Why am I not surprised that so many greedy crooks are in the World's Oil Market?

The Asylum: The Renegades Who Hijacked the World's Oil Market
by Leah Mcgrath Goodman

Product Description

They were a band of outsiders unable to get jobs with New York's gilded financial establishment. They would go on to corner the world's multitrillion-dollar oil market, reaping unimaginable riches while bringing the economy to its knees.

Meet the self-anointed kings of the New York Mercantile Exchange. In some ways, they are everything you would expect them to be: a secretive, members-only club of men and women who live lavish lifestyles; cavort with politicians, strippers, and celebrities; and blissfully jacked up oil prices to nearly $150 a barrel while profiting off the misery of the working class. In other ways, they are nothing you can imagine: many come from working-class families themselves. The progeny of Jewish, Irish, and Italian immigrants who escaped war-torn Europe, they take pride in flagrantly spurning Wall Street.

Under the thumb of an all-powerful international oil cartel, the energy market had long eluded the grasp of America's hungry capitalists. Neither the oil royalty of Houston nor the titans of Wall Street had ever succeeded in fully wresting away control. But facing extinction, the rough-and-tumble traders of Nymex—led by the reluctant son of a produce merchant—went after this Goliath and won, creating the world's first free oil market and minting billions in the process. Their stunning journey from poverty to prosperity belies the brutal and violent history that is their legacy.

For the first time, The Asylum unmasks the oil market's self-described "inmates" in all their unscripted and dysfunctional glory: the happily married father from Long Island whose lust for money and power was exceeded only by his taste for cruel pranks; the Italian kung fu–fighting gasoline trader whose ferocity in the trading pits earned him countless millions; the cheerful Nazi hunter who traded quietly by day and ambushed Nazi sympathizers by night; and the Irish-born femme fatale who outsmarted all but one of the exchange's chairmen—the Hungarian emigre who, try as he might, could do nothing to rein in the oil market's unruly inhabitants.

From the treacherous boardroom schemes to the hookers and blow of the trading pits; from the repeat terrorist attacks and FBI stings to the grand alliances and outrageous fortunes that brought the global economy to the brink, The Asylum ventures deep into the belly of the beast, revealing how raw ambition and the endless quest for wealth can change the very nature of both man and market.

Showcasing seven years of research and hundreds of hours of interviews, Leah McGrath Goodman reveals what really happened behind the scenes as oil prices topped out and what choice the traders ultimately made when forced to choose between their longtime brotherhood and their precious oil monopoly.

Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly

What should be a quasi-public utility—the market exchange where oil and gas are traded—is actually a madhouse of vice, vendettas, and corrupt crypto-capitalism, according to this breathless account of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Finance journalist Goodman traces NYMEX's transformation since the 1960s from an obscure market specializing in potato futures to a colossus with a stranglehold on the sale of the world's energy.

Goodman explores the lurid culture of NYMEX traders, scruffy hustlers who shriek and swear and pummel each other over deals, and bring guns, drugs, and hookers right into the trading pit. It's an entertaining scene, but Goodman's account is hobbled by the strictures of the business epic, which require her to devote inordinate space to NYMEX's boardroom politics and the posturing of its chairmen.

This is one of the year's most colorful business histories, but the larger importance of NYMEX remains elusive; the author paints it sometimes as a force for price transparency and stability, sometimes as a dangerously ill-regulated cesspool of speculative scams and occult market manipulations that are more insinuated than demonstrated.

From Booklist

The New York Mercantile Exchange, or Nymex, began as a butter, cheese, and egg exchange in 1872. The world�s largest physical commodities futures exchange, it took a hit in the infamous �potato scandal� in the 1970s but rebounded after the introduction of crude oil futures in the early 1980s.

Goodman reveals that the traders at Nymex are a rough-and-tumble group with little formal education, who dress down, answer to no one, and are tougher than marines. Activities at the exchange are rife with cheating and overindulgence in drugs, prostitutes, and illegal gambling as well as a slew of investigations by the FBI and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, which took down and banned for life several Nymex board chairmen.

The most shocking revelation is how the price of oil is controlled not by OPEC, which hardly qualifies as a cartel these days, but by a few hundred speculators in Manhattan and U.S. banks like Goldman Sachs, which are exempted from regulation by means of several loopholes. Biting and infuriating, with even a �Deep Throat� in the scoop. --David Siegfried

Review

“Finance journalist Goodman traces Nymex’s transformation into a colossus with a stranglehold on the sale of the world’s energy. Goodman explores the lurid culture of Nymex traders, scruffy hustlers who shriek, swear and bring guns, drugs, and hookers right into the trading pit…One of the year’s most colorful business histories.” (Publishers Weekly )

“Goodman wrote about Nymex for the Wall Street Journal before expanding her knowledge into a book...The inside look at a mostly closed institution is enlightening…Goodman’s details about the infighting within Nymex membership are astounding, mainly because the members don’t seem to realize they are destroying their path to wealth.” (Kirkus )

“A riveting tale of greed gone mad. Goodman nails the culture... A great ride for market fans…” (BusinessWeek )

“A seriously informative and amusing look into the oil trading pits.” (Huffington Post )

“Goodman reveals a rough-and-tumble group with little formal education, who dress down, answer to no one, and are tougher than marines. Activities at the exchange are rife with cheating and overindulgence in drugs, prostitutes, and illegal gambling…Biting and infuriating, with even a ‘Deep Throat’ in the scoop.” (Booklist )

About the Author

An award-winning journalist, Leah McGrath Goodman has written for Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, Barron's, the Financial Times, and the Guardian in New York and London. She currently resides in Boulder, where she is a Ted Scripps fellow at the University of Colorado.