The Partnership: The Making Of Goldman Sachs (2008) - Plot & Excerpts
This is a company history of Goldman Sachs written by a former consultant. It is long and comprehensive but holds ones attention well. At its worst, it comes across as a "company" history that might go easy on the firm. There is little talk about vampire squids here. However, it turns out that it is surprisingly informative and not without some real criticisms, especially of the more recent administrations. The high point of the book is how it actually explains how the business works - how the volume aspect of trading works, how the mathematical modeling (Black - Scholes), how the proprietary research works. It downplays a bit the propensity of senior execs of the firm to get themselves placed in the high ranks of policy makers, and what that could mean. Overall, it was a book that I went back to many times and is really informative about how large professional service firms work that goes well beyond what you read about in the papers or see on CNBC. A surprisingly good book The format of following people rather than chronology devolved into boring redundancy as each side of an event was told from each person's perspective. The premise is to tell the history as an outsider. Rarely did Ellis seem disconnected from the glorious story of Goldman Sachs. It seems that all of their "rainmakers" were ethical in all respects, always had the interests of their clients at heart, were financial geniuses and stellar performers in every way. An amazing bunch! I could not finish it and put it down about two-thirds of the way through.
What do You think about The Partnership: The Making Of Goldman Sachs (2008)?
The book is great, but a little slow. I suggest one should read it only in his vacations.
—shinali
Factually correct and enjoyable to read but unnecessarily long.
—zaid36
