Andrew Ross Sorkin
New York Post Biz Reporter Zachery Kouwe Joins the Times
Zachery Kouwe, the New York Post's mergers and acquisitions reporter, is heading to The New York Times. We hear he'll be writing for the paper and the web site and working on the DealBook blog, with Andrew Ross Sorkin.
Wall Street Crash Triggers Opus Glut at Penguin
From the outside, it looked like a colossal failure of management: a case of crossed wires, perhaps, or the result of overpowering pressures combining with such force that the people in charge had no option but to do what they did.
What else could explain Susan Peterson Kennedy’s decision last week to allow three of the biggest imprints under her jurisdiction at Penguin Group USA to sign up books on the same exact topic in the span of just 48 hours?
That topic, of course, was the crisis on Wall Street—a crisis that apparently did not discourage Ms. Kennedy, Penguin’s president, from green-lighting an extraordinary shopping spree that left many in the industry scratching their heads and that is estimated to have cost the company more than $2 million. read more »
Another Wall Street Book! Viking Close to Deal With Times' Andrew Ross Sorkin
On Monday we heard that, like every other financial reporter in the city, The New York Times' Andrew Ross Sorkin was mulling the possibility of writing a book about the crisis on Wall Street. On Tuesday we heard his agent had sent a proposal out to some editors, and by the end of the workday yesterday, an auction was under way.
Now we know, thanks to two people with firsthand knowledge of the proceedings, that Mr. Sorkin is inches away from a book deal with Viking. The acquiring editor is Rick Kot.
Mr. Sorkin's book is just one of many spawned by the ongoing economic turmoil. read more »
When Tom Wolfe Talks, People Listen
Two things we learned from reading Andrew Ross Sorkin's Dealbook column in today's New York Times: 1. Tom Wolfe rides the Hampton Jitney; and 2. He thinks Sherman McCoy, the protagonist of his 1987 novel The Bonfire of the Vanities would be sunk in the current economic climate. (Join the club, Sherman!)
As Mr. Wolfe tells Mr. Sorkin: "He would be eating his heart out wanting to run a hedge fund, but he’s not smart enough!" Well, thankfully he's also totally fictional.
In the column, Mr. Wolfe shares his views on the current crisis in late-late capitalism with vague, oracular pronouncements like "It sounds like even the firms that aren't in trouble are in trouble" and "It has always interested me that the word 'credit' comes from the word 'credere,' which means 'to believe'. read more »
