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The Money Machine: How KKR Manufactured Power and Profits
Traces the leveraged-buyout firm's history, profiles its founders, and argues that present management may not be operating ethically
- GenresBusiness
345 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1991
About the author
Sarah Bartlett
146 books106 followersSarah Bartlett (D.Psych Astrol) is the author of international best-selling books including The Tarot Bible, The Little Book of Practical Magic, The Witch's Spellbook and National Geographic's Guide to Supernatural Places. As contributing astrologer to media such as Cosmopolitan, She, Spirit & Destiny, the London Evening Standard and BBC Radio 2, Sarah now practices and teaches tarot, natural magic, astrology and other esoteric arts. She lives in the countryside.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 26, 2019
Good, informative.
Three-and-a-half stars.
Main text = 112,000 words; footnotes = 1,700 words.
Bartlett reports much good info about KKR's founders, but sometimes she dwells too long upon the personal lives of the founders and of persons employed by the Oregon state pension fund.
I would have loved to read more about the intellectual influences that inspired Jerome Kohlberg to inaugurate & perfect the techniques of leveraged-buyouts. Where did his inspiration come from?
Bartlett criticizes her Wall Street Journal competitor, George Anders, for being too cozy with KKR, insinuating that he was able to develop close ties to KKR and thereby scoop his competition in exchange for treating his sources with kid gloves—a charge that struck me as both plausibly true and sour grapes.
This book does not have numbered chapters, which is dumb. That said, the best, most informative chapters are:
#6: Early Days (7,000 words)
#10: Frenzy (11,000 words)
#13: Jerry Quits (4,500 words)
#14: Out of Control (9,400 words)
#15: Washington (4,300 words)
#18: Perception (8,600 words)
#19: Conclusion (2,600 words)
I've read George Anders's bio of KKR Merchants of Debt (published May 1992) several times and think it's great. It's one of the few books I've awarded five stars.
Someday I might reread The Money Machine and give it a fourth star. But at present I'd say Anders's book is the better of the two KKR biographies.
Three-and-a-half stars.
Main text = 112,000 words; footnotes = 1,700 words.
Bartlett reports much good info about KKR's founders, but sometimes she dwells too long upon the personal lives of the founders and of persons employed by the Oregon state pension fund.
I would have loved to read more about the intellectual influences that inspired Jerome Kohlberg to inaugurate & perfect the techniques of leveraged-buyouts. Where did his inspiration come from?
Bartlett criticizes her Wall Street Journal competitor, George Anders, for being too cozy with KKR, insinuating that he was able to develop close ties to KKR and thereby scoop his competition in exchange for treating his sources with kid gloves—a charge that struck me as both plausibly true and sour grapes.
This book does not have numbered chapters, which is dumb. That said, the best, most informative chapters are:
#6: Early Days (7,000 words)
#10: Frenzy (11,000 words)
#13: Jerry Quits (4,500 words)
#14: Out of Control (9,400 words)
#15: Washington (4,300 words)
#18: Perception (8,600 words)
#19: Conclusion (2,600 words)
I've read George Anders's bio of KKR Merchants of Debt (published May 1992) several times and think it's great. It's one of the few books I've awarded five stars.
Someday I might reread The Money Machine and give it a fourth star. But at present I'd say Anders's book is the better of the two KKR biographies.
October 16, 2012
This book blew me away. I've never felt the same about banking and Wall Street since and never will.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews