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Also by Frank Partnoy:

Wait, July 2012
Hardcover / e-Book
The Match King, April 2009
Hardcover
Fiasco, April 2009
Paperback
Infectious Greed, February 2004
Paperback

THE MATCH KING
By: Frank Partnoy

Ivar Kreuger, The Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals

PublicAffairs
April 2009
On Sale: April 13, 2009
288 pages
ISBN: 1586487434
EAN: 9781586487430
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction

At the height of the roaring ’20s, Swedish émigré Ivar Kreuger made a fortune raising money in America and loaning it to Europe in exchange for matchstick monopolies. His enterprise was a rare success story throughout the Great Depression.

Yet after Kreuger’s suicide in 1932, the true nature of his empire emerged. Driven by success to adopt ever-more perilous practices, Kreuger had turned to shell companies in tax havens, fudged accounting figures, off-balance-sheet accounting, even forgery. He created a raft of innovative financial products— many of them precursors to instruments wreaking havoc in today’s markets. When his Wall Street empire collapsed, millions went bankrupt.

Frank Partnoy, a frequent commentator on financial disaster for the Financial Times, New York Times, NPR, and CBS’s “60 Minutes,” recasts the life story of a remarkable yet forgotten genius in ways that force us to re-think our ideas about the wisdom of crowds, the invisible hand, and the free and unfettered market.

Media Buzz

Daily Show with Jon Stewart - May 11, 2009
Diane Rehm Show - NPR - May 4, 2009