Brief summary
The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Frères & Co
A grand and revelatory portrait of Wall Street’s most storied investment bank
Wall Street investment banks move trillions of dollars a year, make billions in fees, and pay their executives in the tens of millions of dollars. But even among the most powerful firms, Lazard Frères & Co. stood apart. Discretion, secrecy, and subtle strategy were its weapons of choice. For more than a century, the mystique and reputation of the "Great Men" who worked there allowed the firm to garner unimaginable profits, social cachet, and outsized influence in the halls of power. But in the mid-1980s, their titanic egos started getting in the way, and the Great Men of Lazard jeopardized all they had built.
William D. Cohan, himself a former high-level Wall Street banker, takes the reader into the mysterious and secretive world of Lazard and presents a compelling portrait of Wall Street through the tumultuous history of this exalted and fascinating company. Cohan deconstructs the explosive feuds between Felix Rohatyn and Steve Rattner, superstar investment bankers and pillars of New York society, and between the man who controlled Lazard, the inscrutable French billionaire Michel David-Weill, and his chosen successor, Bruce Wasserstein.
Cohan follows Felix, the consummate adviser, as he reshapes corporate America in the 1970s and 1980s, saves New York City from bankruptcy, and positions himself in New York society and in Washington. Felix’s dreams are dashed after the arrival of Steve, a formidable and ambitious former newspaper reporter. By the mid-1990s, as Lazard neared its 150th anniversary, Steve and Felix were feuding openly.
The internal strife caused by their arguments could not be solved by the imperious Michel, whose manipulative tendencies served only to exacerbate the trouble within the firm. Increasingly desperate, Michel took the unprecedented step of relinquishing operational control of Lazard to one of the few Great Men still around, Bruce Wasserstein, then fresh from selling his own M&A boutique, for $1.4 billion. Bruce’s take: more than $600 million. But it turned out Great Man Bruce had snookered Great Man Michel when the Frenchman was at his most vulnerable.
The Last Tycoons is a tale of vaulting ambitions, whispered advice, worldly mistresses, fabulous art collections, and enormous wealth—a story of high drama in the world of high finance.
ISBN:9780767919791
Author:William D. Cohan
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A novel by Japanese writer Toshikazu Kawaguchi. Its a Bitter-sweet Japanese style story.
Even though the concept is good but writing could be more interesting, there could be more twists and turns. I couldn’t find writing very appealing. maybe because book is more like a playwright. but its a good read.
Story is kind of old age fantasy time travel not sci-fi. There is underground café in small alley, windowless, in working for more than hundred years. It has 4-5 tables and very few customers. Even though it was famous for providing unique experience to customers.
In this coffee shop we meet four customers, who get to experience time travel. there are four short stories interconnected to each other. “The lover” about confronting lover who left them, “Husband an wife” about receiving letter from husband whos losing his memory,
“The sisters” about sisters want to meet for last time, “Mother and child” about meeting daughter they never got chance to know. Only limited characters and single place, so story is light weight.
There are certain rule to go to the past. There is particular sit in café that takes you to your past, and you have to return to the present before coffee gets cold. both person going to past and person they want to meet should have visited that café before and many more.
The chair which takes you to past is permanently occupied by a women in white dress and the only way to sit on chair, when that women gets up to go to bathroom.
With all the rules for time travel, Its seems pointless to go to past. what if you lose track of time and your coffee got cold. and even if you go back to past, whatever you do, It will not change present.