The Match King: Ivar Kreuger, The Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals: Frank Partnoy
Editorial Reviews
Review
George A. Needham, Founder and Chairman of Needham & Company
"The tale of Ivar Krueger, vividly brought to life by Frank Partnoy, is a reminder that Wall Street has not changed much since the late 1920’s. The players change, but the animal spirits remain the same. Anyone interested in today’s financial crisis will be captivated by this story."
Time, January 13, 2009
“Frank Partnoy has an exceptionally well-timed book on Ivar Kreuger coming out.”
Robert A. G. Monks, author of Corpocracy and The New Global Investors
“The Match King is a skillfully told tale of the romance and the corruption involved in attempting to be on top of the world. How did Krueger enlisted the loyalty of the people essential to him? Yes, some he bought, but most — he beguiled.”
Ron Chernow, The New Yorker, 3/23
“An engrossing study of Ivar Kreuger.”
Kirkus, 4/1
“A pertinent, timely tale of financial fraud and how it was maintained for so long.”
Booklist, review 4/15
“A timely and excellent book.”
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.