The Match King: Ivar Kreuger, the Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals

At The Height Of The Roaring '20s, Swedish émigré Ivar Kreuger Made A Fortune Raising Money In America And Loaning It To Europe In Exchange For Matchstick Monopolies. His Enterprise Was A Rare Success Story Throughout The Great Depression. Yet After His Suicide In 1932, It Became Clear That Kreuger Was Not All He Seemed: Evidence Surfaced Of Fudged Accounting Figures, Off-balance-sheet Accounting, Even Forgery. He Created A Raft Of Innovative Financial Products— Many Of Them Precursors To Instruments Wreaking Havoc In Today's Markets. In This Gripping Financial Biography, Frank Partnoy Recasts The Life Story Of A Remarkable Yet Forgotten Genius In Ways That Force Us To Re-think Our Ideas About The Wisdom Of Crowds, The Invisible Hand, And The Free And Unfettered Market.