Product Description

Fooling Some of the People All of the Time is the gripping chronicle of the ongoing saga between author David Einhorn’s hedg fund, Greenlight Capital, and Allied Capital, a leader in the private finance industry. Page by page, it delves deep inside Wall Street, showing why the $6 billion hedge fund decided to short shares of Allied Capital and how Allied responded with a Washington, D.C.-style spin-job—attacking Einhorn and disseminating half-truths and outright lies.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4435 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 380 pages

Review
"...a welcome antidote to the thousands of books written for investors that paint a sunny picture of companies". FT.com Tuesday 10 June 2008 "Mr Einhorn's book recounts behind-the-scenes details of the sort that are seldom made public...an instructive guide for general investors..." Financial Times Tuesday 16 June 2008

"Instead of stewing in private, Einhorn wrote a book "Fooling Some of the People All of the Time" about his six-year ordeal with Allied." (Daily Mail, September 18, 2008)

From the Inside Flap
In 2002, David Einhorn, the President of Greenlight Capital, gave a speech at a charity investment conference to benefit a children's cancer hospital. He was asked to share his best investment idea, so he did. He described his reasons why Greenlight had sold short the shares of Allied Capital, a leader in the private finance industry. Greenlight bet that the stock would decline because the company's business was in trouble and its accounting was corrupt. Einhorn's speech was so compelling that the next day, when the New York Stock Exchange opened for trading, Allied's shares remained closed. So many investors wanted to sell or short the stock that the NYSE could not balance all the sell orders to open Allied’s trading in an orderly fashion.

What followed was a firestorm of controversy. Allied responded with a Washington, D.C.–style spin-job— attacking Einhorn and disseminating half-truths and outright lies. Rather than protect investors by reviewing Einhorn's well-documented case against Allied, the SEC—at the behest of the politically connected Allied— instead investigated Einhorn for stock manipulation. Over the ensuing six years, the SEC allowed Allied

to make the problem bigger by approving more than a dozen additional stock offerings that raised over $1 billion from new investors. Undeterred by the spin-job, lies, and investigations, Greenlight continued its research after the speech and discovered Allied’s behavior was far worse than Einhorn ever suspected— and, shockingly, it continues to this day.

Fooling Some of the People All of the Time is the gripping chronicle of this ongoing saga. Page by page, it delves deep inside Wall Street, showing how the $6 billion hedge fund Greenlight Capital conducts its investment research and detailing the maneuvers of an unscrupulous company. Along the way, you'll witness feckless regulators, compromised politicians, and the barricades our capital markets have erected against exposing misconduct from important Wall Street customers. You will also discover the immense difficulties that prevent the government from sanctioning politically connected companies—making future Enrons inevitable. This revealing book shows the failings of Wall Street: its investment banks, analysts, journalists, and especially our government regulators.

At its most basic level, Allied Capital is the story of Wall Street at its worst. But the story is much bigger than one little-known company. Fooling Some of the People All of the Time is an important call for effective law enforcement, free speech, and fair play.

From the Back Cover
"This book is a must-read for any investor who wants to know how far some companies will go in their quest to keep the real story from coming out."
—Herb Greenberg, Senior Columnist, MarketWatch.com

"In Fooling Some of the People All of the Time, David Einhorn, one of the great investors of all time tells one of the great investment tales of all time. This is a book in which you will learn about investing, short selling, and the politics of business. David is not only a great investor, but a wonderful storyteller. I recommend it wholeheartedly for your brain and your pocketbook."
—William A. Ackman, Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P.

"In the world of finance, as in the worlds of politics or science, free speech and open debate are essential. Sadly, our current system is rigged against bearers of bad news, and short sellers are an oppressed minority. David Einhorn's amazing story of scam artists, corporate doubletalk, clueless regulators, and sleazy lawyers is a gripping narrative. A great read."
—Owen Lamont, Fellow, International Center for Finance, Yale School of Management

An unscrupulous company has cost the U.S. taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. As it has happened, our government regulators have been at best derelict and at worst complicit. The company is headquartered in the political power center of Washington, D.C., where it has established enormous influence that has protected it. It is a large customer of Wall Street, which predictably lends it strong support.

In Fooling Some of the People All of the Time, David Einhorn—founder of the successful hedge fund Greenlight Capital—takes you on a fascinating journey that begins with his discovery that Allied Capital's accounting appeared corrupt. This led to Einhorn describing his hedge fund’s short position in the company at a charity speech (go to www.foolingsomepeople.com to watch), and what follows is a battle for the truth that continues to this very day. The story would make for a great forensic financial mystery novel—except it’s all true.

If you think we're past the days of corporate corruption and financial fraud, think again. Fooling Some of the People All of the Time details the harsh reality of how the current environment on Wall Street not only allows for such behavior, but how it protects the companies that participate in such activities and attacks those who attempt to uncover them. This is a story about investing, business ethics, and how our government should—but often doesn’t—protect investors and taxpayers.

Customer Reviews

Interesting but depressing
This is an interesting story of a hedge fund manager who becomes obsessed with a short position in a company that seems, at a minimum, a little shady. None of the characters in the book are likeable and at the end of the book it's not clear if Einhorn is making a mountain out of a molehill or not. But it is a fascinating detailed look at an ugly mix of management greed, an investor's ego and government waste and intimidation.

Instructive and Informative, but Overdone and a tad Ironic
David Einhorn's book is about how deceptive and deceiving accounting can be, and how the government can foster corrupt enterprises. He does a particularly good job of showing how his firm (and others) discovers accounting discrepencies, and an important lesson is that one cannot take for granted financial statement numbers "blessed" by accounting firms.

Unfortunately, the book becomes incredibly tedious to read. He actually reviews too much data--reveals too much information here--more than this typically voracious and curious reader could even tolerate. The tedium may represent how incredibly thorough (OCD) Mr. Einhorn is about his work--or it may reveal how much the underlying story has actually consumed him/gotten under his skin.

Regardless, it is ironic that his own hedge fund is very secretive and unrevealing about its own performance. For example, go to his web site and try and find performance information about his funds--not possible! It is interesting that he periodically comments about the top notch performance of his funds in the book--but no summary of audited performance data are provided to evaluate his true performance--interesting given his pleas for more transparant data published by publicly traded companies. Oh well, can't have it all!

Boring ... unless ... you seek in-depth knowledge of short-selling
Very boring to read. Explains at length reasoning that leads to short sales. Unless short-selling is of particular interest to you or, if you face an imminent encounter with SEC, this book is unlikely to be of any value to you.