Bob Pozen » Book Reviews

They’ve Got It: Fixes for the Financial System [New York Times]

Bob Pozen — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 17:22:38 +0000

By SEWELL CHAN and BINYAMIN APPELBAUM. Robert C. Pozen, chairman of MFS Investment Management and author of “Too Big to Save? How to Fix the U.S. Financial System” (Wiley, 2010), wants to require banks to issue an existing kind of bond known as long-term subordinated debt. “Subordinated debt is bought by very sophisticated investors who insist on conditions like capital requirements and covenants to make sure that banks don’t take on too much risk,” he says.

Since their investment is not guaranteed and their time horizon is long term, such creditors have interests closely aligned with those of government regulators, says Mr. Pozen, who is also a lecturer at Harvard Business School.

Financial Crisis Reading List [New York Times - Economix]

Bob Pozen — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 03:29:38 +0000

By David Leonhardt. “One book that may deserve more attention than it’s received is “Too Big to Save,” by Robert Pozen, a former vice chairman of Fidelity Investments. I found Chapter 6 — on capital requirements — especially useful. As Mr. Pozen writes, these requirements are ‘the most criticial component of any regulatory system for commercial banks or investment banks.’ “

Defusing the Banks’ Financial Time Bomb [BusinessWeek]

Bob Pozen — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:17:19 +0000

Review by By Geoffrey Miller. Without tough reforms, writes Robert Pozen, we’ll probably face an ugly repeat of recent history

A Selective Defense of “Too Big to Fail” [Barron's]

Bob Pozen — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:43:34 +0000

Reviewed by Jim McTague. Here’s an idea for curbing the rapine of all those financial executives thumbing their noses at the taxpayers who rescued them from ruin: Limit their annual salaries to $300,000 to $400,000, and institute three-year performance programs that award bonuses to good stewards, but not the bad.

That’s just one of several provocative ideas found in this thorough, intelligent and straightforward book by money manager Robert Pozen, which traces the ontogeny of the financial crisis and offers remedies — most of them delectably controversial — for preventing calamities.

Financial crisis served up with relish [Financial Times]

Bob Pozen — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:55:07 +0000

By John Plender. After two and a half years of relentless financial pounding, the crisis literature is becoming mountainous. To command the weary reviewer’s attention, any new book on the aberrations of the financial community has to have a clear focus and make a compelling case. In Too Big To Save? Robert Pozen, chairman of mutual fund group MFS Investment Management and a former vice-chairman of Fidelity Investments, pulls off the trick.

Business Books: A policy wonk looks back, and forward [Reuters]

Bob Pozen — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 02:31:29 +0000

By Ross Kerber.
University economists are already teaching courses on the history of the financial crisis of 2008 and the policy responses that followed. Robert Pozen’s new book could become required reading.

“Too Big to Save? How to Fix the U.S. Financial System” (Wiley, $29.95), provides both a detailed look at the run-up to the financial system’s brush with disaster and many prescriptions in response.

An Action Plan for Economic Recovery [HBS Alumni Bulletin]

Bob Pozen — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:35:38 +0000

Most books about the nation’s financial crisis tell us what happened. In his new book, HBS senior lecturer Robert Pozen tells us how to fix the system. A financial industry veteran and chairman of MFS Investment Management, a Boston firm that oversees more than $170 billion in pension and mutual funds, Pozen writes with authority and unusual clarity about complex issues in Too Big to Save? How to Fix the U.S. Financial System (Wiley).

Anatomy Of A Crisis [Forbes]

Bob Pozen — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:23:13 +0000

Written by Elizabeth Leonard.

Comprehensive in scope, Too Big to Save looks at each of the factors that played a role in the crisis: the housing boom, subprime loans and the impact of mortgage-backed securities; Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; credit default swaps, AIG and collateralized debt obligations; hedge funds and short selling; and capital requirements. But this is not an alphabet soup. These topics are precisely defined and clearly presented in a highly readable and well-paced narrative. Moreover, as Pozen explains the forces that were at work to disable the U.S., and then global, economy, he presents a series of constructive approaches to righting the financial system.

Buce: The Best Finance Book I’ve Read So Far This Year [aka, Cliff Notes for Finance Professors]

Bob Pozen — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 04:19:09 +0000

From Brad DeLong’s Egregious Moderation:

The best finance book I’ve read so far this year (and I’ve read a slew of them) is Robert C. Pozen’s Too Big to Save? …

In short, what we have here is the book that every business/finance professor wants needs. Not to assign to his students: nothing to vulgar as that. What you do with Pozen is stuff it in your top drawer and sneak a peek whenever you want to look brilliant. I can’t think of anybody who has covered such a range of issues so efficiently or so well.

6 Smart Books: An Economic Roadmap [SmartMoney]

Bob Pozen — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:37:52 +0000

Reviewed by Robert J. Hughes

To everyday consumers, “too big to fail” has become a dubious mantras. Where is the fairness in a government bailout of large banks and corporations that leaves regular people wondering when things are going to turn around for them.

Here, author Pozen, chairman of MFS Investment Management, a lecturer at Harvard Business School and a contributor to The Wall Street Journal, provides an analysis of the financial arrangements the government has used to bolster the economy, with proposals for shaping the economic landscape, all of which may help investors better understand the shifting marketplace. (SmartMoney is a joint venture between Dow Jones and Hearst. The Wall Street Journal is a unit of Dow Jones.)

In four parts and 14 chapters, Pozen details complex economic issues in clear prose: the U.S. housing slump and its affect on the global financial crisis; the slump’s impact on stock and bond markets; last year’s bailout of financial institutions, and the future of the American financial system.

This is a book for investors who want to understand the details of our financial landscape, and who also want to consider arguments on restricting mortgage-lending practices, whether financial derivatives and hedge funds should be regulated or the revival of loan securitization, among others. Pozen also includes a helpful glossary of terms that should help even seasoned investors.