Financial Crisis Books

As the stock market continues its massive decline, I find myself wanting to read more books about economics and financial history.

I've read The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance (which I highly recommend) and The Power of Gold: the History of an Obsession; I'd like to read the recently published books about Warren Buffett and Goldman Sachs and there are some other books that seem relevant.

• Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960 by Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz (1971)
• Manias, Panics and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises by Charles Kindleberger (1975) -- click here to read an excerpt and click here to view the table of contents.
• The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World by Niall Ferguson (2008) -- to be published in November 2008
• Essays on the Great Depression by Ben Bernanke (2004) - click here to read an excerpt and click here to view the table of contents;
• The Return of Depression Economics by Paul Krugman (2000) -- click here to read an excerpt and click here to view the table of contents
• Origins of the Crash: The Great Bubble and Its Undoing by Roger Lowenstein (2004) -- click here to read an excerpt and click here to view the table of contents
• A Short History of Financial Euphoria by John Kenneth Galbraith (1990) -- click here to view the table of contents
• Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk by Peter L. Bernstein (1998) -- click here to view the table of contents
• The Subprime Solution: How Today's Global Financial Crisis Happened, and What to Do about It by Robert J Schiller (2008) -- click here to view the table of contents
• The Great Crash 1929 by John Kenneth Galbraith (1997) -- click here to view the table of contents.
• Once in Golconda: A True Drama of Wall Street 1920-1938 by John Brooks (1981) -- click here to view the table of contents.
• Liar's Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street by Michael Lewis -- click here to view the table of contents
• When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management by Roger Lowenstein (2000) -- click here to read an excerpt and click here to view the table of contents
• The Go-Go Years: The Drama and Crashing Finale of Wall Street's Bullish 60s by John Brooks (1998) -- click here to view the table of contents
• Risk and Business Cycles: New And Old Austrian Perspectives by Tyler Cowen (1998) -- click here to view the table of contents

The Partnership: The Making of Goldman Sachs by Charles D. Ellis

Given all the talk about Goldman Sachs, I'd like to read this book I read about in the September 27, 2008 issue of The Economist: The Partnership: The Making of Goldman Sachs by Charles D. Ellis.

All I know about the history of financial institutions I learned from reading Ron Chernow's The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance -- fantastic well-researched book that was fun to read, even for someone who previously had no interest in banking/finance.

So i think it'd be good for me to learn more.

Here's an excerpt from the review from The Economist:

A year that has seen the emasculation of America’s brokerages may not seem the ideal time to reflect on what made the erstwhile industry leader great. But, amid the torrent of negative news, Charles Ellis’s exhaustively researched history of Goldman Sachs paints a convincing picture of an institution that has got most of the important things right. It is an organisation America can be proud of, even as it is forced to reinvent itself to survive.

I'll have to add this to my very long list of books to read.

And by the way, Ron Chernow's books are all fantastic -- I highly recommend Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. and I'd also like to read Alexander Hamilton, The Warburgs: The Twentieth-Century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family, and The Death of the Banker: The Decline and Fall of the Great Financial Dynasties and the Triumph of the Small Investor.