Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Chapter One Bad Behaviour -- Stuff happens -- Can we build to last? -- A word on classification -- Chapter Two Too good to fail -- Isn't that meant to be 50 million? Bernard Madoff -- The meanest SOBs WorldCom -- Ask why Enron -- The numbers game -- Chapter Three It worked last time -- Living above your means Northern Rock -- Breaking the Queen's bank Barings Bank -- Easy money The Mississippi Company -- Glory chasers Leeds United plc -- Upselling the dream -- Chapter Four Modern Rambos -- Chainsaw Al Dunlap vs Sunbeam -- These people Bear Stearns -- Mr Crapner Ratners -- The man who always paid Clarence Hatry -- Heads they win, tails we lose -- Chapter Five All together now -- Frozen assets Iceland -- An undertaking of great advantage The South Sea Company -- Astounding and momentous failure General Motors -- The smell of dead animals Albania -- MRDA -- Chapter Six Greater fools -- Feeding risk Lehman Brothers -- Confidence at its height The Tulip Mania -- The greatest financier Charles Ponzi -- Promises, promises Home-Stake Production Co -- Boys will be boys -- Chapter Seven Look what we made -- A fitting start to the 21st century AOL Time Warner -- Breaking up is hard to do Royal Bank of Scotland and ABN AMRO -- Shooting the messenger Bank of Scotland and Halifax -- To infinity, and beyond USWeb -- When mergers go bad -- Chapter Eight Almost revolutionary -- Enhanced securitization AIG -- The money machine Long Term Capital Management -- Paying the price Letsbuyit.com -- The next level Digiscents -- Bigger than the internet Segway -- The invisible hand -- Sources and Notes -- Index.