grappling with success and failure, ego and greed, and, ultimately, the fate of the world’s economy.

Through unprecedented access to the players involved, Too Big to Fail re-creates all the drama and turmoil, revealing never disclosed details and elucidating how decisions made on Wall Street over the past decade sowed the seeds of the debacle.

This true story is not just a look at banks that were “too big to fail,” it is a real-life thriller with a cast of bold-faced names who themselves thought they were too big to fail.
Sorkin provides a lot of inside information about what was going on at the big Wall Street firms and the government as the dominoes started falling. There were number of ideas being discussed by investment bank boards, many of which were based on inadequate, or just plain poor, information. Even Goldman Sachs considered buying AIG. Goldman was one of the first to emerge as a strong going concern after the initial meltdown. If Goldman had bought AIG, imagine the mess Goldman would be in today.
The book explains why the original TARP document was only 11 pages, what made John Mack at Morgan Stanley angry, how Lehman Brothers was trying to keep the ship from sinking and what was going on in mind of Hank Paulson. One interesting story in the book that really puts things in perspective is Hank Paulson having to leave a meeting to throw up. Paulson is very seasoned executive, so this is a very telling moment.

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