{"product_id":"2940170095964","title":"The Spider Network: The Wild Story of a Math Genius, a Gang of Backstabbing Bankers, and One of the Greatest Scams in Financial History","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cem\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/em\u003e's award-winning business reporter unveils the bizarre and sinister story of how a math genius named Tom Hayes, a handful of outrageous confederates, and a deeply corrupt banking system ignited one of the greatest financial scandals in history.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 2006, an oddball group of bankers, traders and brokers from some of the world's largest financial institutions made a startling realization: Libor-the London interbank offered rate, which determines the interest rates on trillions in loans worldwide-was set daily by a small group of easily manipulated functionaries, and that they could reap huge profits by nudging it to suit their trading portfolios. Tom Hayes, a brilliant but troubled mathematician, became the lynchpin of a wild alliance that among others included a French trader nicknamed \"Gollum\"; the broker \"Abbo,\" who liked to publicly strip naked when drinking; a Kazakh chicken farmer turned something short of financial whiz kid; a broker known as \"Village\" (short for \"Village Idiot\") and fascinated with human-animal sex; an executive called \"Clumpy\" because of his patchwork hair loss; and a broker uncreatively nicknamed \"Big Nose.\" Eventually known as the \"Spider Network,\" Hayes's circle generated untold riches -until it all unraveled in spectacularly vicious, backstabbing fashion.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Spider Network \u003c\/em\u003eis not only a rollicking account of the scam, but a provocative examination of a financial system that was crooked throughout, designed to promote envelope-pushing behavior while shielding higher-ups from the consequences of their subordinates' rapacious actions. \u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HarperCollins Publishers","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47117084983536,"sku":"2940170095964","price":28.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940170095964_p0.jpg?v=1763701866","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940170095964","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}