Top 10 Finance Movies – Number 6 – Margin Call (2011)

The Transform Accounting blog is usually about;

–          The latest finance news,

–          Hints and tips to help you pay less tax or save money,

–          Accounting guides for small business owners,

–          Articles about the world of investing,

But we also like to blog about some more light hearted items with a finance theme.

At Transform Accounting, we love a top 10 list as much as anybody.

To follow on from our series about our top 10 finance books, we now turn our attention to movies with a finance theme.

We will be counting down from 10 to 1, giving some movie reviews of our favourite 10 finance movies. All are worth checking out and those at the top of the list are a must see.

If you want to read more reviews, or view the movie trailers for free, we recommend Internet Movie Database at www.imdb.com

Here is the sixth in a series of ten movie recommendations. Be sure to check back for the rest of the series.

 

6 – Margin Call (2011)

Margin Call features a star-studded cast including Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Demi Moore and UK actor Paul Bettany.

It is set in the aggressive world of investment banking on the eve of impending financial disaster when a young risk analyst discovers that the highly leveraged trading positions of the bank have left it exposed to a potential and imminent collapse.

What follows is a long night of panicked double checking and escalation to senior management before the decision is made to do anything, ethical or otherwise to save the bank by unleashing a firestorm in the financial world. This brings on moral and ethical issues for the traders who have to sacrifice both their clients and their own future careers to offload the toxic assets held by the bank as quickly as possible to anyone who will take them.

Margin Call is a truly fascinating insight into the world of investment banking during the time of chaos and financial collapse. The plotline was clearly inspired by the recent financial meltdown and in particular Lehman Brothers, Bear Sterns and AIG.

Accountant Epping – Transform Accounting – Essex Accountant

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Top 10 Finance Movies – Number 7 – Wall Street – Money Never Sleeps (2010)

The Transform Accounting blog is usually about;

–          The latest finance news,

–          Hints and tips to help you pay less tax or save money,

–          Accounting guides for small business owners,

–          Articles about the world of investing,

But we also like to blog about some more light hearted items with a finance theme.

At Transform Accounting, we love a top 10 list as much as anybody.

To follow on from our series about our top 10 finance books, we now turn our attention to movies  with a finance theme.

We will be counting down from 10 to 1, giving some movie reviews of our favourite 10 finance movies. All are worth checking out and those at the top of the list are a must see.

If you want to read more reviews, or view the movie trailers for free, we recommend Internet Movie Database at www.imdb.com

Here is the seventh in a series of ten movie recommendations. Be sure to check back for the rest of the series.

7 – Wall Street – Money Never Sleeps (2010)

The sequel to the Oscar winning 1987 Oliver Stone  movie “Wall Street”, Money Never Sleeps never quite reaches the heights of the original, but is a worthy successor and answers the question, “what ever happened to Gordon Gecko?”

The movie starts in 2001, when Gordon Gecko, played by Michael Douglas is released from prison after serving 8 years for insider trading, with no one there to meet him at the prison gates. The movie then cuts forward seven years, and Gordon Gecko is seen promoting his book “Is Greed Good?”

Played out to the background of the impending financial meltdown, “Wall Street Money Never Sleeps”, is a modern morality tale.
Is Gecko really a reformed character or will he revert back to his old ways when the opportunity presents itself?

Highly recommended.

Harlow Accountant – Transform Accounting – Essex Accountant

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Top 10 Finance Movies – Number 8 – Other Peoples Money (1991)

Top 10 Finance Movies – 8 – Other People’s Money (1991)

The Transform Accounting blog is usually about;

–        The latest finance news,

–        Hints and tips to help you pay less tax or save money,

–        Accounting guides for small business owners,

–        Articles about the world of investing,

But we also like to blog about some more light hearted items with a finance theme.

At Transform Accounting, we love a top 10 list as much as anybody.

To follow on from our series about our top 10 finance books, we now turn our attention to movies with a finance theme.

We will be counting down from 10 to 1, giving some movie reviews of our favourite 10 finance movies. All are worth checking out and those at the top of the list are a must see.

If you want to read more reviews, or view the movie trailers for free, we recommend Internet Movie Database at www.imdb.com

Here is the eighth in a series of ten movie recommendations. Be sure to check back for the rest of the series.

8 – Other People’s Money (1991)

“Other People’s Money” is the tale of corporate raider “Larry the Liquidator” brilliantly played by Danny De Vito, and his attempt to take over and close down “New England Wire & Cable” – a long established family firm at the centre of a small New England town.

The movie follows the financial themes of the 1980’s of infamous corporate raiders and asset strippers, identifying undervalued companies whose break-up value exceeded their stock market values.

These companies would be purchased using borrowed money, delisted from the stock market, often closed down and their assets sold, resulting in the stockholders making a profit, the corporate raiders becoming very rich and the employees of the company looking for a new job.

Other People’s Money tells the tale of the benevolent managing director played by Gregory Peck, and his Lawyer stepdaughter Kate played by Penelope Ann Miller, trying to resist the takeover from Larry the Liquidator, and thus preserve their company, their jobs and their way of life.

Whilst following a serious plot, Larry the Liquidators romantic interest in Kate also provides for some light hearted moments and results in a highly entertaining movie.

It might be 20 years old now, but Danny DeVito is still great – check out “Other Peoples Money”.

Tax Returns – Transform Accounting – Small Business Accountants

Check Out the Transform Accounting Top 10 Finance Books – Crime Corruption and Incompetence

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Top 10 Finance Movies – Number 10 – Inside Job

Top 10 Finance Movies – Number 10 – Inside Job

The Transform Accounting blog is usually about;

–        The latest finance news,

–        Hints and tips to help you pay less tax or save money,

–        Accounting guides for small business owners,

–        Articles about the world of investing,

But we also like to blog about some more light hearted items with a finance theme.

At Transform Accounting, we love a top 10 list as much as anybody.

To follow on from our series about our top 10 finance books, we now turn our attention to movies with a finance theme.

We will be counting down from 10 to 1, giving some movie reviews of our favourite 10 finance movies. All are worth checking out and those at the top of the list are a must see.

If you want to read more reviews, or view the movie trailers for free, we recommend Internet Movie Database at www.imdb.com

Here is the first in a series of ten movie recommendations. Be sure to check back for the rest of the series.

10 – Inside Job (2010)

Since the global financial crisis began in 2008, there have been countless books written that have attempted to explain just what caused the crisis and what can be done to prevent it from ever happening again. ‘Inside Job’ is a movie that takes on that challenge to inform the viewer through a series of interviews with financial insiders, journalists and politicians, just what has caused millions of people to lose their jobs, their homes, savings, pensions and investments. Inside Job traces the rise of the international banking industry and its deregulation which has resulted in the worst recession since the 1930’s.

As the movie poster says “If you aren’t enraged by the end of this movie, you haven’t been paying attention”

Tax Returns – Transform Accounting – Essex Accountants

Check Out the Transform Accounting Top 10 Finance Books – Crime Corruption and Incompetence

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Top 10 Finance Books – Crime, corruption and incompetence– No 2 – When Genius Failed – Roger Lowenstein

We all love a top 10 list.

When it comes to finance, books come in three distinct categories.

Accounting Text books – avoid like the plague!

Firstly the long often dry and tedious text books that sometimes have to be studied to gain professional qualifications – I would advise steering well clear of these and leaving them to the accountants and lawyers who have to study them!

Personal Finance Self Help Books

Secondly, there are the personal finance self-help type books that try to teach you something as quickly as possible – there are many of these but if in doubt, the dummies books are always a good place to start.

The Exposé

And finally there is my favourite category – the exposé – a book that relies on research and investigative journalism to give you the inside story.
This is where the crime, corruption and incompetence comes in, with a little greed thrown in for good measure. These are my favourite type of books – read on for the countdown from number 10 to number 1.

No 2 – When Genius Failed – Roger Lowenstein

Long Term Capital Management was a quite unique firm that started in 1994. Formed by a small group of elite partners from both the trading and academic world, they were able to raise $1bn start-up capital. The firm managed to generate $1.4 billion dollars profit in the first two years and subsequently increased its funds under management to over $140bn. This was a truly unique firm in that they had millionaire customers queuing up to be considered as acceptable investors, despite the partners insisting on taking a 40% cut in any profits earned.

The business model of LTCM was that they would use their superior intellect and computer models to earn a tiny margin on thousands of trades with virtually no risks. And for a while it was incredibly successful. But then came 1998 when it all began to go horribly wrong.

Roger Lowenstein’s writing gives a fascinating insight into the success of LTCM, the intellects and egos of their nobel prize winning partners, how it all went horribly wrong and how one small bank brought the US banking system into crisis.

Highly recommended and reaching number 2 on our top 10 list.

“A group of elite investors who called themselves “Long Term Capital Management” believed they could beat the market and like alchemists, create limitless wealth for themselves and their partners.
In fact, they created a trillion dollar hole in the international banking system.
It’s a tale of vivid characters, overweening ambition and perilous drama told, in Roger Lowensten’s hands, with brilliant style and panache”

Bookkeeper Romford – Transform Accounting – Essex Accountants

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Top 10 Finance Books – Crime, corruption and incompetence– No 3 – Extreme Money – Satyajit Das

We all love a top 10 list.

When it comes to finance, books come in three distinct categories.

Accounting Text books – avoid like the plague!

Firstly the long often dry and tedious text books that sometimes have to be studied to gain professional qualifications – I would advise steering well clear of these and leaving them to the accountants and lawyers who have to study them!

Personal Finance Self Help Books

Secondly, there are the personal finance self-help type books that try to teach you something as quickly as possible – there are many of these but if in doubt, the dummies books are always a good place to start.

The Exposé

And finally there is my favourite category – the exposé – a book that relies on research and investigative journalism to give you the inside story.
This is where the crime, corruption and incompetence comes in, with a little greed thrown in for good measure.
These are my favourite type of books – read on for the countdown from number 10 to number 1.

No 3 – Extreme Money – Satyajit Das

Author Satyajit Das (or Das as he is known) is without doubt one of the most knowledgeable and intelligent men in modern finance, yet with a talent for taking some very complex ideas and being able to explain them in a clear and concise manner.

He manages to write in an entertaining style and despite Extreme Money being a lengthy read,  if you wish to gain an thorough understanding of modern finance and financial engineering then this is a great place to start.

Das is a popular guest on the weekly finance podcast – “The Disciplined Investor with Andrew Horowitz” which can be found on Itunes and his blog at economonitor.com  is always a great read.

This can be found at ;

http://www.economonitor.com/blog/author/sdas3/

                       

“Once upon a time, human society built things.
We engineered beautiful objects and created authentic goods.
Now this real industrial engineering has been replaced by financial engineering: shuffling money in an endless process of debt, trading and speculation.
It’s enabled vast fortunes to be made for a few, whilst the risk was carried by ordinary people –
the ‘privatisation of gain’ and ‘socialisation of losses’

Extreme money tells the story of spectacular and dangerous money games and those elite bankers, traders and financiers, the so called ‘Masters of the Universe’, who continue to play them.
Written by an insider, Extreme Money will show you how, little by little, we’ve all become slaved to financial alchemy and have been enchanted by our own illusory creation” the cult of global finance”

Bestselling author Satyajit Das draws on 33 years of personal experience at the heart of modern global finance to narrate this story.
Das reveals the spectacular, dangerous money games that have generated increasingly massive bubbles of fake growth,
Ponzi prosperity, sophistication, and wealth—while endangering the jobs, possessions, and futures of virtually everyone outside the financial industry.
Das shows how “extreme money” has become ever more unreal; how “voodoo banking” continues to generate massive phony profits even now;
and how a new generation of “Masters of the Universe” have come to dominate the world.

Bookkeeper Ongar – Transform Accounting – Ongar Accountant

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Top 10 Finance Books – Crime, corruption and incompetence– No 4 – All that Glitters – The Fall of Bearings – John Gapper and Nicholas Denton

We all love a top 10 list.

When it comes to finance, books come in three distinct categories.

Accounting Text books – avoid like the plague!

Firstly the long often dry and tedious text books that sometimes have to be studied to gain professional qualifications – I would advise steering well clear of these and leaving them to the accountants and lawyers who have to study them!

Personal Finance Self Help Books

Secondly, there are the personal finance self-help type books that try to teach you something as quickly as possible – there are many of these but if in doubt, the dummies books are always a good place to start.

The Exposé

And finally there is my favourite category – the exposé – a book that relies on research and investigative journalism to give you the inside story.
This is where the crime, corruption and incompetence comes in, with a little greed thrown in for good measure.
These are my favourite type of books – read on for the countdown from number 10 to number 1.

No 4 – All that Glitters – The Fall of Bearings – John Gapper and Nicholas Denton

Authors John Gapper and Nicholas Denton were both journalists working for London’s Financial Times newspaper at the time of the collapse of Barings – Britains oldest merchant bank, brought about by “Rogue Trader” Nick Leeson.

“All that Glitters” is a comprehensive account of the history of Barings bank and its collapse.

It delivers great insight into the history, formation and changes in the company and the characters who played a key role in the development of the bank.

By taking this route, the authors give us a fasciniating insight into the political power struggles and clashing relationships at board level at the time of its demise.

Poor management control at the most senior level left the bank vulnerable and when the small futures trading team, led by Nick Leeson in Singapore incurred huge losses, this resulted in the total collapse of Barings.

Whilst a book that goes into great detail about the collapse could have the potential to be a difficult read, the journalistic writing style of the authors maintains a fascinating and entertaining read – highly recommended.

 

“When a single ‘rogue trader’ brought down Barings, Britain’s oldest merchant bank,
it was two Financial Times journalists who discovered crucial details about Nick Leeson’s secret account and the rescue talks with the Sultan of Brunai.
In this superb book they tell the full story.

Even in the 1980s, the cosy patrician clique at Barking Brothers could not control Barking Securities,
where young and thrusting children of the Thatcher revolution were storming into new markets and generating unprecedented profits.

Communication and lines of accountability eventually became so confused that directors earning huge bonuses blindly transferred £700 million into Leeson’s black hole.

This vivid narrative cuts through the strange jargon of straddles and strangles, “rocket scientists” and “gamma geeks”,
to uncover vicious power struggles, towering egos and monumental incompetence.”

Epping Accountant – Transform Accounting – The Accountants in Essex

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Top 10 Finance Books – Crime, corruption and incompetence– No 5 – Enron – Anatomy of Greed – Brian Cruver

We all love a top 10 list.

When it comes to finance, books come in three distinct categories.

Accounting Text books – avoid like the plague!

Firstly the long often dry and tedious text books that sometimes have to be studied to gain professional qualifications – I would advise steering well clear of these and leaving them to the accountants and lawyers who have to study them!

Personal Finance Self Help Books

Secondly, there are the personal finance self-help type books that try to teach you something as quickly as possible – there are many of these but if in doubt, the dummies books are always a good place to start.

The Exposé

And finally there are my favourite category – the exposé – a book that relies on research and investigative journalism to give you the inside story.
This is where the crime, corruption and incompetence come in, with a little greed thrown in for good measure.
These are my favourite type of books – read on for the countdown from number 10 to number 1.

Recommendation No 5 – Enron – Anatomy of Greed – Brian Cruver

Enron – the Texas based Energy company was one of the biggest business and accounting scandals in US history. Enron went from being one the biggest business success stories in the last 30 years into bankruptcy and jail for senior staff members. It is also considered to be the biggest audit failure in recent history and resulted in the dissolution of Enron’s auditors and accountants Arthur Anderson – previously the 5^th largest global accountancy firm.

“Enron – Anatomy of Greed” is written by an insider – Brian Cruver – a graduate trainee recruited into Enron just before things started to go wrong. He gives a fascinating insight into just what it was like to work for Enron, and how this changed when the story of their corruption began to break and then developed into eventual bankruptcy.  The human side of an employee in this situation is what is so fascinating as well as the background he gives us as to the cause of the Enron collapse – highly recommended.

“Brian Cruver was a first-hand witness to the disturbing, surreal and hilarious moments of Enron’s long dance with death.
When he first entered Enron’s office complex, ‘the Death Star’, he was the epitome of the classic Enron employee:
young, brash, obscenely overpaid and sporting a brand-new MBA.
From his first day, however, when he was told that some colleagues hadn’t really wanted to see him hired,
he found himself in the middle of a venal greed machine whose story unfolded with Kafka-esque absurdity and frustration.

Anatomy of Greed examines the accounting tricks, the insider stock trades –
and in a special section, how the grossly lucrative fraudulent partnerships were structured and funded – as well as everyday life as an Enronian.

Working at Enron meant cocky wheeling and dealing, parties on the trade floor, casual conversations at the shredder
and the insidious group- think that made Enron employees unquestioningly accept propaganda spoon-fed to them by Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling.

A portrait of the author as a young Enronian, Anatomy of Greed reveals the sting of reality, humility and pain felt by a man whose idols turned out to be fools and scoundrels and who learned that there is more to life than stock options. “

Chartered Management Accountant Chelmsford – Transform Accounting – Chartered Management Accountant Essex

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Top 10 Finance Books – Crime, corruption and incompetence – No 6 – Chasing Goldman Sachs – Suzanne McGhee

We all love a top 10 list.

When it comes to finance, books come in three distinct categories.

Accounting Text books – avoid like the plague!

Firstly the long often dry and tedious text books that sometimes have to be studied to gain professional qualifications – I would advise steering well clear of these and leaving them to the accountants and lawyers who have to study them!

Personal Finance Self Help Books

Secondly, there are the personal finance self-help type books that try to teach you something as quickly as possible – there are many of these but if in doubt, the dummies books are always a good place to start.

The Exposé

And finally there are my favourite category – the exposé – a book that relies on research and investigative journalism to give you the inside story.
This is where the crime, corruption and incompetence comes in, with a little greed thrown in for good measure.
 Read on for the countdown from number 10 to number 1.

Recommendation No 6 – Chasing Goldman Sachs – Suzanne McGhee

Suzanne McGhee takes an alternative approach to explaining the causes of the recent global financial problems.

Rather than focusing on what happened following the collapse of Lehman Brothers, McGhee takes a step back in trying to explain how global banking giant Goldman Sachs transformed from a respected merchant bank, carefully run by the owner partners, with a focus on preserving both their reputation and capital into Wall Street’s most successful but controversial firm, declaring record profits in 2007.

The theme of the book is how the other Global banks developed what McGhee called “Goldman Sachs Envy” – an envy of their enormous profits and how this led to the other firms changing their strategies to be more like Goldman Sachs and focus on short term profits at any risk.

Whilst Goldman Sachs profited during the initial turbulence and collapse of sub-prime debt, the results of this is for other firms such as Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and AIG  is of course well documented and the knock on effect is still being felt around the world.

“Chasing Goldman Sachs” gives a fascinating insight into the root causes of the global banking crises, and concludes that without structural reform imposed by governments, nothing has changed, and similar crises will happen again.

“How the masters of the universe melted wall street down …. And why they’ll take us to the brink again – Suzanne McGhee

What was the root cause of Wall Street nearly taking down the entire financial and economic system?

Yes there was extreme greed wrapped up in subprime lending, with CDO’s (collaterized debt obligations) and other instruments of financial self-destruction. But the reason the system nearly collapsed lies in Wall Street’s transformation from a financial utility that served our economy and society into a behemoth that operates with only its own short-term interests in mind. Financial journalist Suzanne McGee ingeniously calls this “Goldman Sachs Envy” – the mindless pursuit of the gargantuan profits earned by Wall Street’s most successful firm.

Through probing analysis, meticulous research, and dozens of interviews with bankers, traders, research analysts and investment managers, McGee brings the real Wall Street to light. And we should all be afraid – very afraid – because the truth is nothing has changed! “

Accountant Harlow – Transform Accounting – Accountant Essex

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Top 10 Finance Books – Crime, corruption and incompetence – No 7 – Rogue Trader – Nick Leeson

We all love a top 10 list.

When it comes to finance, books come in three distinct categories.

Accounting Text books – avoid like the plague!

 Firstly the long often dry and tedious text books that sometimes have to be studied to gain professional qualifications – I would advise steering well clear of these and leaving them to the accountants and lawyers who have to study them!

Personal Finance Self Help Books

Secondly, there are the personal finance self-help type books that try to teach you something as quickly as possible – there are many of these but if in doubt, the dummies books are always a good place to start.

The Exposé

And finally there are my favourite category – the exposé – a book that relies on research and investigative journalism to give you the inside story.
This is where the crime, corruption and incompetence comes in, with a little greed thrown in for good measure.
Read on for the countdown from number 10 to number 1.

Recommendation No 7 – Rogue Trader – Nick Leeson

For those of us who have ever boarded that train every morning and worked in the financial services industry in the City of London, Nick Leeson remains an infamous character.

Starting out from humble beginnings and education and then in tedious back office role for Barings – the oldest merchant bank in the city of London, Leeson managed to get a transfer to Barings Singapore office where he was rewarded for his work in sorting out the back office with the combined role of trading financial futures on the Simex exchange.

Leeson became probably the most famous “Rogue Trader” in recent years after his unauthorised trading losses brought about the collapse of Barings bank – eventually sold for just £1, and resulting in Leeson finding himself in a Singapore prison cell.

Leeson is honest enough to write in detail of the unauthorised trading that he undertook and what drove him to do it. Rogue Trader has sometimes been criticised as an attempt by Leeson to defend his actions and put the blame on others in more senior responsible positions at Bearings, but I consider the book to be a well-balanced account which backs up the conclusions of the investigation by the Bank of England into the collapse of Barings.

“The key questions are:

a)      how were the massive losses incurred ?

b)      why was the true position not noticed earlier?

Our conclusions, in summary are:

a)      the losses were incurred by reason of unauthorised and concealed trading activities within Barings Futures Singapore

b)      the true position was not noticed earlier by reason of a serious failure of controls and managerial confusion within Bearings

c)      the true position had not been detected prior to the collapse by the external auditors, supervisors or regulators of Barings

From the conclusions to the Bank of England’s report of the inquiry into the collapse of Barings Bank.

Published 18 July 1995 “

 

Rogue Trader is written by Nick Leeson himself and gives a fascinating insight into just what led to him becoming the “Rogue Trader”.

A very easy read and extremely entertaining – highly recommended.

“Pressure, pace, error: the extraordinary inside story of how the greatest gamble ever made rocked the City to its foundations. Crackling with tension, in a narrative as crisp as any thriller, Rogue Trader is the hugely compelling account of a man shaped by events that proved beyond his control.”

Accountant Romford – Transform Accounting – Accountant Essex

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