Lying for Money: How Legendary Frauds Reveal the Workings of Our World

By Dan Davies

Financial crime seems horribly complicated but there are only so many ways you can con someone out of what's theirs. In fact, there are four. A veteran regulatory economist and market analyst, Dan Davies has years of experience picking the bones out of some of the most famous frauds of the modern age. Now he reveals the big picture that emerges from their labyrinths of deceit.

Along the way you'll find out how to fake a gold mine with a wedding ring, a file and a shotgun. You'll see how close Charles Ponzi, the king of pyramid schemes, came to acquiring his own private navy. You'll learn how fraud has shaped the entire development of the modern world economy. And you'll discover whether you have what it takes to be a white-collar criminal mastermind, if that's what you want. (Which you don't. You really, really don't.)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Profile Books
• Release date: Jul 5, 2018
• ISBN: 9781781259672

Dan Davies

Dan Davies is a former regulatory economist at the Bank of England and analyst for a number of investment banks. His career has seen him tackle all manner of financial crookedness, including the LIBOR and FX scandals, the collapse of Anglo Irish Bank, and the Swiss Nazi gold scandal. The author of Lying for Money, he has written for the Financial Times and The New Yorker, among other publications.

Reviews for Lying for Money

[cmc_22 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Both informative about different sorts of frauds, how they work, and very acccessible and fun to read. As the author is from the UK, there are details about some topics (notably, PPI) that people outside the UK may not have heard of (unless they’ve visited over the last few years), but the book includes examples from the US, Europe, and some other places. Highly recommended to anyone remotely interested in the topic.