When Hank Paulson, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, was
appointed in 2006 to become the nation's next Secretary of
the Treasury, he knew that his move from Wall Street to
Washington would be daunting and challenging.
But
Paulson had no idea that a year later, he would find himself
at the very epicenter of the world's most cataclysmic
financial crisis since the Great Depression. Major
institutions including Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie
Mac, Lehman Brothers, AIG, Merrill Lynch, and Citigroup,
among others-all steeped in rich, longstanding
tradition-literally teetered at the edge of collapse. Panic
ensnared international markets. Worst of all, the credit
crisis spread to all parts of the U.S. economy and grew more
ominous with each passing day, destroying jobs across
America and undermining the financial security millions of
families had spent their lifetimes building.
This
was truly a once-in-a-lifetime economic nightmare. Events no
one had thought possible were happening in quick succession,
and people all over the globe were terrified that the
continuing downward spiral would bring unprecedented chaos.
All eyes turned to the United States Treasury Secretary to
avert the disaster.
This, then, is Hank Paulson's
first-person account. From the man who was in the very
middle of this perfect economic storm, ON THE BRINK is
Paulson's fast-paced retelling of the key decisions that had
to be made with lightning speed. Paulson puts the reader in
the room for all the intense moments as he addressed urgent
market conditions, weighed critical decisions, and debated
policy and economic considerations with of all the notable
players-including the CEOs of top WallStreet firms as well
as Ben Bernanke, Timothy Geithner, Sheila Bair, Nancy
Pelosi, Barney Frank, presidential candidates Barack Obama
and John McCain, and then-President George W. Bush.
More than an account about numbers and credit risks gone
bad, ON THE BRINK is an extraordinary story about people and
politics-all brought together during the world's impending
financial Armageddon.
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