View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. On what date does the author describe Dick Fuld holding a copy of the Wall Street Journal with an article on page C1 that was deemed by him “the worst betrayal of my career” in Chapter 6?

2. On what morning does the author describe Jamie Dimon awakening after an emergency meeting at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York with a dozen of his rival Wall Street CEOs in the beginning of the Prologue?

3. Who was the founder of the company that would become AIG?

4. Jim Cramer was a popular television celebrity with an influential financial program on what network, according to the author in Chapter 5?

5. What was the name of Lehman Brothers’ bomb-sniffing Labrador described in Chapter 5?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was the impact of David Einhorn’s speech regarding Lehman Brothers’ assets in Chapter 5?

2. What advice did Skip McGee give to Dick Fuld in Chapter 6? How did Fuld respond?

3. How does Andrew Ross Sorkin explain the underlying cause of the sub-prime mortgage crisis of 2008 in the Prologue of Too Big to Fail?

4. When was AIG’s Financial Products department developed, according to the author in Chapter 8? How successful was this department?

5. What was Hank Paulson’s first concern regarding the possibility of failure of Lehman Brothers, according to the author in Chapter 4?

6. What was John Thain’s plan for turning around Merrill Lynch after his acceptance of the role as CEO in Chapter 7?

7. How does the author describe Jamie Dimon’s position in the Bear Stearns deal in Chapter 3?

8. How is Dick Fuld’s career described in Chapter 1? Who did Fuld choose as his right-hand-man at Lehman Brothers?

9. For what reason was Hank Paulson angry when he heard about the JP Morgan and Bear Stearns deal in Chapter 2?

10. What information about Lehman Brothers had been leaked to the Wall Street Journal in Chapter 6? Who was suspected of the leak?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the biography and career of John Thain and the history of Merrill Lynch. How did Merrill Lynch’s status as a “brokerage firm” differ from the statuses of banks? When was the company established? What was its standing in 2008 as the financial world anticipated the downfall of Lehman Brothers?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the negotiations between Lehman Brothers and JP Morgan in Chapter 12. Why did JP Morgan decide to ask for more collateral from Lehman? What impact did this have on Lehman’s assets and its future? What role did Steven Black play in the negotiations?

Essay Topic 3

Define and discuss “sub-prime mortgages” and their employment as backing for securities in the stock exchange. When did this action begin on Wall Street? What regulations and/or laws allowed the exchange of sub-prime mortgages and what were the effects of their exchange?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 984 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample