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The Match King
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The Match King

Ivar Kreuger, the Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals

Frank Partnoy
Public Affairs, 2009
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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Eye Opening
  • Engaging

Recommendation

Readers who love fascinating stories with unforgettable characters will thank professor and market expert Frank Partnoy for his book on 1920s business icon Ivar Kreuger. This remarkable figure was a global financier, Greta Garbo’s close companion, and an adviser to prime ministers, kings and a U.S. president. Though he was one of the world’s greatest con men, he has somehow slipped, all but forgotten, from popular history. Partnoy resurrects Kreuger in all his tragic glory: a successful, well-known entrepreneur whose abrupt fall from grace and apparent suicide – by a bullet through the heart – coincided with the Great Depression. Kreuger’s financial chicanery led to comprehensive U.S. securities reform in the early 1930s. getAbstract considers this business biography a rollicking good tale. It holds particular lessons for those looking to make sense of recent financial history: how a brilliant businessman made some innovative – and eerily familiar – promises to greedy, willfully ignorant investors.

Summary

Across the Ocean to Get Money

In 1922, Ivar Kreuger traveled on the German cruise ship Berengaria from Southampton to New York City – the destination for entrepreneurs seeking money. In the Roaring ’20s, everyone wanted to get rich on the next big deal. A hugely successful Swedish businessman, the 42-year-old Kreuger quickly impressed his fellow passengers with his wit, charm and business acumen. He carefully planned every conversation with these wealthy voyagers, striving to create the perfect impression. He would need their goodwill, admiration and, later, their money.

Kreuger’s holding company, Kreuger & Toll, routinely paid 25% dividends based on its investments in Swedish filmmaking, real estate and banking, and in Kreuger’s primary business, the Swedish Match Corporation, which produced two-thirds of the world’s safety matches. His new plan: raise money in the U.S. to lend to governments in return for rights to sell his matches exclusively in their countries.

“Lee Higg”

At the time, Lee Higginson & Co., known as Lee Higg, was one of New York’s leading investment banks. Kreuger cleverly maneuvered to meet Donald Durant, head of its...

About the Author

Frank Partnoy, former investment banker and corporate lawyer, wrote F.I.A.S.C.O.: Blood in the Water on Wall Street. He is a professor at the University of San Diego.

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