Book

Greed and Glory on Wall Street: The Fall of the House of Lehman

1986

Synopsis

Ken Auletta’s "Greed and Glory on Wall Street" offers a definitive account of the internal collapse of Lehman Brothers in the mid-1980s, long before its final demise in 2008. The narrative centers on a visceral power struggle between two contrasting leaders: Pete Peterson, the refined former Secretary of Commerce who represented the firm’s traditional investment banking prestige, and Lewis Glucksman, a blunt and aggressive trader who felt the firm’s future belonged to the risk-takers on the trading floor. This clash was not merely personal but symbolic of a larger cultural shift within the financial industry, where the quiet gentility of relationship banking was being violently overtaken by the high-stakes, ego-driven world of modern trading.

The book meticulously details how Glucksman staged a boardroom coup to oust Peterson, only to find that he was unable to manage the complex internal politics and fragile egos of the partnership. As the firm’s leadership fractured, the resulting paralysis and infighting eroded Lehman's capital and reputation. Auletta portrays the fall of this century-old institution as a tragedy of human frailty, illustrating how unchecked ambition and a lack of shared corporate values can dismantle even the most formidable financial empires. By the time Lehman was forced into a desperate merger with American Express’s Shearsons unit, the story serves as a cautionary tale about the corrosive power of greed and the volatility of Wall Street’s elite.

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