Separating Fools from Their Money : A History of American Financial Scandals

What do Michael Milken and Martha Stewart have in common? (Answer: Both became public scapegoats for an outrageous era of greed and excess.) Jack Welch and Jim Fisk? (Answer: Both were captains of industry, eventually undone by extracurricular philandering.) Which was the most outrageous party thrown by a financial baron of the twentieth century? (Answer: Tough call, but either Michael Milken's Predators Ball in 1985, or Dennis Kozlowski's Sardinian birthday bash in 2001, with its vodkaspouting sculpture.) Which U.S. war hero president became party to, and victim of, an unabashed con man known as the Napoleon of Wall Street? (Answer: Ulysses S. Grant, but it's a long story.) These questions and more are discussed in Scott MacDonald and Jane Hughes' "Separating Fools from Their Money".

The authors trace the history of financial scandals from the early days of the young republic through the Enron/WorldCom debacle of modern times.

A host of colorful characters inhabit the pages of this history, revealing human nature in all of its dubious shades of gray. At the same time, the book exposes themes common to all financial scandals, which remain astonishingly unchanged over more than two centuries - greed, hubris, media connections, self-interested politicians, and booms-gone-bust, to name a few.

It explores the role of reformers who emerge in the wake of a scandal, concluding with a fascinating comparison of crusading New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer with his equally crusading and equally ambitious namesake, crime buster Eliot Ness.

Written in an informative and entertaining style, Fools should engage the interest of the casual business reader, investors, as well as academic economists interested in supplemental readings for their students.