An epic story set in the heart of the international financial markets
Hilariously captivating, the story illuminates the world of dealmaking on the eve of the 2008 global financial crisis...through the eyes of a fresh faced banker. Written for an international audience, the book is already required reading at leading international business schools
Charm, street smarts and a fair amount of creativity helped Alex land one of the sexiest, most lucrative job titles in business: Investment Banker. A highly coveted role that thousands of ambitious college grads would kill for.
He joins Paris Berkeley Capital, the prestigious global investment bank, and finds himself surrounded by hyper-intelligent and beautifully-dressed overachievers from every part of the world. You'd mistake it for the United Nations except everyone flies around the world to do billion dollar deals while earning millions a year in pay.
But the firm is a violently jealous mistress that demands all his time and attention. Alex works 100-hour weeks, becomes servant to a very bizarre boss and drifts away from his girlfriend. He knows full well that this esoteric cult is driven by an insatiable thirst for money; but the shine of the golden cage is far too magnetic to resist. Alex becomes immersed in the world of investment banking. In time, the bank alters his personality and tastes, whispering mantras of money in his ears day in and day out. Once part of a fantasy world, private jets and luxury yachts become a reality for him.
In the process, he befriends four remarkable individuals, works with unpredictable clients from the Middle East and develops a strange relationship with the world’s most powerful and secretive investment banker, David Wilkins.
When the global economic crisis hits and big corporations and banks begin to collapse, Paris Berkeley Capital comes under threat. Charged with saving the bank, David asks Alex to help. Their quest results in one of the most spectacular feats in finance history.
"In essence, an investment banker resembles a magician; his greatest trick is the disappearance and reappearance of money, an illusion he so aptly executes with the backing of nicely-designed and immaculate literature and an arsenal of free-flowing industry jargon intelligible mainly to people in his circle; the investment banker contrasts with the magician, however, in his finale; the reappearance seldom matches the original, for he lubricates the passage of capital from one hand to another with very sticky fingers. - A.N. Oveissi."
