Dan Holland has just interviewed Wall Street chronicler Charlie Gasparino’s. The first few paragraphs of the interview that appeared on RealClearMarkets are published below.

There’s good reason to believe that Gasparino’s latest book, The Sellout, will become the definitive book on the current financial crisis and the events that led up to “The Great Recession.” Spanning three decades, The Sellout pulls no punches in chronicling the rise and fall of excessive Wall Street leverage and risk taking, as well as the cast of colorful characters that ultimately brought the US financial system to its knees. It will hit bookshelves tomorrow [Tuesday].

RealClearMarkets: You sat down recently with Wall Street legend Teddy Forstmann to discuss your new book and the genesis of the mess we now find ourselves in. Forstmann said it all began as a “cold” back in the 1970s and 1980s, and that since

...

This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy.

• Doug Kass (TheStreet.com): Bearish arguments are roaring, September 14, 2009. In summary, the market has discounted favorable expectations (certainly against forecasts four months ago!) and seems more “certain” of a self-sustaining recovery cycle outcome. Reflecting the gravity and weight of so many inhibiting factors, I see a much broader range of possible outcomes and less certainty than some of the newly printed bullish market participants. The credit expansion of the last several decades has reversed, it will take time to reverse the damage to net worth and confidence, the consumer remains in a fragile state, corporations will make do with more productive but fewer personnel (job growth could continue to disappoint), there are no apparent drivers to replace the role of

...

Dirty, Rotten Scoundrels. The world is full of them.

Our theme today comes from a movie, in which Michael Caine teaches Steve Martin how to be a gigolo. The idea is to identify rich, vulnerable women…seduce them…and then take their money.

In today’s world, becoming a real gigolo is social climbing. The average man – even one from a good school and a good family – is an oaf. Next to him, the gigolo, with his suave manners and dandyish airs, is like a Venetian palace next to a double wide.

Besides, the gigolo gives value for money. A woman gets little thrill or merit from landing a Wall Street hustler; no matter how rich, he is almost always boorish and preoccupied. But the gigolo brings refinement and taste to a woman; he makes her feel exceptional because he is exceptional. To a woman of a certain age, his attentions are a welcome

...

h1 style="text-align: center;"bRichard Fuldbr //b/h1h2 style="text-align: center;"bspan class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(102, 0, 0);"Lehman Brother CEO Richard S. Fuld Jr./span/b/h2br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/06/17/timestopics/fuld-190.jpg"img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 144px; height: 182px;" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/06/17/timestopics/fuld-190.jpg" alt="" border="0" //aNew York Magazine recently wrote up a very lengthy article on Richard Fuld, the CEO of Lehman Brothers who is blamed for driving the firm into the ground earlier this year. Here is a short excerpt from the article:br /blockquoteOn June 11, Richard S. Fuld Jr., CEO of Lehman Brothers, sat down to lunch with a half-dozen of Lehman’s senior investment bankers. Since the fall of Bear Stearns in March, Fuld had been struggling to keep “the mother ship,” as Fuld liked to call his firm, from taking on water, but with little success. The stock was sinking quickly. In just a few months, Lehman had given back ten ...

We were all misled by the assurances of 'experts' over this crisis, says Gary North in The Daily Reckoning. The $700 billion Paulson plan will not be the last bailout. And the ever-growing national debt will never be paid off with the US dollar at its present value. Gary says it is time to name and shame those who tried to deceive us...

Too often traders not only have an opinion, but become inflexible. Direction is never a definite, but rather a probability. It’s easy after a good day to convince yourself you “know something”. Don’t get off track, and instead remind yourself that all you know is you’ll act according to your system, no matter what comes next.

The current positions are intact, but I’m happy I booked some of my winners yesterday. With today’s lower open, I might have a signal to reload, or hop on another vehicle. We’ve discussed many times that follow through has been hard to come by lately, and as such, most equity positions will be day trades only (or 2 days most). This will change at some point, and I’ll adjust to longer hold times once the risk/reward supports the change.

Keep in mind that the following are ideas that are worth watching, …

Lehman (LEH) shares are down $5.16, trading at $8.99, a 36.47% loss in the stock from yesterday’s closing price. Concerns keep mounting about Lehman’s (LEH) chances of survival and whether the company can either secure a buyer or a major investor which hasn’t happened yet, even though the company has been aggressively courting outside investors.

One of the issues the company has been facing is what will it reveal when it reports it’s third quarter results, which were scheduled for Thursday September 18th, however, rumors are now circulating that the company will preannounce today. S&P at about 2 PM today, is coming out and putting the company on credit watch because of the precipitous drop in the share price.

We’ve been looking for news from Lehman (LEH) with regards to a sale or major investment and as bad as the drop in the stock price looks, we’ve upped our expectation. Lehman’s shares

...

Lehman couldn't secure Korean funds [Yahoo Finance]Lehman Brothers Chief Executive Dick Fuld nearly struck a deal to raise almost $5 billion

Goldman cuts view on 5 major U.S. investment banks [Reuters]Goldman Sachs slashed its earnings outlooks for five major rivals on Tuesday, citing mounting write-downs on mortgages