While Lowenstein's account of the Long-Term Capital Management debacle is more fascinating, Dunbar's book provides more "meat" for those interested in the backdrop of the historical event.Starting with a brief history of speculation and progressing to finance theory, "Inventing Money" places the Long-Term saga in a historical context.Indeed, almost half of the text has nothing to do with Long-Term directly, but Long-Term was not created in isolation.People from academia and "the Street" made its existence possible, and this book chronicles its development very well.A bit more technical than "When Genius Failed," this book gives the reader lots of background material on the theory behind what Long-Term was supposed to do: namely, arbitrage.As a Ph.D. student of financial economics, I found Dunbar's explanations easy to understand, but I can also see that they will be quite obfuscating to non-specialists in this area.The second part, about Long-Term's dealings, is easier to understand for everyone.While his account of what transpired to Long-Term is not as vivid as Lowenstein's, I think Dunbar does a laudable job at keeping the story flowing.BTW, the paperback addition has a thoroughly updated last chapter, "Aftermath."
If you are interested in the Long-Term story, both books are worth keeping.If you have to choose, go with "Inventing Money" if you are also interested in the history of finance theory and financial engineering; if you prefer an "insider's view," "When Genius Failed" would be a better choice.
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