On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System Audible Audiobook – Unabridged Henry M. Paulson (Author), Dan Woren (Narrator), Hachette Audio (Publisher) 4.0 out of 5 stars (HAchette Audio)

Henry Paulson's account of the financial near-collapse of 2008 is a welcome contribution to the blossoming library of books on this topic. Naturally, in this case it is necessary to consider the bias that could be present, as Paulson is obviously a key participant in these events. Yet this book is only slightly less entertaining, riveting and engaging than Sorkin's TOO BIG TO FAIL, and frequently better than some of the other books having to do with various aspects of the crisis.

Paulson plunges immediately into the frantic events of those pivotal months that began with the failure of institutions in the UK, the failure of a couple of Bear Stearns funds, Indy and Countrywide, and accelerated towards the failure of Lehman, the conseratorship of Fannie and Freddie, the near apocalypse of AIG, Merril, Citi, the major automakers.

Mr. Paulson has written a detailed, fast-moving, virtually hour-by-hour account of what he experienced and remembers. This may not be fascinating to everyone, but anybody who was following this crisis to any degree will find many fascinating details, thorough explanations and interesting "color" about what transpired during that period.

Paulson is a businessman and public servant, not an author, so one should not expect the literary finesse and excitement we get in books like TOO BIG TO FAIL, Lowenstein's WHEN GENIUS FAILED, or Kate Kelly's STREET FIGHTERS. But frankly ON THE BRINK is a lot better than I could hope for, especially considering the speed at which it must have been written.

Some high points of the book are learning about Paulson's background and how foreign it was to a life in politics; how he had to learn to get along in the partisan world of Washington; his account of his important discussions with key players like Ben Bernanke,Tim Geithner, Dick Fuld, Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, Jamie Dimon, John Mack, Sheila Bair; how John McCain injected himself into the passage of the TARP and threatened to defeat the entire thing, and how Paulson stopped him from doing so; the sheer logistics alone of the all-nighters and how so many decisions were made under such pressure by sleep-deprived individuals doing their best to avert calamity.

Henry Paulson's contribution to the literature of that dangerous crisis is very welcome and a solid memoir that is best considered in the context of so many other good books about that time, not only TOO BIG TO FAIL (by Andrew Sorkin), STREET FIGHTERS (by Kate Kelly), but also David Wessel's excellent IN FED WE TRUST, William Cohen's HOUSE OF CARDS, Lawrence McDonald's A COLLOSAL FAILURE OF COMMON SENSE and, to a far lesser extent, Gasparino's THE SELLOUT.

I'm delighted Paulson wrote his account and put real effort into doing so with this amount of care and detail. The concluding chapter outlines Paulson's ideas for what true regulatory reform could and should entail.