Too Big To Fail

Throughout the book, communication problems have dire consequences that contributed to the financial crisis by delaying or rendering impossible certain solutions to the crisis. For example, certain CEOs, such as Richard Fuld, are portrayed as approaching certain meetings with a lack of finesse. Given the amount of pressure they were under from shareholders, employees, and the public, that is not surprising, but this also prevented certain meetings from being productive.

Rumors and leaks are also emphasized as problematic or, at worst, as used as a tool to spread misinformation about a competitor. Fuld, for example, noted that it is important to “kill rumors” before they become “self-fulfilling prophecies” (15). At the same time, key players in the crisis, such as Paulson, would deliberately release leaks at times, hoping that the media would pick them up and run with them.

Certain cross-cultural communication problems also seem to come into play in the discussion of dealings with institutions in the UK, China, Korea, and Japan. In dealing with Barclays, apparently none of the key players thought about the interests and powers of the UK government to squash its potential deal to purchase Lehman’s assets. Likewise, when entering into negotiations with the China Investment Corporation, it was a major faux pas for Morgan Stanley to be dealing with a Japanese corporation at the same time without informing CIC. And in Fuld’s dealings with the Korean Development Bank, he was overly aggressive, “badgering” the head of the bank and then giving him a term sheet that contained a “red flag” (217). Ultimately, some of the international deals described in the book might well have had a better outcome if they had been handled with more finesse.