Table of Contents
Author's Note xi
Introduction: Finance and the Good Life 1
Chapter 1 The Wheel of Fortune 11
The Fliteraft Parable
The Quincunx
From Bottomry to Tontines
We Are All Insurance Companies
Wallace Stevens and Ideas of Order
Chapter 2 Risky Business 35
Lizzy Bennet as Risk Manager
If Isaac Newton Had Worked at Goldman Sachs
I Would Prefer Not To
Stephen Curry, Stringer Bell, and the Only Free Lunch in Finance
The Negative Betas of Your Life
Chapter 3 On Value 58
The Parable of the Talents
The Cruel Logic of Value Creation
Is Education Worth It?
Your Terminal Values
The Talents of Samuel Johnson and John Milton
Alpha-Beta Soup
Have You Financed?
Chapter 4 Becoming a Producer 75
Biafystock and Bloom on Corporate Governance
Apple and Tootsie Roll
A Daisy Chain of Principals and Agents
Vyse vs. Emerson
Mel Brooks on Freud
A Blank Sheet of Paper
Chapter 5 Romance Without Finance 97
Working Girl
The Dowry Fund of Renaissance Italy
The M&A Pages
A May-December Romance
Mergers and Marriages Gone Wrong
General Motors and Fisher Body
Romance Without Finance
Chapter 6 Living the Dream 120
Adam Smith vs. Jeremy Bentham on Leverage
The Hooks of Gratitude and Obligation
Jeff Koons vs. George Orwell on Leverage
Mr. Stevens and Debt Overhang
The Power of Commitments
Popeye in Las Vegas
Chapter 7 Failing Forward 142
The Man Who Could Have Been on the $10 Bill
The Bankruptcy Act of 1800
An Automatic Slay
A Strategic Bankruptcy at American Airlines
Agamemnon, Arjuna, Hecuba, and Bankruptcy
Chapter 8 Why Everyone Hates Finance 161
The Temptation of Pakhom
The Lobster and the Squid
More and More Is Less and Less
The Asshole Theory of Finance
Alexandra Bergson as Finance Hero
Afterword 175
Acknowledgments 179
Notes 182
Illustration Credits 215
Index 216