Frank Partnoy

What do these scenarios have in a professional tennis player returning a serve, a woman evaluating a first date across the table, a naval officer assessing a threat to his ship, and a comedian about to reveal a punch line?In this counterintuitive and insightful work, author Frank Partnoy weaves together findings from hundreds of scientific studies and interviews with wide-ranging experts to craft a picture of effective decision-making that runs counter to our brutally fast-paced world. Even as technology exerts new pressures to speed up our lives, it turns out that the choices we make -- unconsciously and consciously, in time frames varying from milliseconds to years -- benefit profoundly from delay. As this winning and provocative book reveals, taking control of time and slowing down our responses yields better results in almost every arena of life -- even when time seems to be of the essence.The procrastinator in all of us will delight in Partnoy's accounts of celebrity "delay specialists," from Warren Buffett to Chris Evert to Steve Kroft, underscoring the myriad ways in which delaying our reactions to everyday choices -- large and small -- can improve the quality of our lives.

FIASCO is the shocking story of one man's education in the jungles of Wall Street. As a young derivatives salesman at Morgan Stanley, Frank Partnoy learned to buy and sell billions of dollars worth of securities that were so complex many traders themselves didn't understand them. In his behind-the-scenes look at the trading floor and the offices of one of the world's top investment firms, Partnoy recounts the macho attitudes and fiercely competitive ploys of his office mates. And he takes us to the annual drunken skeet-shooting competition, FIASCO, where he and his colleagues sharpen the killer instincts they are encouraged to use against their competitiors, their clients, and each other. FIASCO is the first book to take on the derivatves trading industry, the most highly charged and risky sector of the stock market. More importantly, it is a blistering indictment of the largely unregulated market in derivatives and serves as a warning to unwary investors about real fiascos, which have cost billions of dollars.

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 Kreuger’s suicide in 1932, the true nature of his empire emerged. Driven by success to adopt ever-more perilous practices, Kreuger had turned to shell companies in tax havens, 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. When his Wall Street empire collapsed, millions went bankrupt.Frank Partnoy, a frequent commentator on financial disaster for the Financial Times, New York Times, NPR, and CBS’s “60 Minutes,” 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.

“Readers are unlikely to find a more readable explanation of how the financial system has changed since the 1980s and who came unstuck.” — Financial TimesThe still-unfolding financial story is terrifying. One by one, major corporations such as Enron, Global Crossing, and WorldCom are imploding all around us, prey to a greed-driven culture and dubious or illegal corporate finance and accounting. We have reached a perilous crossroads.In a compelling and disturbing narrative, Frank Partnoy brings to bear all of his skills and experience as a securities attorney, financial analyst, and law professor to tell the story of the rise of the trading instruments and corporate financial structures that now imperil the economic health of the country. Starting in the mid-1980s, he documents how each new level of financial risk and complexity obscured the sickness of corporate America. Finally, Partnoy offers clear policies that can save our financial system.

Rare Book

O cão que ilustra a capa deste livro é um modelo para aqueles que desejam aprimorar a capacidade de tomar decisões. Em um piscar de olhos, Maggie poderia ter devorado o biscoito que se equilibra sobre seu focinho. No entanto, ela se contém, mostrando que é capaz de controlar instintos e emoções, adiando o prazer do biscoito cujo aroma, com certeza, sente muito bem.Devido ao acelerado ritmo da vida moderna, a maior parte das pessoas tende a reagir rápido demais ao tomar decisões. Frank Partnoy transforma, neste livro, a sabedoria convencional com sua abordagem contraintuitiva aos processos de tomada de decisão. Em vez de dizer como tomar decisões rápidas, ele explora e refina informações de especialistas para demonstrar o poder da espera, seja ela medida em milissegundos, em dias ou até em décadas.Repleto de insights e ideias fascinantes, este é um dos raros livros que vão mudar não apenas seu modo de pensar, mas também de agir. Os capítulos reúnem descobertas de centenas de estudos científicos e entrevistas com especialistas das mais diversas áreas para desenvolver processos decisórios eficazes frente ao mundo em que vivemos cujo ritmo é brutal.Além disso, Partnoy apresenta as histórias dos especialistas na arte do “delay” – entre eles Warren Buffett, Chris Evert e Steve Kroft –, que enfatizam as inúmeras maneiras pelas quais podemos adiar nossas reações às escolhas cotidianas – grandes e pequenas –, que podem melhorar nossa qualidade de vida.

This book is an engaging and accessible text for a Business Associations or Corporations law course. The clear narrative that students love has been thoroughly streamlined and updated. It includes full chapters on agency, partnerships, and LLCs for professors who cover those topics, as well as important basics on accounting, valuation, and capital structure. Additionally, two new chapters on corporate purpose and personhood, CSR, benefit corporations, and ESG add depth on contemporary topics of interest. The book uses explanatory and thought-provoking breakout boxes, as well as points for discussion, to prepare students for lively classroom conversation.