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A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers
$27.00
The pleasure and enlightenment I derived from reading "A Colossal Failure of Common Sense" is in a class of its own. I am not employed in the financial sector and although I am a daily reader of the WSJ, I never fully grasped the fundamentals of the underlying financial "house of cards" created by the CDO and CDS instruments until I read this book. I have reached a point in my life where I only read non-fiction as I find it more enjoyable - and enlightening - than fiction. This book was more entertaining and could easily stand up to the many novels I have read in the past, written by authors including Frederick Forsythe, Robert Ludlum, Ken Follett, John Grisham, David Baldacci, Leon Uris and James Clavell. In my opinion, Mr. MacDonald is in pretty good company, especially considering that finance and entrepreneurship, not writing, are his primary talents. As works of business non-fiction go, I place this this book in the same league as Kurt Eichenwald's "Conspiracy of Fools" for an excellent narrative of business folly. As far as a Wall Street thriller, the only book that even comes close to "Colossal Failure" is James Stewart's "Den of Thieves."

The book's Prologue establishes the single most-important underlying factor leading to Lehman Brothers' demise - the repeal of the Glass-Steagall act, almost ten years earlier. With the premise set, Mr. MacDonald's then begins his narrative with a concise autobirgraphical profile of his life leading up to his employment with Lehman Brothers. Not a child of privelege with an Ivy League legacy, the author is clearly a scrapper who attends a public university and works his butt off enroute to his Wall Street (really 7th Avenue) dream job. His early career successes, first as a frozen foods salesman (who becomes the company's top performer leading to a promotion to management which he ultimately declines), then as a top producing stock broker for Merril Lynch in Philadelphia and as a dot-com entrepeneuer who makes his first couple of million before he is 30, would typically be satisfying enough for most people. But not for Larry MacDonald. He had set his lifelong goal of getting to the epicenter of finance, to a bulge-bracket investment bank in NYC. With the help of a childhood friend, whose relationship with the author is well established early in the book, he lands a job as a bond trader at Lehman. From this "ring-side seat" he then meticulously but simply describes the events which lead to the fall of Lehman Brothers (as well as Bear Sterns,, Merril Lynch and AIG) and to the global economic meltdown of Septemebr 2008. He explains this in layman's terms and provides clarity to the many complex financial vehicles which combine to create the critical mass that's leads to the world's financial implosion. Along the way, the reader can sense the impending doom and is held in continual suspense (even though one knows the final outcome.) Throughout the book, I felt as if I personally knew the many characters because Mr. MacDonald does such an excellent job describing them. More importantly, I wanted to be with them during their many financial adventures. Reading this book was the next best thing to actually being there.

Spiderman "Spider Sense" Boy's Winter Coat - 4
$49.99

Stop Making Sense [Blu-ray]
$34.99
Great movie, however I thought the studio track played better than the live track over my 5.1 speakers. Awesome picture quality for 1983.

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters
$12.95
I was given a free copy of Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by FSB Asociates for review purposes.

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters is a "thrill-omedy" based on the Jane Austin classic. In this world altered by Ben Winters, the world is " great burbling salt-cauldrons of death." I like my coffee, chocolate, and comedy dark and Winters' humor is dark indeed.

While I had not read Winters' earlier novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, I had a good idea of what to expect and I was not disappointed. The Dashwood sisters are looking for wealthy husbands while trying to elude a gruesome death from a myriad of sea life.

My favorite part was the Sub-Marine Station Beta in all of its steampunky goodness. " ... a gentle pfffft onto the sea floor, in the vast welcome garden of Sub-Marine Station Beta."

The cover art is excellent; however, I am not a fan of the interior art. All in all, it's a fun read. I look forward to the next one ...

K'yaloh D'argesh F'ah!