High Financier
The Lives and Time of Siegmund Warburg
From the bestselling author of The Ascent of Money and The Square and the Tower
"Prodigiously researched but also splendidly written-clear and vivid and precise." --The Wall Street Journal
Drawing on more than ten thousand hitherto unavailable letters and diary entries, bestselling author Niall Ferguson tells the story of Siegmund Warburg, a complex man who was as much a psychologist, a politician, and an actor-manager as a banker. An obsessive perfectionist with an aversion to excessive risk, Warburg-and the S. G. Warburg firm-adopted a financial philosophy that was the antithesis of the debt-fueled, algorithm-driven banking of our time. In High Financier, Niall Ferguson recaptures the meticulous business methods and strict ethical code that set Warburg apart from the mere…