MERCHANTS OF DEBT: KKR AND THE MORTGAGING OF AMERICAN BUSINESS, by George Anders (Jonathon Cape, $175).
SEVERAL years on, as the United States continues to struggle with recession, the financial excesses of the 1980s seem like a bad dream.
Two books were the best chronicles of the times. Liar's Poker wittily exposed the outrageous behaviour and uncontrollable egos of the world of New York bond traders. Barbarians at the Gate dealt with the drama behind the biggest deal of the decade, the US$26.4 billion leveraged buyout (LBO) of tobacco and food firm RJR Nabisco.
So is there anything left to say about those hedonistic days? The well-researched and readable Merchants of Debt deals with the fortunes of the firm that put together the RJR Nabisco deal, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
Wall Street Journal reporter George Anders deals with the rise of KKR and the fervour for LBOs in the '80s.
The real interest is what happened to KKR and the buyout phenomena after the Nabisco buyout.
The deal proved the zenith of LBO-mania.