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

AULETTA, Ken.

Item Number: 143054

New York: Random House, 1986.

First edition of this account of the Lehman Brother takeover. Octavo, original half cloth. Signed by the author on the half-title page, “Best, Ken Auletta.” Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Robert Aulicino. Jacket photograph by Jake Rajs.

Based on probing research, this modern morality tale is an expansion of a 1984 New York Times Magazine article on the ruinous behind-the-scenes struggle between two top officers of the 134-year-old private investment banking firm Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb. Auletta (The Art of Corporate Success) recounts in detail the takeover of the traditional and specialized but dissent-ridden and undercapitalized Wall Street company by an outside trader, the recently formed global giant Shearson/American Express. The new conglomerates that emerge from such moves, Auletta maintains, emphasize transactual, service business rather than advisory functions, and short-term gains at the expense of long-range growth plans. Wall Street, he claims, is well on its way to being dominated by a few superpowers that combine all financial services under one roof.