The Go-Go Years "The Go-Go Years is not to be read in the usual manner ofWall Street classics. You do not read this book to see our presentsituation reenacted in the past, with only the names changed. Youread it because it is a wonderful description of the way thingswere in a different time and place."--From the Foreword by Michael Lewis The Go-Go Years is the harrowing and humorous story ofthe growth stocks of the 1960s and how their meteoric rise caused amultitude of small investors to thrive until the devastating marketcrashes in the 1970s. It was a time when greed drove the market andfast money was being made and lost as the "go-go" stocks surged andplunged. Included are the stories of such high-profilepersonalities as H. Ross Perot who lost $450 million in one day,Saul Steinberg's attempt to take over Chemical Bank, and the fallof America's "Last Gatsby," Eddie Gilbert. Praise for The Go-Go Years "Those for whom the stock market is mostly a spectator sportwill relish the book's verve, color, and memorableone-liners."--New York Review of Books "Please don't take The Go-Go Years too much for granted:as effortlessly as it seems to fly, it is nonetheless an unusuallycomplex and thoughtful work of social history."--New York Times "Brooks's great contribution is his synthesis of all theelements that made the 1960s the most volatile in Wall Streethistory . and making so much material easily digestible for theuninitiated."--Publishers Weekly "Brooks ... is about the only writer around who combines athorough knowledge of finance with the ability to perceive behindthe dance of numbers 'high, pure, moral melodrama on the themes ofpossession, domination, and belonging.'"--Time
JOHN BROOKS was an award-winning New Yorker staff writer and author of several critically acclaimed explorations of business and Wall Street, including Once in Golconda (a Wiley Investment Classic), The Games Players, Business Adventures, and The Fate of the Edsel.
Foreword viiI Climax: The Day Henry Ross Perot Lost $450 Million 1II Fair Exchange: The Year the Amex Delisted the Old Guard Romans 26III The Last Gatsby: Recessional for Edward M Gilbert 55IV Palmy Days and Low Rumblings: Early Warnings Along Wall Street 81V Northern Exposure: Early Warnings Along Bay Street 104VI The Birth of Go-Go: The Rise of a Proper Chinese Bostonian 127VII The Conglomerateurs: Corporate Chutzpah and Creative Accounting 150VIII The Enormous Back Room: Drugs, Fails, and Chaos Among the Clerks 182IX Go-Go at High Noon: The View from Trinity Church 206X Confrontation: Steinberg/Leasco vs Renchard/Chemical Bank 227XI Revelry Before Waterloo: The Time of the Great Garbage Market 260XII The 1970 Crash: To the Edge of the Abyss 291XIII Saving Graces: The Invisible Samaritans of Wall Street 311XIV The Go-Go Years 348Notes on Sources 358Index 364