David Enrich

The Spider Network

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SHORT-LISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR
The Wall Street Journal's award-winning business reporter unveils the bizarre and sinister story of how a math genius named Tom Hayes, a handful of outrageous confederates, and a deeply corrupt banking system ignited one of the greatest financial scandals in history.
In 2006, an oddball group of bankers, traders and brokers from some of the world’s largest financial institutions made a startling realization: Libor—the London interbank offered rate, which determines interest rates on trillions in loans worldwide—was set daily by a small group of easily manipulated functionaries. Tom Hayes, a brilliant but troubled mathematician, became the lynchpin of shadowy team that used hook and crook to take over the process and set rates that made them a fortune, no matter the cost to others. Among the motley crew was a French trader nicknamed “Gollum”; the broker “Abbo,” who liked to publicly strip naked when drinking; a Kazakh chicken farmer turned something short of financial whiz kid; an executive called “Clumpy” because of his patchwork hair loss; and a broker uncreatively nicknamed “Big Nose.” Eventually known as the “Spider Network,” Hayes’s circle generated untold riches —until it all unraveled in spectacularly vicious, backstabbing fashion.
Praised as reading “like a fast-paced John le Carré thriller” (New York Times), “compelling” (Washington Post) and “jaw-dropping” (Financial Times), The Spider Network is not only a rollicking account of the scam, but a provocative examination of a financial system that was warped and shady throughout.
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541 printed pages
Publication year
2017
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Quotes

  • Katarina Markovichas quoted6 years ago
    you wanted to buy ten gold bars, that was straightforward; if you wanted to place a bet that nine months from now the price difference between ten gold bars and fifty bushels of wheat would be twice the difference between five bushels of wheat and sixteen widgets, then you were playing with derivatives.
  • Katarina Markovichas quoted6 years ago
    Zombanakis came up with a novel idea. What if the banks that were part of the Shah’s loan syndicate regularly reported what it cost them to borrow money? Those figures could be averaged out and, every few months, the interest rate on the Shah’s loan could be adjusted to reflect the changes in the banks’ average funding costs. That would insulate individual banks from the risks of a loan becoming unprofitable due to changes in interest rates.
  • Shawn Kidiabayihas quoted4 years ago
    oney was tight. Once, before his parents divorced, angry debt collectors showed up at their small, two-floor brick house in Shepherd’s Bush after Nick, a ponytailed television journalist, fell behind on the utility bills. Hayes told himself that when he grew up, he’d make enough to ensure that the bailiffs never returned. Every day, he counted his money, which he had earned doing odd jobs around the neighborhood. He stacked the coins by denomination. He memorized the quantities. The rituals made him feel safe. He started carting around all his essential belongings in his backpack, as if ready to flee if the need suddenly arrived.

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