Confidence Men

The hidden history of Wall Street and the White House comes down to a single, powerful concept: confidence. Both centers of power, tapping brazen innovations over the past three decades, learned how to manufacture it. Wall Street found that straying from long-standing principles opened a path to stunning profits. Obama's determination to reverse that trend was essential to his ascendance, especially when Wall Street collapsed and the two candidates could audition for the presidency by responding to a national crisis. The new president surrounded himself with seasoned players who had served a different president. As the nation's crises deepened, Obama's deputies often ignored his decisions while they fought to control a rudderless White House. The result was an administration that found itself overtaken by events as Obama struggled to grow into the world's toughest job and control his administration. Based on hundreds of interviews and filled with piercing insights and startling disclosures, Confidence Men brings into focus the collusion and conflict between the nation's two capitals in defining confidence and charting America's future.