 | Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com The definitive account of Wall Street's stunning collapse From critically acclaimed investigative journalist and CNBC personality Charles Gasparino comes a sweeping examination of the most recent volatile, anxiety-ridden era in our nation's socioeconomic history. The Sellout traces the implosion of the financial services business back to its roots in the late 1970s when Wall Street embraced a new business model predicated on taking enormous risks. It shows how a backwater business involving the trading of risky bonds packed with mortgages showered countless billions in profits on the financial industry but sowed the seeds of its ultimate demise. Gasparino walks readers through Wall Street's three-decades' love affair with risk, revealing a trail of culpability—from the government bureaucrats who crafted housing policies that encouraged homeownership, to the Wall Street firms that underwrote and invested in risky debt, to the mortgage sellers who handed out loans to people without the financial wherewithal to pay them back, to the homeowners who became convinced they could afford mansions on blue-collar wages. The ongoing tumult in financial markets and the global economy began when some of our most esteemed financial institutions, our government, and even average citizens abdicated their collective responsibilities, eventually selling out investors and selling off the American Dream itself. In the spirit of classics such as Barbarians at the Gate and Liar's Poker, this page-turning narrative captures how avarice, arrogance, and sheer stupidity eroded Wall Street's dominance and profoundly weakened the financial security of millions of middle-class Americans. Eye-opening and engrossing, The Sellout provides the most thorough investigation to date of this latest gilded era. |
Average Customer Rating:    Gasparino is good; Not great Charlie Gasparino is one of my favorite reporters. His sessions on CNBC are always inciteful and entertaining. Additionally he is always at the cutting edge of what is going on or is about to go on in the financial services industry.
I was looking forward to his take and view of the collapse of 2008 and while the book is solid it left me hungry for more. You are struck by his forthright admissions of sources who wouldn't be interviewed yet somehow other reporters, notably Andrew Ross Sorkin, seemed to have access to those critical sources.
Mr. Gasparino undertakes to deliver not just the specifics surrounding the meltdown (Bear and Lehman in particular) but also the background and events that lead up to and nearly make the collapse almost inevitable. From that perspective, this is a great overview of where and how it all went wrong.
Without a doubt, worth reading. Could have been better. FANTASTIC! A MUST READ!!! What a riveting book! I don't know much about Wall Street and the financial system, but "The Sellout" broke it down in the simplest of terms. It was detailed and insightful without the erudite commentary one would expect from a book about Wall Street's financial meltdown. I loved the personal stories of the nations top CEO's and accounts of their oblivious meetings while the country's economy began cracking like a bad paint job! I felt like the proverbial "fly on the wall" as I read about secret wheelings and dealings and personal conversations among Wall Street's most influential players.
The author demonstrates that he's a no-nonsense, straight shooter when it comes to reporting the story! He seems to be a smart outsider who has somehow managed to get the inside story! As complicated as the parts are, "The Sellout" does a great job breaking down every aspect of the financial and regulatory system that led us to this hot mess without making me feel like I took an Ambien! Quite a feat!
Anyone interested in how and why the economy is in the state that it's in NEEDS to read this book! A total waste of time and money I felt ripped off by reading this book. The author is biased and the book is not very informative. Uniformly Oustanding As an outsider to Wall Street, I found the Sell-Out to be an excellent resource. Although colorful and provocative, the Sell-Out offers a accurate historical account of the meltdown of our global financial system.
I suspect that the book will soonserve as required reading for students pursuing formal training in business.
With hours of ad time- this book doesn't cut it. Basically in a nut shell- Charles Gasparino who is an on air managing editor at CNBC- has managed to get his book hours and hours and hours of countless free air time on CNBC to promote this worthless book.
After so many hours of free ad space that would make GM or Ford bankrupt, this book hasn't even hit a notable amount of sales let alon a notable number of reviews.
Save your money, buy a kindle, because CNBC has sold out their content for chessy on air commercials by crappy writers- people that should stick to what they know best- NOT writing.
This book is about as good as a roll of rough toilet paper.
Don't buy- you'll be sold out and sorry. |  |
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