今年《金融時報》暨高盛年度最佳商業圖書獎甫頒給前《紐約時報》記者，後來轉任到華爾街工作的William D. Cohan 的《最後的大佬》（書名譯自：《The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Freres & Co.》）。經過一番激烈角逐，本書出類拔萃擊敗呼聲最高的葛林斯潘的自傳《我們的新世界》（The Age of Turbulence）和其他四本最後入圍的重量級商管書。



此本厚有752頁的《最後的大佬》，描寫華爾街極富傳奇色彩的拉扎德投資銀行（Lazard Freres & Co）和拉扎德兄弟這150多年來的內幕歷史──從1848年，他們只是新奧爾良的乾貨商，到2005年發生布魯斯‧瓦瑟斯坦（Bruce Wasserstein）令人質疑的併購案。本書作者轉戰到華爾街工作十七年，其中有六年的時間為紐約拉扎德投資銀行工作，後來接任摩根大通銀行（JP Morgan Chase）的總經理職務。他以曾任記者的敏銳觀察和專業銀行人的經驗，精采著墨揭露華爾街投資銀行的興衰史與有錢大亨之間的恩怨紛爭。該圖書獎評委、高盛執行長布蘭克芬稱讚此書充滿犀利文字和生動故事，教我們如何控制個人慾望。




A grand and revelatory portrait of Wall Street most storied investment bank

Wall Street investment banks move trillions of dollars a year, make billions in fees, pay their executives in the tens of millions of dollars. But even among the most powerful firms, Lazard Freres & Co. stood apart. Discretion, secrecy, and subtle strategy were its weapons of choice. For more than a century, the mystique and reputation of the "Great Men" who worked there allowed the firm to garner unimaginable profits, social cachet, and outsized influence in the halls of power. But in the mid-1980s, their titanic egos started getting in the way, and the Great Men of Lazard jeopardized all they had built.

William D. Cohan, himself a former high-level Wall Street banker, takes the reader into the mysterious and secretive world of Lazard and presents a compelling portrait of Wall Street through the tumultuous history of this exalted and fascinating company. Cohan deconstructs the explosive feuds between Felix Rohatyn and Steve Rattner, superstar investment bankers and pillars of New York society, and between the man who controlled Lazard, the inscrutable French billionaire Michel David-Weill, and his chosen successor, Bruce Wasserstein.

Cohan follows Felix, the consummate adviser, as he reshapes corporate America in the 1970s and 1980s, saves New York City from bankruptcy, and positions himself in New York society and in Washington. Felix dreams are dashed after the arrival of Steve, a formidable and ambitious former newspaper reporter. By the mid-1990s, as Lazard neared its 150th anniversary, Steve and Felix were feuding openly.

The internal strife caused by their arguments could not be solved by the imperious Michel, whose manipulative tendencies served only to exacerbate the trouble within the firm. Increasingly desperate, Michel took the unprecedented step of relinquishing operational control of Lazard to one of the few Great Men still around, Bruce Wasserstein, then fresh from selling his own M&A boutique, for $1.4 billion. Bruce take: more than $600 million. But it turned out Great Man Bruce had snookered Great Man Michel when the Frenchman was at his most vulnerable.

The Last Tycoons is a tale of vaulting ambitions, whispered advice, worldly mistresses, fabulous art collections, and enormous wealth story of high drama in the world of high finance.

William D. Cohan, a former award-winning investigative newspaper reporter in Raleigh, North Carolina, worked on Wall Street for seventeen years. He spent six years at Lazard Frères in New York and later became a managing director at JP Morgan Chase. He lives in New York City and Columbia County, New York.