When Genius Failed
The riveting story of Long-Term Capital Management — a hedge fund staffed by Nobel laureates that nearly destroyed the global financial system in 1998. Despite the most sophisticated risk models ever built, LTCM was undone by leverage, hubris, and model failure. The cautionary tale that proves intelligence and sophistication are not protection against catastrophe.
Bond arbitrage resists drama, and Lowenstein's middle chapters prove it: trade after trade, spread after spread, the same lesson about borrowed money repeated until the collapse finally obliges. Meriwether stays a cipher at the center; the partners kept their distance, and the reporting never quite gets inside the room. You learn what happened. Why these particular minds did it stays sealed.
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
