A demon of our own design: markets, hedge funds, and the perils of financial innovation

"In A Demon of Our Own Design, Richard Bookstaber paints a vivid picture of a financial world that is ever edging toward disaster. As a hedge fund 'rocket scientist, ' Bookstaber provides an insider's perspective to the tumultuous management decisions made by some of the worlds most powerful financial figures from Warren Buffett to Sandy Weill to John Meriwether, as well as recounting his own contribution to market calamities. He designed some of the complex options and derivatives that, combined with the globalization of the world's markets and the ever-increasing speed of transactions, allow markets to slide out of control. And he explains why the best efforts of institutions on the front lines to create safeguards, manage risk, and regulate the markets may end up contributing to instability. Bookstaber argues that many of the financial innovations and regulations that are supposed to level the playing field instead make the markets more dangerous for all the players, big and small."