William D. Cohan's superb and shocking narrative chronicles the fall of Bear Stearns and the end of the Second Gilded Age on Wall Street, explaining how a combination of risky bets, corporate political infighting, lax government regulations and truly bad decision-making wrought havoc on the world financial system.

How it happened : ten days in March. The ultimate roach motel ; The confidence game ; "Bear Stearns is not in trouble!" ; The run on the bank ; The armies of the night ; Feeding frenzy ; Total panic ; The price of moral hazard? $2 ; The Fed comes to the rescue (after the battle is over) ; Mooning at the wake ; New developments from hell ; "We're the bad guys" -- Why it happened : eighty-five years. Cy ; Ace ; Jimmy ; May Day ; Haimchinkel Malintz Anaynikal ; The joy of mortgage-backed securities ; "Bullies always cave" ; The math whiz and the baseball star ; "We're all going to a picnic and the tickets are $250 million each" ; The fish rots from the head -- The end of the second Gilded Age. The 10-in-10 strategy ; Cayne CAPs Spector ; Cioffi's bubble ; "The entire subprime market is toast" ; "If there's fraud, we're gonna pay" ; A very stupid decision ; Nashville ; The Cayne Mutiny ; Desperate times call for hare-brained schemes ; The deluge.