Preface

"My way of joking is to tell the truth. It's the funniest joke in the world." – George Bernard Shaw

In my 15 years long employment history with the financial industry (including the past nine years as a stockbroker), I have been through many ups and downs. I see bull market and bear market. I see joyfulness and sadness. I see excitements and disappointments. I feel the exhilarating pleasure of massive gains and excruciating pains of the hefty losses.

I know these merely a part of the journey in this industry. I have grown accustom to these emotional turbulences and upheavals. I became calmer, sober and more aloof towards the uncanny and unpredictable nature of the financial market.

Yet the events in year 2008 left me profoundly stunned and numbed.

During the treacherous period of the turmoil of the financial market, each new hope was met by new disappointment. Each rally was greeted by renewed larger fall. Each solution was triggering new problems. On the news, on the streets, on the paper, everywhere, more and more, anxiousness turns into anger, disappointment turns into despair, disillusion turns into desperation. I am not only witnessing it. I too suffer. I feel that I cannot escape this despite the mountaineering efforts to climb it over.

Tidal wave of destruction passed thru markets in 2008. One by one, catastrophic event unfold upon us. From subprime to prime crisis, from closure of regional banks to the fall of the largest five independent investment banks, from fall of Feddie Mae and Fannie Mac to demise of Citi, BofA, from fall of mortgage lenders to closure of hedge funds, from one rescue package to the other, from US to Europe, to China, to the rest of the world...... The global financial system is burning, the global economy is faltering, the basic trust and confidence among the ordinary people and business are shattering.

This was not merely a slow down or a hard time we were facing. It has more become a battle for our own financial existence. This was truly a human struggle on an epic proportion, particularly for those global and institution leaders, bankers and economists, commentators etc: everyone was trying to correct the situation based on their own concept of “right”. It’s a human saga: endless drama, colourful characters, never ending twists, heated debates. Villon or hero, the history will tell. Right or wrong, time will ultimately reveal. For me, I have one wish, that is, to write this saga down, to tell what I see, what I know and what I understand.

This may not be a full picture of the who thing, but a least, it serves as a wide window that you can look thru to find out why and how the financial world was turning upside down in those fateful days of 2008.

Hence is this book.