Money and Power: Naming the names of the global financial crisis

An ex-banker turned respected financial journalist, William D Cohan is well-placed to recount the chequered history of the mighty investment house.

Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World, by William D Cohan (Doubleday)

Goldman Sachs: talent factory for hardworking capitalist ubermensch or "great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity", in Matt Taibbi's phrase? William D Cohan inclines towards the latter opinion, though he puts it less flamboyantly.
An ex-banker turned respected financial journalist, Cohan is well placed to recount the chequered history of the mighty investment house. His enthusiasm is notable, matched only by his ability to describe complex deals without using stultifying jargon.
Money and Power is in fact a good read. Cohan focuses on the characters who have made Goldman Sachs what it is today; from the early scions of the Goldman and Sachs families, to Sidney Weinberg, the charismatic CEO who propelled the firm into the political spotlight in the 1940s and 1950s.
Cohan's view is that the greed and double-dealing of the 1990s and early 2000s laid low the capitalist system. He uses the Goldman Sachs story to expose the insularity of Wall Street, which allows top bankers, even today, to operate with a lack of comprehension or remorse about the mess we've all ended up in.