The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Freres & Co.
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A grand and revelatory portrait of Wall Street’s most storied investment bankWall Street investment banks move trillions of dollars a year, make billions in fees, 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 Fe... Publishers Weekly This astute if not entirely cohesive debut account from investigative journalist and former banker Cohan chronicles the long metamorphosis of Lazard Frères. Converted from a private partnership to a diversified, publicly traded company in 2005, it was the last great American investment bank to do so. That story intertwines with the career of Felix Rohatyn, Lazard's most famous and influential banker. Readers expecting a comprehensive financial history in the style of Ron Chernow (The House of Morgan) will find the firm's history from its founding as a New Orleans dry goods retailer in 1848 to the early 1960s covered in only two of the 21 chapters. Cohan discusses the following quarter century in more detail, but concentrates almost exclusively on Rohatyn and draws on the general business press. The chapters on the last 20 years contain fascinating and novel information, and rely extensively on the author's personal recollections (he worked at Lazard for six years) and interviews with associates, many of whom remain undisclosed. The result is three incompletely integrated works: a competent history of Lazard, a well-written biography of Rohatyn and an exciting insider's account of Wall Street infighting. (Apr.)Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information
"Great Men" 1"Tomorrow, the Lazard House Will Go Down" 17Original Sin 41"You Are Dealing with Greed and Power" 62Felix the Fixer 76The Savior of New York 134The Sun King 182Felix for President 218"The Cancer Is Greed" 242The Vicar 266The Boy Wonder 295The Franchise 320"Felix Loses It" 351"It's a White Man's World" 385The Heir Apparent 403"All the Responsibility but None of the Authority" 431"He Lit Up a Humongous Cigar and Puffed It in Our Faces for Half an Hour" 470"Lazard May Go Down Like the Titanic!" 494Bid-'Em-Up Bruce 540Civil War 573"The End of a Dynasty" 621Afterword 659Acknowledgments 668Notes 672Index 715
