SHORT-LISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR
The term âLiborâ is obscure, but it determines a good deal of our financial lives-the interest rate on our credit card; our student loans; our mortgages; our car payments. How did a math genius, a handful of outrageous confederates, and a deeply corrupt banking system conspire to pickpocket you? They were in your wallet to already.
In 2006, an oddball group of bankers, traders and brokers from some of the worldâs largest financial institutions made a startling realization: Liborâthe London interbank offered rate, which determines interest rates on trillions in loans worldwideâwas set daily by a small group of easily manipulated functionaries.
Tom Hayes, a brilliant but troubled mathematician, became the lynchpin of a 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 âGollumâ; the broker âAbbo,â who liked to publicly strip naked when drinking; a Kazakh chicken farmer turned something short of financial whiz kid; an executive called âClumpyâ because of his patchwork hair loss; and a broker uncreatively nicknamed âBig Nose.â Eventually known as the âSpider Network,â Hayesâs circle generated untold riches âuntil it all unraveled in spectacularly vicious, backstabbing fashion.
SHORT-LISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR
The term âLiborâ is obscure, but it determines a good deal of our financial lives-the interest rate on our credit card; our student loans; our mortgages; our car payments. How did a math genius, a handful of outrageous confederates, and a deeply corrupt banking system conspire to pickpocket you? They were in your wallet to already.
In 2006, an oddball group of bankers, traders and brokers from some of the worldâs largest financial institutions made a startling realization: Liborâthe London interbank offered rate, which determines interest rates on trillions in loans worldwideâwas set daily by a small group of easily manipulated functionaries.
Tom Hayes, a brilliant but troubled mathematician, became the lynchpin of a 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 âGollumâ; the broker âAbbo,â who liked to publicly strip naked when drinking; a Kazakh chicken farmer turned something short of financial whiz kid; an executive called âClumpyâ because of his patchwork hair loss; and a broker uncreatively nicknamed âBig Nose.â Eventually known as the âSpider Network,â Hayesâs circle generated untold riches âuntil it all unraveled in spectacularly vicious, backstabbing fashion.